Singapore Film Festival Adds Transgender Biopic ‘Baby Queen’ in Showcase Slot – Global Bulletin

Patrick Frater
·5 min read
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OH BABY


The Singapore International Film Festival (Nov. 24- Dec. 4, 2022) has added R21 rated biographical film “Baby Queen” to its lineup. The screening will also anchor the festival’s annual fund-raising evening event. The film is directed by Lei Yuan Bin, who previously made “03-Flats” in 2014 and “I Dream of Singapore” which premiered at the 2019 Berlinale. “Baby Queen” is his fifth feature and premiered recently at the Busan International Film Festival 2022.

With her striking Teochew opera-inspired makeup, actor Opera Tang has been making waves on the local drag scene since her debut in 2020. Through intimate vignettes of her personal life, the film chronicles her queer journey: from coming-out as a fledgling drag queen, falling in love, competing in drag pageants, to dressing up her supportive 90-year-old grandma in drag.

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“ ‘Baby Queen’ illuminates the struggles and joys of becoming who you want to be, and what it means to carve out a safe space in a society that is at times cruel to those who are different. The film celebrates radical self-acceptance as a personal yet deeply political act,” said the festival. R21 is the most restrictive content rating available in Singapore and is normally reserved for highly sexual or violent content.

The Singapore government recently said that it plans to decriminalize homosexuality. But the country’s InfoComm Media Development Authority said that this will not lead to any relaxation of content restrictions.

OH FOUR


O4 Media, a Hong Kong-based distributor of scripted and non-scripted formats and IP development, has hired Nicola Soderlund to its broader global team as a consultant. He is expected to bolster the company’s acquisitions efforts. Soderlund was previously managing partner of Eccho Rights, an independent rights management and distribution company that specializes in packaging, financing and distribution of TV-drama. “I’ve known Nicola for many years, having previously worked under him at Eccho Rights. His presence in the industry truly has a global reach,” said O4 founder and MD Gary Pudney.

HONORS ALL ROUND


Next month’s CineAsia distribution and exhibition convention in Bangkok has announced the senior industry executives who will be honored at its annual gala closing event. The Comscore 2022 Breakout Local Film Award will be awarded to Skop Productions for “Mat Kilau: The Rise of a Warrior” (aka “Mat Kilau: Kebangkitan Pahlawan”). The Motion Picture Association (MPA) Asia-Pacific Copyright Educator (A.C.E.) will be awarded to Dr. Ngo Phuong Lan, Vietnam Film Development Association. The Exhibitor of the Year award will go to China’s Lumiere Pavilions, with the prize to be accepted by Jimmy Wu, chairman and CEO and Jane Shao, president. The Distributor of the Year award will go to Dinh Thi Thanh Huong of Vietnam’s Galaxy Media and Entertainment. The CineAsia Icon Award will be presented to Hiro Matsuoka, of Japan’s The Toho Co., while the CineAsia Career Achievement Award will be presented to Bill Neighbors of DTS/Xperi.

ROTTERDAM FETES RADICALS, FIRST HARBOUR TITLES REVEALED

International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) will celebrate the careers of four radical filmmakers and visual artists at its 52nd edition. Hungarian filmmaker Judit Elek, Japanese animator Yuasa Masaaki, American interdisciplinary artist Stanya Kahn and the long-running Bay Area expanded cinema project Arc will all be placed in the spotlight within the festivals’ Focus and Talks programs.

The first titles in Harbour, the festival’s largest and broadest program, were also announced.

Festival director Vanja Kaludjercic: “Our Focus programmes are a chance for us to celebrate the work of filmmakers whose remarkable careers haven’t always been given the attention they deserve. As always we’re committed to looking into unlikely spheres, be it rural documentaries from 1970s People’s Hungary, performance-based expanded cinema or wild free-form Japanese anime. The unexpected always shines brightly at IFFR.”

IFFR announced Thursday the world premieres of three titles in its newest program Harbour. Dutch visual artist and musician Dick Verdult embraces excess and bad taste in his darkly comedic take on the super-wealthy, “Als uw gat maar lacht.” Reality, hallucination, fantasy and terror blur in “Alien Food” by Italian filmmaker Giorgio Cugno, who plays his own lead character in a stark window into psychosis. An ex-special forces soldier will stop at nothing to protect his daughter in the latest thriller from John Swab, “Little Dixie.”

Japanese director Kawase Naomi was commissioned to make an official film for the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo. From 5,000 hours of footage, Kawase produced an extraordinary documentary, divided into two sides. “Official Film of the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 Side B” has its international premiere at IFFR, turning its attention to the event organisers, workers, politicians and protestors. Also having its international premiere in Harbour is Masoud Kimiai’s “Killing a Traitor,” set against the turbulent streets of 1950s Iran.

Click here for the full Harbour program.

ALBUM

Divine – “Gunehgar”
Divine – “Gunehgar”

Indian hip-hop star Divine has released “Gunehgar,” his third album after the critically acclaimed “Kohinoor” (2019) and “Punya Paap” (2020). The 12-track new studio album features guests spots from global talent Jadakiss, Russ, Armani White, Noizy and Hit-Boy as well as Indian stars Jonita Gandhi and Wazir Patar.

The album centers around conflicting themes of sin and virtue, and of angels and demons – concepts which have been an undercurrent to Divine’s work over the years. Music production credits include Karan Kanchan and Phenom.

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