Singapore Film Festival April 14, 2004

The SIFF is back this year from Apr 15th - May 1st 2004. In its 17th year, the festival will screen 300 films consisting of features, shorts, animations in our main, fringe and special programmes. As usual, the free Fringe screenings begins a week earlier at the Goethe Institut on Apr 8th 2004.

The highlights of this year's programme include a retrospective of Philippines filmmaker/actress Laurice Guillen, who ranks as one of the leading figures in the Filipino new wave of the 70s. The focus on the Philippines will also include the World Premiere of paintings by Filipino animator Rox Lee, while indie filmmakers and musicians rock out through Sinekalye ? a street cinema programme will bring live music and short, experimental film together through performance.

Other highlights include a tribute to the Amiens Film Festival and African cinema. This is another special event as SIFF has never before shown films from Guinea-Bissau and Congo. Werner Herzog will be given a new perspective by prolific Swiss photographer Beat Presser who has documented many Herzog films through his still photography. Festival highlights this year also include several World Premieres from Singapore and Malaysia as well as a number of International Premieres from Indonesia and the Philippines.

Look out also for our special programmes, such as the Shaw in Blue Tribute, which looks at the erotic films of Li Han-Hsiang and Chu Yuan, the humorous and heartfelt cinema of Paolo Virzi, as well as the much-awaited Blues Series from Martin Scorsese.