Singapore - The Singapore International Film Festival (SGIFF) has appointed Singapore film programmer and moving image curator Thong Kay Wee as its new Programme Director. Taking over from incumbent Artistic Director Kuo Ming-Jung, Thong will helm the three-decade old festival alongside Executive Director Emily J. Hoe.
Previously the Programmes and Outreach Officer at the Asian Film Archive (AFA), Thong has produced and delivered multiple film-centric programmes with a focus on Asian cinema for the AFA since 2014, alongside programming for Singular Screens, the film sidebar of the Singapore International Festival of the Arts since 2018. Key projects lead by Thong during his tenure at the AFA includes the Southeast Asian omnibus film Fragment (2015), the exhibition Celluloid Void: The Lost Films of Southeast Asia (2015 - 2016), the Asian Restored Classics film festival (2016 - 2019), and the multidisciplinary arts exhibition series State of Motion (2016 - 2021) commissioned by the National Arts Council of Singapore that has served as an anchor programme of the Singapore Art Week.
“Through the years, SGIFF has championed and celebrated independent Southeast Asian films, and served as a platform that connects filmmakers in the region,” said SGIFF Chair, filmmaker Boo Junfeng. “Kay Wee brings with him a deep knowledge and passion for Asian cinema and cultivating emerging regional talent, which will strengthen SGIFF’s vision of fostering a deeper appreciation for cinema in Singapore and commitment towards supporting Southeast Asian film talents.”
Thong says, “This role represents an incredible opportunity for me to offer new insights to a historic festival. Making new friends and supporting old ones never felt more needed than now, and I am eager to help gather our communities again and generate more meaningful conversations together. As we persevere through this unprecedented time, we need to keep refining SGIFF's purpose, the ways we can engage with the moving image and, by extension, our relations with one another.”