SGIFF 2017 unveils Silver Screen Awards' jury panel

Writer: Farah Hanis

Shekhar Kapur will head the jury panel for the Asian Feature Film Competition while Kenji Ishizaka will do the same for the Southeast Asian Short Film Competition.

12 Oct – Behold competition contestants, the jury panel for the 28th Singapore International Film Festival's (SGIFF) Silver Screen Awards has just been announced.

Heading this year's judging panel for Asian Feature Film Competition will be Shekhar Kapur while the Southeast Asian Short Film Competition will be headed by Kenji Ishizaka.

Kapur, director of the Oscar-winning "Elizabeth", the 1988 biopic of Queen Elizabeth that was also responsible for the introduction of Cate Blanchett to the acting world, is no stranger to a juror's role.

Having a strong presence in both Indian and Western cinematic industries, Kapur has previously served as a jury at the 63rd Cannes Film Festival, London Film Festival and Tokyo International Film Festival.

Joining Kapur on the panel are Hong Kong filmmaker Clara Law ("Autumn Moon"), Iranian-American screenwriter and director Ana Lily Amirpour ("A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night"), and Mark Peranson, Head of Programming at the Locarno Film Festival.

Ishizaka, Programming Director of the Asian Future section at Tokyo International Film Festival, meanwhile, will have Singapore filmmaker K. Rajagopal ("A Yellow Bird") and Indonesian actress Marsha Timothy joining him.

In addition to their judging duties, some of the jury members such as Kapur and Law will be conducting masterclasses during the festival.

A series of short films by Amirpour, which includes "Six and A Half", will also be screened under SGIFF's Cinema Today section.

A still from "The Ballads of Cinema Lovers", which will be screened under the new Focus series at the festival.

This year's SGIFF will also have a new Focus series titled "Histories of Tomorrow: Indonesian Cinema After the New Order", whereby film screenings and panel discussion joined by Adrian Jonathan Pasaribu, Editor-in-chief of Cinema Poetica, are to take place during the festival.

Some of the films selected for the screening are "The Ballads of Cinema Lovers", "The Talisman" and "The Nameless Boy".

The 28th Singapore International Film Festival will run from 23 November till 3 December 2017across various venues including Marina Bay Sands, Shaw Theatres Lido, and National Museum of Singapore.

(Photo source: 28th SGIFF)