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by Vincent Quek, originally published by Perspectives Film Festival 2022 Time is life’s ultimate currency. What we do with it – often trading it for a manmade currency like money – usually requires rational thought on a constant basis. Life’s currency is not fair from person to person, for some have more than others, and even the ones with seemingly more time may have depreciative qualities, for example when sickness and accidents rear their unwelcome head, at any time during our lives. Movies traffic with your time. It offers you a measure of utility for your investment in it. For x number of minutes, it can entertain you, enable your escape from whatever else usually occupies you, or even educate you. Whatever the end effects, cinema will transport you to its maker’s imagination, or even sometimes to sleep(!) should the movie not be able to sustain your interest. Figure 1 The main still from Michelangelo Frammartino’s latest "Il Buco" One of the newest titles in our lineup – Il Buco (or The Hole, in Italian) by Italian director Michelangelo Frammartino understands this investment to a profound degree. Premiering in Perspectives Film Festival this year – a festival whose theme is also “time” – it ostensibly tells the story of a 1961 expedition by a group of young speleologists to a southern Italian Calabrian cave system, which through their intrepid explorations, was revealed to house the 3rd deepest cave in the world. But in the same movie, Frammartino also weaves in the story of a nameless cattle shepherd who watches these cave explorers from his home on the hills, at the tail end of his own life. He has observed the same cave system that so fascinates these young speleologists perhaps for his entire life. It is the juxtaposition of this caving expedition and this cattle shepherd’s life epilogue that the titular subject Il Buco becomes a metaphysical allegory for the journeys of discovery one embarks on during their time, be it physical, emotional, or spiritual, into the literal body or the body of the earth. For the hole is a symbol of the unknown, and every human quests with their available albeit unknown amount of allotted time, to learn all we can to fill in the answers towards life’s biggest questions. With Il Buco, Frammartino reminds us, that at the end of the day, explorations with your time are not wasted. It does not matter what motivates the cavers – are they driven by visceral curiosity, the promise of scientific and geologic accomplishment or sheer ego? Frammartino eschews any sense of personal back stories. Conversations during the movie between characters are sparse and deliberately left unsubtitled, but even an Italian speaker would not be able to discern any words exchanged as any dialogue blends into the sound mix as naturally as the environmental sounds in the movie. At the beginning of Il Buco, audiences are treated to the only explicitly subtitled portion of the film, which is newsreel footage of a television crew’s ascent of the then-newly constructed Pirelli Tower in Milan, still standing today. The news anchor proclaims wonder at the ability to gaze into the building, and off into the distance from their observational deck of an elevator outside the building, smoothly reaching heights of manmade scale. Funny then, but no less significant, is how the rest of the movie tracks a group’s progression into uncharted depths of natural, geologic scale. Figure 2 Charting the depths of the cave in Il Buco When speaking about time, I am fully aware that my company Anticipate Pictures too, traffics in your time. We offer these time sinks of content products, each seemingly longer than the last(!) (although I am happy to inform you that Il Buco ranks amongst some of the shortest movies on our lineup, at a compact 93 minutes.) On top of your investment of time, we even ask for an investment of money – something many people trade uncountable amounts of their life’s currency for – to access these products. Therefore, I take extraordinary care to acquire these products that hopefully you will find a good return on your investments. All 60 of our movies acquired over the last 6 years hopefully demonstrate this quality of care. I admit picking up Il Buco for theatrical distribution in Singapore was not an easy decision. Part of it was the problem of timing. When I first screened the movie, it was during the middle of the pandemic, and screener watching was restricted to computer screens. I have a laptop with a 13” screen, and this film’s impact really depends on how immersed its viewer is at the point of the encounter. Naturally, the all-encompassing cinema hall would be perfect for a movie like this, but as industry professionals without this luxury, we are supposed to extrapolate what we see on our laptop to the cathedrals of cinema halls, and this, even with years of experience, is something very hard to do, and films like Il Buco naturally suffer from cavalier laptop viewing. I did note that the movie was very special, but failing to grasp its theatrical quality, hastily turned the movie down at first. Figure 3 The vast beauty of the Italian landscape in "Il Buco" It was only after screening it again on a much larger screen – alas, still not in an actual cinema, but on a 65” TV – that I was struck by the sensitivity of Frammartino’s vision, and sold by it. Il Buco is ultimately his intellectual exploration of space in the bounded limits of our time here on Earth, told of the Earth, from within the Earth. The movie’s imagery is sweeping and grandiose in its portrayal of southern Italy’s beautiful Calabrian landscape, yet small and intimate especially when his protagonists squeeze into cracks to access ever-deeper caverns, or in the blink-and-you-will-miss it pulse on the dorsal of a shepherd’s hand. There is humour too, from a curious horse and one misplaced football. But overarchingly, it is his respect for your time as an audience if – and should you choose to – take this trip with him into Il Buco, that is the greatest mark of a considerate, sensitive contemporary filmmaker ripe for your discovery. Give Michelangelo Frammartino’s Il Buco 93 minutes of your time, and it will show you the world. Read an interview that Perspectives Film Festival did with Michelangelo Frammartino, Director of Il Buco here.

Dear fans and followers of Anticipate Pictures, I don't usually comment, and actually make it a point not to talk about our competition for your eyeballs on this official Anticipate Pictures channel (I usually do it on my own FB profile in various public posts,) but I'm going to make an exception today just because not only is this topic highly relevant to anybody living in the 2010s but I'll end off with some blunt marketing for our upcoming film LONG DAY'S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT in 3D just to make it about Anticipate in the end. (My apologies to my marketing intern Hanae whom I previously instructed to do the same only to have her supervisor now breaking the same rules.) Deadline Hollywood, one of the film industry's leading trade news sites, published a business article today entitled "Feeling The Churn: Why Netflix Cancels Shows After A Couple Of Seasons & Why They Can't Move To New Homes" You'll read this with extreme interest if you are a fan of original TV shows on Netflix, which I'm sure many people including myself are, and come to realise the following: Legacy TV programs will never be made by SVOD streamers like Netflix, so your next all-time favourite legacy franchise shows like Friends, The Office, Parks And Recreation, The Simpsons will never be made at Netflix. In fact, if any new Netflix series gets very popular, unless it starts winning major awards like the Emmys, or be able to start some sort of secondary revenue stream for them in the form of theme parks or merchandising rights like Stranger Things was able to do - Netflix would much rather kill off its babies - and make sure their babies stay dead - than make more seasons of those increasingly-popular-but-not-yet-break-out TV shows. The new Netflix Originals logo So if your favourite TV show is a Netflix original and has a cult following but doesn't keep increasing its audience numbers exponentially with each and every season - which by the way won't ever be 13 episodes or more like those made by network TV i.e. NBC, CBS etc. because Netflix has determined from its data that 10 episodes is the absolute most needed to retain your eyeballs to that show - than it will be in danger of getting retired after 2-3 seasons. The reason is purely economical - it costs more and more to pay the same talent - writers, producers, actors etc. - to create more of a show the more successful it gets (an industry term called the "back-end." To the point where it no longer makes financial sense to pay the ever escalating talent and production costs to diminishing returns on new subscriber numbers, the show will be retired, even if the core fan base is rabid about the series. Netflix Original Sense8 - cancelled after 2 seasons, which after Netflix suffered intense backlash from fans, agreed to produce a further 2 1/2 hour series finale. As anyone who has spoken to me and solicited some opinion on the new streaming landscape (curiously so, since I run a mostly theatrical business) will know my opinion that Netflix is not in the business of selling good content, it is in the business of selling subscriptions. It does not make money from making good content, but if it makes just enough content with just enough quality to make you not want to quit your 1-month free trial - then it has won. Yes it's great that sometimes they make some really good films or TV shows, but growth in subscriber numbers is what they are really after. Just consider this other article published today where their CEO casually lists in a nutshell (and its not really private information anyway, you can read their financials on their investor website) that Netflix rakes in US$1.4 billion each month from its 139 million global subscribers, but are in basically US$24 billion debt by the end of 2019 from creating original content. Right now, they are burning cash to achieve growth. And they need to, because of the impending Apple SVOD launch. But back to the Netflix TV shows conundrum - what do you do with a TV show you realised is not making more and more people subscribe to Netflix? You maintain exclusivity over it, or at least impose so many restrictions on the show's creators that when they are finally allowed to make more seasons of it somewhere else, there is at least a 3 year gap time where much of the show's momentum from its launch on Netflix is lost. I think my content-producing friends who are dying to sell a TV pitch to Netflix should sit up straighter at this point. Basically if you are able to sell a TV pitch to them, and they give you an offer to fund your entire production, baked into the terms of this all-expenses-paid deal+back end for you the show creator is a teensy  moratorium T&C clause that says you will never ever have control over your own show. You give up all future international rights and unless you are a huge studio or a major TV producer, you won't even be able to make the same show again somewhere else until many many years later. Its the same with movies that are acquired by Netflix - you give up rights to how your film is released unless it is already negotiated inside the contract, in exchange for that sell-your-soul money. Love - not renewed after 3 seasons. Present episodes will probably never be seen outside of Netflix, and neither will future ones if any. The ironic thing is, Netflix themselves are happy to take in external TV series like Lucifer and Designated Survivor that are retired elsewhere and lest you think its because they want to support content creators who have worked so hard to build up that property outside on network television - its really an easy way to tap into the goodwill of viewers who love that TV show already, and yep, gain new subscribers to the Netflix platform. But the problem is, if that show doesn't add more and more subscribers with every new season produced in-house at Netflix, it will be retired as well. And this time, the creators can't go out somewhere else and make new content for that show elsewhere. The buck stops at Netflix. But for all this hue and cry about Netflix and how the industry is starting to notice the consequences of selling to or working for Netflix, much can be said about our own viewing habits in this age of streaming. We clearly don't need to follow a TV series longer than 3 seasons even though we love it dearly, so long as a new series or the next Fyre documentary or Marie Kondo talking point will be seen on Netflix - we won't be giving up that subscription any time soon. Hence I predict that the good old days of binging on 6-10 seasons of The Office or Friends or Brooklyn Nine-Nine will be over, replaced by an ever renewing slate of new and original programming that will hold our attention for that brief month when everyone is talking about it, before moving on to the next Big Show. But if they make more seasons of Kim's Convenience - which is not a Netflix Original - I'm down. For what we do at Anticipate, we don't claim to be different from this 'churn' effect. We of course acquire and release new titles all the time, and that keeps our content fresh and exciting. But there is an understanding that we never fully own the content we release - yes we license it for a period of time, and the business runs on exclusivity over periods of time - but we don't deny it a life after its initial theatrical release is done. We are happy to license our older titles to other exhibitors, VOD platforms, festivals and other special interest groups and events to be seen again and again. And this I believe is the healthiest and most robust way to ensure the property that we temporarily own will reach its fullest audience. Maybe you say that Anticipate is obviously singing this tune because we are too small to play that have-a-platform-own-the-content-on-it game and it's true, but even if we did own a platform in the future (highly unlikely anyway, given how much it'll cost) I don't believe in locking up content in perpetuity to build loyalty in something else. For Anticipate, reaching audiences for the films we have is the end goal, not the waypoint towards another goal. Yah, 3D must be seen to be believed. Also we are in love with this poster and there's never enough times to repost this. Anyway, I promised a pitch to justify the existence of and dilute all the salt poured out in this blog post. Here it is: we have a 3D arthouse film called LONG DAY'S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT playing at a single GV cinema at Suntec City these coming 2 weekends - you can see all showtimes here. While this title is available for any other exhibitor who owns a 3D theatre to show (an expensive requirement), it is also an example of a fantastic piece of cinema which achieves its fullest potential in the theatrical experience – its 3D segment is masterfully designed and beautifully executed, suspending you within a vivid, augmented dreamscape. Some films, like this one, are simply best viewed in cinemas. Just ask the sound designers for Roma.

Dear followers of Anticipate Pictures, I am hard at work putting together my schedule for Berlinale, which is the international film festival (and market) that occurs every February. Perusing Sundance reviews and seeing what is on offer at Berlin - the weeks leading up to every film market are breathless. You are deluged with breaking information about what title is buzzing from the trades, and one has to make snap decisions on which films one absolutely has to review for consideration. At the same time I coordinate all aspects of our current releases in cinemas. And in the last 3-4 months, Anticipate has been releasing new titles every 2 weeks or so. Consider since November 2018: THE HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT, CLIMAX, then 6 films premiering at SGIFF, then the theatrical releases of GIRL, SUSPIRIA, and now CAPERNAUM. In 2 weeks time, COLD WAR will open, and then we will release at least 5 more titles after that in Q2 2019. Its a pace that probably could have been handled better with a small team of at least 3-5 people, instead of just 1. Alas, that is the case. Our GV partnership, supported by the fine folks at Singapore Film Society, has thankfully given me a breather from the logistics of running our own screenings. I remember this time last year, when we were releasing GOOD TIME, THE SQUARE and THE KILLING OF A SACRED DEER, I spent every single evening at The Arts House from January to end-March 2018, where it was me and a hapless marketing manager / volunteer who was greeting you at the door, and then introducing the screenings. It was a great feeling of course to introduce our films before presenting them to the audience, but I cannot deny that this form of releasing films on the big screen took a toll on at least my personal life. It was a stressful period for friendships, relationships, family commitments... ah but I digress. This time last year at The Arts House - Jan 2018. Over the course of 2018, we have gone from running our own shows to having exhibitor partners on board to help release our films. And that is really the role of the distributor - not to run our own screenings, but to bring films into the local market for exhibitors to showcase. As you can tell, it has taken us this long to find partners. Our job gets slightly easier, but only slightly, because now there are a whole host of other KPIs - attendance rates on average per session etc. to meet. And although things might be looking slightly up, the race has not been won for discerning cinemagoers like you in our country. Every session of an Anticipate film is on a tentative basis, and if they don't do well for even one session, it gets yanked. In contrast, if a larger more commercial film doesn't do well for 1 or 2 sessions, there's always 20 more sessions of the same film in 30 other locations. Economies of scale doesn't apply to us. It's there and suddenly it might not. A poster for CAPERNAUM in cinemas this past weekend. (Jan 2019) But look at all the films we are competing with! (Jan 2019) Being at the bottom of the totem pole as an independent distributor also means every exhibitor cherry picks from more commercial films offered by other larger players. But although the journey feels thankless, it is when you choose to see our film in the cinema, and you felt something, that it all feels worth it. Missing Chinese New Year every year for me is worth it. Could I ask for a small favour? If you'd take a few moments to recommend our work on our Facebook Page under the tab "Reviews", and our films on the GV website (if you're a GV Movie Club fan) - it could mean the difference between someone discovering our movies, and not. Word of mouth is how companies like mine survive, and especially since we've been doing it for a while - I realise that has been the only way we have survived this long. I don't know what the future holds, but thanks for being with us so far. Keep demanding our films from your favourite cinema. I promise we will only grow if you keep seeing our films :) See you at the movies! -Vincent Quek, Founder of Anticipate Pictures

Words by Edoardo Liotta Matangi / Maya / M.I.A. The first encounter I ever had with M.I.A. was during my time in high school. I made an art piece inspired by one of her songs, and I got her attention with it. The inspiration came when I discovered her discography. I was obsessed with her genre defying tracks, hypnotic beats, smart rhymes and catchy hooks. It blew my mind. The beats were Tamil or Jamaican, her accent was British and her lyrics referenced everything from the hip-hop scene in America to sweatshops in India. In a rap scene in which artists are often taken up trying to ‘represent’ where they come from, M.I.A.’s geography-transcending music was extremely refreshing. She was not trying to represent one neighbourhood or city, she was rather allowing all the mirrors that created her reflect light onto her work. And I identified with it. As an Italian that was born in the US and grew up in Singapore, it felt weirdly normal to listen to someone be so confidently confused. Left: Writer Edoardo Liotta with Maya. The documentary of her life, Matangi/ Maya/ M.I.A. by Steven Loveridge brings crucial moments of Maya’s life as a kid, teenager and adult to the silver screen. For me, the film was a reminder of why I was so inspired by her the first time I listened to her, and it allowed me to understand the personal context behind the work that got my attention in the first place. To those who are not familiar with Maya, I recommend the documentary even more. It will show you the political context she was raised in, as the daughter of the founder of the Tamil resistance movement. It will show you how a little refugee girl turned into a hipster art student in London, and then into a global pop star. It will show you what M.I.A. stands for today, and how her mark on the creative industry will be felt tomorrow. On top of the cultural concoction that comprises M.I.A.’s work, the documentary takes a dive into the politics in her music that was galvanising to many, to say the least. Her message about the international Tamil identity and Sri Lankan civil war were carefully but loudly crafted into her music, videos, artworks and persona. Thanks to her, millions of people, including myself, learned about the extent to which a Tamil genocide was happening in Sri Lanka. When I was a student studying politics in university, I wrote a lot about this, with the help of Maya herself as well. For Tamils around the world, she helped bring unity and a voice to the community. One could argue that Maya brought a bigger platform to the issue than the UN itself, who failed to act on multiple counts. Conversely, the documentary makes the case that her politics brought her waves of backlash from powerful forces of journalists to politicians alike trying to discredit her as a hoax. M.I.A. - Sunshowers On this note, I would like to add that a lot of M.I.A.’s inspiration is not derived from Sri Lanka’s political landscape, but rather elements drawn from the rich Tamil history she comes from. With many of her controversial pieces, such as Born Free, being at the forefront of her career, it can easily seem like Maya has only referenced Sri Lanka with regards to the civil war.  However, her fourth album, Matangi, was about exploring the ancient spiritual and cultural roots of her motherland. Particularly, Maya says that “Matangi was more than the current fate of Tamils. It’s about how the world has reduced these ancient people to mere modern day slaves. But that’s not who we are. Tamil is the oldest language in the world that’s survived”. The way Maya draws from her life and politics as inspiration for her work results in an interplay of mix-match aesthetics and sounds. Similarly, the way Loveridge tries to bridge these complex layers of her life together in 95 minutes makes for a similar outcome. To say it has been done smoothly would be a lie, and that’s the same for Maya’s work. But that is because her story can’t be told smoothly, whether it is through a documentary or through music. It’s her loud presence seeping out of these works that make them so hard to unpack, in the most addicting way possible. It keeps you thinking and coming back for more, and Loveridge’s documentary is no different. The infamous Superbowl 2012 performance A highlight is when the documentary takes you through one of the most controversial moments in Maya’s career: when she flipped the finger at the Super bowl while on stage with Madonna. In these intimate moments behind the scenes, you truly discover the strength of Maya as a person, artist and woman. Maya reveals how Madonna was a woman she looked up to growing up, and that she saw her as a ground-breaking and liberating symbol. However, what she saw when rehearsing for the Super Bowl did not reflect this at all. Madonna was objectified, told to dance a certain way and even told to change the way she dressed to please a certain group of men in charge. The only woman rehearsing that had a problem with this misogyny was Maya herself, and realizing that, she was the only one willing to do something about it. What power dynamics are you enforcing by standing by these people with your talent? Certain forces might make you a star, but how much are you legitimizing them in return? In the era of strong independent women like Cardi B and Nicki Minaj, maybe it is someone like M.I.A. that reminds us what it truly means to fight for what is right. Because if you are strong and free, you don’t need the world to acknowledge that of you. Still from Matangi / Maya / M.I.A. Strength and independence is knowing what you stand for, to the point that it doesn’t matter if you can’t serve it to the world on a shiny platter. It has nothing to do with album sales or whether the Super Bowl wants you on their stage. A purpose or message is not materially quantifiable. My respect goes to Maya for never having to compromise her image or message for anyone. When interviewers wanted to know about what she was wearing, she would diverge the topic to the fact that innocent civilians were being killed in Sri Lanka. And when the media finally got around to giving artists space to talking about certain struggles, Maya saw the double standards and pushed that barrier further. Why was the media applauding artists for talking about certain struggles when she was being shoved and ignored for bringing up Muslim, Syrian or refugee rights? Maya rejected the institutions that could grow her platform more times than she accepted them. She found her own lane to share her story. Towards the end of the documentary Maya talks about how amazing it is that people only have one lifetime to figure out so many things about themselves. She was a first-generation refugee that lived through war and became a pop star. She made it all fit together. Madonna, the Super Bowl or the Grammies are minor details in the complex journey she is on. It’s the process of finding her story in a world that wants it silenced that is inspiring. Piecing together the elements that made her who she was. 95 minutes may not be enough time to solve ‘Who is M.I.A.’, but it lays out the pieces that allowed Matangi to become Maya, and that made Maya into M.I.A. This is the journey you will get a glimpse of, and the same one she is still on. --- Edoardo Liotta is a freelance writer currently residing in Singapore. He has Italian roots but spent most of his life in Singapore. He mostly covers the topics of art, culture, lifestyle, and politics.

From us here at Anticipate Pictures, we are excited about our upcoming documentary MATANGI / MAYA / M.I.A. which will be released via our partners at The Projector. We have received great buzz regarding this title and we hope you will enjoy yet another quality release from our humble independent distribution company. As most of you would know, we pride ourselves on releasing uncut, uncensored works of art by filmmakers whose vision should not be compromised. On this point, we would like to acknowledge that with this title, we had to bend on this rule in order for the film to be released in Singapore. The only cut is in the dialogue track at the 72nd minute. Our titular character Maya is on the phone with her manager, and the latter utters a single exclamation line of "Jesus f**king Christ." This line was found to have exceeded the classification guidelines of Singapore, as "language that denigrates religion or is religiously profane is not allowed for all ratings." Upon receiving this feedback from the Board of Film Censors, we corresponded with the film's producers and after a period of consultation, we received the filmmakers' approval to edit out only the dialogue track which contains this single line. No other cuts were made to the film. When you watch the film in cinemas here, the effect is about 2 seconds of silence while the image is still playing. Also in this particular edit, only the manager is speaking, and no other information is conveyed aurally. Together with the film's producers, we hope that you would still consider watching MATANGI / MAYA / M.I.A. in theaters. We believe that Maya's journey and message as depicted in the film would not lose its power and authenticity even in this edited version. As distributors, we pride ourselves on being upfront with decisions that could potentially affect the films we distribute, especially if it pertains to issues such as censorship. We believe that you, our valued audiences, would appreciate it in the long run. We will continue to publish such statements if the need arises, as we value your trust in our company's mission to continue to bring quality, uncut works of cinema to our shores. Thank you. -- Vincent Quek Founder, Anticipate Pictures.

Last year's sold-out screening of THE SQUARE at SGIFF 2017 Anticipate Pictures was founded to address one frustration - where did all the good films go? When was the last time we walked out of a cinema feeling like the film we just saw changed our lives? We wanted to provide an increasingly discerning filmgoing community the ability to see incredible films all year round on the big screen. We also specifically wanted to see more underrepresented films - acclaimed international arthouse hits; smaller English language films made by up-and-coming filmmakers; as well as documentaries from around the world. Most of these films would otherwise at best, be screened only once or twice by a film festival, if they even pick that title at all. Introducing PATERSON, 13 June 2017 @ The Arts House Since September 2016, Anticipate Pictures has released 12 films under the labels Anticipate Films and Anticipate Docs. Due to the niche quality of our films, we always ran into resistance at screening our films in the big cinema chains in our country. Hence, we were elated to finally be able to screen our films at The Arts House. However, as a non-traditional cinema, it has also been difficult to raise awareness about our presence, and highlight the fact that a new venue in Singapore is now the home for quality films from around the world. Circa Jan 2018, when we first started exhibiting films at The Arts House A patron looks at our film posters at The Arts House. Circa Dec 2017, during GOOD TIME's run. In July 2018, Anticipate Pictures invites you to revisit some of our past films, where you get to choose 6 films to see once again on the big screen. As an extra incentive to see the films, we will provide discounts for every person in your party who attends - so the more people in your group, the bigger the discount for each of you! Special guests will grace the selected films at screenings, where we will discuss themes and topics in the films after. We will also launch our first t-shirt for sale. It’s a great time to be a cinephile! Just a recap, here are our films thus far: (in order of release date from earliest to latest) TONI ERDMANN dir. Maren Ade (Germany) SAFARI dir. Ulrich Seidl (Austria) PATERSON dir. Jim Jarmusch (U.S.A.) GOOD TIME dir. Benny Safdie, Josh Safdie (U.S.A.) THE KILLING OF A SACRED DEER dir. Yorgos Lanthimos (U.K., Greece) THE SQUARE dir. Ruben Östlund (Sweden) HAPPY END dir. Michael Haneke (France, Austria) CITY OF GHOSTS dir. Matthew Heineman (U.S.A.) FACES PLACES dir. Agnes Varda, JR (France) OH LUCY! Dir. Atsuko Hirayanagi (Japan, U.S.A.) HAVE A NICE DAY dir. Liu Jian (China) CUSTODY dir. Xavier Legrand (France) An early flyer produced and distributed during the Singapore International Film Festival (SGIFF) 2017. Voting begins 18 June, 0000hrs, and will conclude by 1 July, 2359hrs. During the voting period, we will share some facts and figures from our company, through our blog and other anecdotes from our first two years. Why should you trust our taste in movies? Who is the person running this company? Do you know how a film finds its way from the filmmaker to your cinema screen? Follow us on our Facebook and Instagram pages to learn more about our company, how the movie industry works, and how Anticipate Pictures will continue bringing you only the best in world cinema!

Hey everyone, Now that we have concluded our run of HAVE A NICE DAY, here's what to expect from us from now till the end of May! 1. THE SQUARE Re-Screening @ The Projector Sun Apr 22, 2:20pm Did you miss our screenings of THE SQUARE back in January and February? Well here's a chance to see our Oscar-nominated film on the big screen one more time! Playing at Singapore's favourite independent cinema, The Projector will screen this cringe-funny Swedish feature one more time this coming Sunday, 22 April at 2:20pm. Synopsis: Christian (Claes Bang) is the respected curator of a contemporary art museum, a divorced but devoted father of two who drives an electric car and supports good causes. His next show is "The Square", an installation which invites passersby to altruism, reminding them of their role as responsible fellow human beings. But sometimes, it is difficult to live up to your own ideals: Christian's foolish response to the theft of his phone drags him into shameful situations. Meanwhile, the museum's PR agency has created an unexpected campaign for "The Square". The response is overblown and sends Christian, as well as the museum, into an existential crisis. Click here for more details: http://theprojector.sg/filmsandevents/the-square/ WINNER of the Palm d'Or @ Cannes 2017 NOMINEE of Best Foreign Film @ Oscars 2018 --- 2. MADELINE'S MADELINE (Asian Premiere) @ Singapore International Festival of the Arts 2018 (SIFA) • Sun 29 April, 7.30pm @ The Arts House • Sat 5 May, 9.30pm  @ The Arts House A brand spanking new Anticipate Pictures film, MADELINE'S MADELINE melted our brains when we first saw it at Berlinale, after a rapturous response when it world premiered at Sundance 2018, as recently as January this year. We can't say more, even though SIFA's page tries to give it a synopsis... suffice to say that you should try and catch this award-winning film now, for it is Singapore, actually, the whole of Asia's - first chance to see this mysterious and decidedly non-halal new film from American independent auteur Josephine Decker, with a stunning performance from newcomer Helena Howard, supported by performance artist and filmmaker Miranda July, and produced by (among others) mumblecore thespian Joe Swanberg. Synopsis (the version we like best): Madeline got the lead role in the play! Strangely, the character looks just like Madeline. And has a cat just like Madeline's. And is holding a steaming hot iron next to her mother's face... like Madeline is. Click here for more details: https://sifa.sg/programmes/madelines-madeline/ OFFICIAL SELECTION at Sundance Film Festival 2018, NEXT section OFFICIAL SELECTION at Berlinale International Film Festival 2018, Forum section --- 3. CUSTODY (Singapore Premiere) @ EU Film Festival 2018 Sat 12 May 2018, 7pm @ National Gallery, Ngee Ann Kongsi Auditorium This was the only film our company acquired out of Toronto International Film Festival 2017 last year, and on the surface this wasn't an obvious buy. But when we staggered out of the market screening in Toronto last year, we just couldn't shake off this film. And we aren't the only ones feeling this way - it has won Audience Awards at San Sebastian and Glasgow film festivals, won the Silver Lion at Venice Film Festival, won the Screenplay award at Miami International Film Festival - among so many other accolades. Mark our words - director Xavier Legrand will be a formidable force on the world cinema stage in time to come. CUSTODY is France's selection for the EU Film Festival 2018, and this highly charged film with a timely take since the #MeToo movement, is your first chance to see why no one can stop talking about CUSTODY. Synopsis: Miriam and Antoine Besson have divorced, and Miriam is seeking sole custody of their son Julien to protect him from a father she claims is violent. Antoine pleads his case as a scorned dad and the appointed judge rules in favour of joint custody. A hostage to the escalating conflict between his parents, Julien is pushed to the edge to prevent the worst from happening. Click here for more details: http://www.euff.sg/films/france/ ---- And we'll be back at the end of May, at our regular venue The Arts House. Do remember to sign up for our mailing list, and Like and Follow our social media pages under "Anticipate Pictures" for all the latest info. For now, see you at the movies!

As I write this, we're in the middle of our run of OH LUCY!, which had its spectacular premiere last year as a Special Presentation at the Singapore International Film Festival 2017. The story about a middle-aged Japanese lady who develops a crush on her English tutor, this heartfelt if somewhat bittersweet film presents a rare unpatronising look at the travails of growing older in an East Asian society, especially for a woman. When we first saw it at Critics Week at Cannes last year, the film really stuck with me, and I could identify with the familiar sentiments of life having passed me by. Has it been that long since I was last optimistic about life? Am I now a has-been? All my friends are moving on, getting married and even having kids living it up in a BTO!! What am I doing with Anticipate Pictures, a company I birthed? Is it gonna go anywhere?! Lead actress Shinobu Terajima on the red carpet at last year's SGIFF 2017 premiere, possibly not worrying about a BTO. I admit being a little overdramatic. I can't tell the future, but yet, I know that the best part of the year is dawning on us pretty soon. I am of course talking about the upcoming Cannes Film Festival, with its plentiful spoils of the very best cinema has to offer in any given year to distract me from having an existential crisis about real life. This past February and March we have been having meetings with most sales agents (companies that sell us films) and we have a really good idea of some of the titles that might appear in Official Competition, Un Certain Regard and of course the two sidebar programs of Directors' Fortnight and Critics' Week, where we first discovered OH LUCY! Its no secret what most of us are looking to see soon at Cannes, for Indiewire has a very good list. Official Singapore poster for the film HAVE A NICE DAY We are also prepping for our final film to be released before Anticipate goes on a break from showing films at The Arts House in mid-April, and the Singapore International Festival of the Arts takes over the space with their selection of recent festival films. We are of course talking about the Chinese independent animated film HAVE A NICE DAY, which we first saw at its World Premiere last year at the Berlinale 2017. This film is also very special for us, because we are possibly the only other Asian country to see the uncut international version of the film. There was some controversy previously when China officials demanded the film be pulled from its Annecy festival selection, and though we aren't privy to all the details, basically there are now two versions of the film - a China-approved Da Shi Jie version and the original Hao Ji Le version. The Chinese poster of the film. Pretty cool huh! This deliciously dark vision of some slimy characters all chasing a bag of 1 million yuan in materialistic China has some pretty surreal scenes, which some audience members were lucky enough to catch at its sold-out Singapore premiere in February at the Singapore Cult and Underground Film Festival. We can't wait for more of ya'll to see this one on the big screen - and tickets are already available. There's a sneak preview this Sunday 1 April at 8pm if you can't wait :) Mad about MADELINE'S MADELINE Also! We recently sent out our April newsletter divulging a new title called Madeline's Madeline we picked up out of Berlin. Originally world-premiering at Sundance, we had been reading some pretty amazing stuff about the film, and I'm happy to let you know that all those amazing reviews are true! The mysterious new film by future cult director Josephine Decker will melt your brain, in a great way. You won't soon forget this hypnotic vision of an young actress' process gone mental. Tickets just went on sale yesterday and you'd be wise to check it out now at its Asian premiere this end-April. Get your pig masks ready... So yes, after our run of Have A Nice Day which ends 15 April, we will be taking a break and traveling to Cannes, hopefully to bring you some more great cinema! Of course you'll still see us at the Singapore premiere - wait, scratch that, the ASIAN PREMIERE of Madeline's Madeline at the 2018 Singapore International Festival of the Arts, but all bets are on for what will come out at Cannes 2018! We've also already locked FOUR MORE TITLES from Sundance and Berlinale, which we will also announce in due course, but lets keep our secrets for now. So let me just share this M.I.A. video for seemingly no ostensible reason... ;) I hope to see you soon at the movies!! Sincerely, Vincent Quek Founder of Anticipate Pictures

It has been a wonderful first month-and-a-half since we took over The Arts House Screening Room and started showing the new films on our lineup. With my hardworking marketing manager Angelina and our volunteers Dan, Vanessa and Christine, it has been invigorating to see people discover our films night after night. From GOOD TIME to THE KILLING OF A SACRED DEER to THE SQUARE and most recently HAPPY END, these films hopefully gave you an idea about what kind of films we as Anticipate Pictures stood for. And already, we started seeing a few regulars, whom I'm now able to identify by name (no small feat for someone like me! I'm terrible with names.) Be it a few people or in certain cases a packed house, as we introduce the films and tell you a little bit of the journey the film took to get to you, believe me when I say nothing else warms our hearts than your appreciation and the banter you have with us at the front-of-house before and after the screenings. And now on Valentine's Day, we are on the eve of the first major film market in 2018 - Berlinale. Held every year over February - and if I'm lucky over Chinese New Year as well :) - we make the pilgrimage to wintry Berlin to see some films, and hopefully see something that will take our breath away, and better still, join us on our return journey back home to Singapore. Last year, when I was here, I discovered at least two wonderful films of which I managed to secure one back for us - A FANTASTIC WOMAN by Sébastian Lelio (we didn't get this though) as well as Liu Jian's HAVE A NICE DAY, the latter title which we eventually acquired. Speaking of HAVE A NICE DAY, we are thrilled to premiere this subversive Chinese animation feature with the Singapore Cult and Underground Film Festival 2018! In about a week's time, on the 23 Feb at 8pm, we will finally unveil this film to Singapore audiences. A theatrical run is planned for April 2018, but why wait till then when you can see this controversial banned film uncut now and under the auspices of Singapore's only genre film fest? Get your tickets now at the SCUFF2018 banner below! We are also glad to announce that our newest acquisition, FACES PLACES, will also receive its Singapore premiere with the Francophonie Festival on the Opening Night of their cinema selection! This March 8, come have dinner and a cocktail with your ticket and watch this crowd-pleasing and heartwarming Oscar-nominated documentary, starring the ever charming Agnes Varda and her wise-ass sidekick (and prominent street artist) JR as they tour rural France and through the simple act of photography, plumb profound truths about the lives of the villagers that often don't get recognised as their metropolitan peers. As we take a break thanks to Chinese New Year, we are already preparing to show more films this end of February, all the way through March! Starting 25 Feb, we return with the absolutely gripping documentary CITY OF GHOSTS, which we played to sold-out houses back in November 2017 under the auspices of Singapore Writers Festival and Perspectives Film Festival. We will also have limited re-screenings of old favourites that we've played in Jan and early-Feb. Keep a look out on our website as well as join our Facebook page for the latest updates. We hope you have enjoyed all the films we've single-handedly brought in all the way from these film festivals so far, and look forward to continuing your journey in discovering more exciting cinematic gems on the big screen at The Arts House. For me, well, I'll just try to stay warm as I traverse in the cold to the warmth of the cinema hall. Have a wonderful Chinese New Year and see you after at the movies! Yours sincerely, Vincent, on behalf of the team from Anticipate Pictures

We've been real busy this post-SGIFF season putting together the final touches of our main event coming up (oh you think we was done at SGIFF?!) Along with our co-organisers Alliance Française de Singapour and the Goethe-Institut of Singapore, with support from the Austrian Embassy of Singapur, we are so proud to present Southeast Asia's first ever Michael Haneke retrospective!! Who dis Michael Haneke? Well, he's only the living legend who made FUNNY GAMES; THE WHITE RIBBON; THE PIANO TEACHER; HIDDEN; CODE UNKNOWN etc. etc. and of course everyone's favourite weepie AMOUR. He's the two-time winning Palm d'Or filmmaker, Oscar-winner for Best Foreign Language Film, he's basically the GOAT. Michael Haneke. Or the GOAT. © Brigitte Lacombe So we have 10 films in the Retrospective, and you can read more details here. I'm also just gonna get this out of the way - no we are not showing THE PIANO TEACHER, arguably one of the finest films in his filmography, because the Board of Film Censors requested cuts to a segment of the film which we obviously refused to make so instead of showing this cut version we decided to take it out of the program entirely. It was a painful decision but ultimately we figure you can probably get your hands on the uncut version somehow - (for example this excellent Criterion release.) We are also not showing FUNNY GAMES U.S. because it is basically a shot-for-shot remake of the German original (which we *are* showing.) Instead of THE PIANO TEACHER, we'll show a rarely-seen documentary called MICHAEL H. PROFESSION: DIRECTOR made in 2013 after AMOUR by a French director called Yves Montmayeur. It is an opportunity to witness a master at work, and we think it is an excellent way to welcome his latest film... BUM BUM TAA DAH!! YES WE DID. YES WE GOT THE NEWEST MICHAEL HANEKE FILM FOR YOU. So yes, to round up our Retrospective, we will usher in the Singapore Premiere of HAPPY END, Michael Haneke's latest which world premiered In Competition at Festival de Cannes 2017. Tickets are already available. Get them when the gettin's still good! And for tickets to the Retrospective, you can get them here. Some very fancy Retrospective programs for our Haneke Retrospective will be distributed at all good art centres soon, and of course at the front-of-house of our retrospective screenings. Get excited for a very depressing January 2018! In the meantime, don't miss our films GOOD TIME; THE KILLING OF A SACRED DEER and THE SQUARE opening 22 December 2017, 4 January 2018 and 18 January 2018 respectively. We'll see you at the movies!