Last night, both THE SQUARE and THE KILLING OF A SACRED DEER had their Singapore premiere as part of the 28th Singapore International Film Festival (SGIFF!)
If you were there, you would have spotted me pushing our company's propaganda on your hands. Here's one flyer I rescued from the trash (kidding, kidding, not really from the trash:)
So a few things: yes, those dates are fixed and you can catch our titles at our future home The Arts House Screening Room. Of course we will always try to find another cinema to play them in, but for the time being it will only be at The Arts House until further notice.
Next, if you go to our website, our TICKETS link will lead you to our Peatix page. Yes, our tickets will be sold through Peatix, and tickets will go on sale only 2 weeks before the first screening date listed. So for example, for GOOD TIME with the listed date as 22 Dec, you can expect the ticketing link to go live on 8 Dec, 1200hrs.
Now if you flip to the back of the flyer, you will see this:
We are organising an exciting retrospective of Michael Haneke's movies, as part of our promotional efforts for his latest film HAPPY END, which was In Competition this year at the Festival de Cannes. Currently on our home page, if you scroll past our SGIFF films shoutout, you will see the titles we will feature in the Retrospective. Our co-organisers Alliance Française and Goethe-Institut are hard at work preparing to have this ticketing link go live by the beginning of Dec 2017, so watch this space for more details! We will also announce once tickets are ready to go on sale.
I had a pretty long but fruitful day myself this Sunday. I had the pleasure of moderating the Online Distribution of Indie Films talk, with fellow panelists Warren Sin of A Little Seed, and Singapore director Boo Junfeng (APPRENTICE) and Singapore producer Asra Asman (BANTING.)
(By the way, SGIFF fubbed up my personal Insta account handle in their Story, the @vincentwqh above isn't mine)
During the talk, we shared about our experiences trying to navigate the new ways of distributing films online. Junfeng and Asra shared very candid insight into how their films worked through the festivals/theatrical/online/home video formats, and Warren provided some solid technical expertise into the new emerging terms every filmmaker should know if they take distribution of their works seriously.
Personally, as an indie film distributor, I shared about the lifespan of a typical feature film. Providing a broad overview of the acquisition process, as well as how we exploit multiple revenue 'windows', I made sure to cover as much relevant ground because these things are very important to understand even for the typical cinemagoer. Why are some films released elsewhere first before Singapore gets them? Why do some distributors choose not to release their films on home video (DVD/Blu-ray) versus Online Distribution? I also shared some very candid thoughts about the elephants in our room - Netflix, Amazon Studios etc.
I found the questions from the audience very insightful and I want to thank them for providing food for thought. One question posed was the dilemma between how we as distributors, choose which festivals or where to premiere the film, and if genre of the work mattered. Absolutely, and it is not mere coincidence that Anticipate Pictures chose to premiere some of our biggest films at SGIFF, and yes, even though we have more to offer (like HAPPY END by Michael Haneke,) sometimes we choose to hold back because of other circumstances. All in all, it was a very good experience for us panelists, and I sincerely hope our enthusiastic audience that afternoon enjoyed our session together.
Later that day, I personally introduced THE KILLING OF A SACRED DEER to our first audiences in Singapore (as well as to hand out more flyers:)
(A snap from an Insta story from a friend of mine at the screening. Thanks bud, you know who you are!)
I hung back during the show to observe the audience's reactions to the new Yorgos Lanthimos shocker. I also spoke to some of you after the screening, and I think a lot of people had the same reactions as the Cannes crowd did - you absolutely frickin' loved it, or you found it an exercise in sheer torture. YESS!! That's exactly what we had hoped for - to ignite debates and heated discussions. We are so excited to show it to a larger audience this coming January!!
Speaking of reactions to our films: Meanwhile, SGIFF Insta story posted feedback from one audience member to THE SQUARE that morning:
I'm happy to hear a lot of you enjoyed THE SQUARE too! And yes, we will bring THE SQUARE back for a January run at The Arts House.
If you caught our films, let me know what you thought! I'll be running around the Festival this whole week. In fact, we will be there at the Special Presentation red-carpet premiere of OH LUCY! this Thursday evening at Marina Bay Sands. Although I won't be giving an introduction before the screening, come say hi and pick up a flyer!
(That's me announcing red carpet arrivals at SGIFF's Opening Night film ANGELS WEAR WHITE, director Vivian Qu's delicate yet fierce condemnation of Chinese patriarchy as seen through the eyes of 3 girls. Recommended.)
Thanks for the support, and see you all at the movies!