SGIFF Film Fund 2025: Funding News

Singapore International Film Festival (SGIFF) Film Fund has awarded $98,000 (S$125,000) to seven projects in its 2025 funding round. 
 
Launched in 2017, the SGIFF Film Fund supports feature-length documentaries and short films in production and post-production through two grants – the Tan Ean Kiam Foundation-SGIFF Southeast Asian Documentary Grant (SEA-DOC) and the SGIFF Southeast Asian Short Film Grant (SEA-SHORTS).
 
Previous recipients have included documentaries such as Small Hours Of The Night from Singapore’s Daniel Hui, which premiered at Rotterdam film festival, and short films including Bleat!, from Malaysia’s Ananth Subramaniam, which premiered in Cannes Critics Week this year.
 
This year, the SEA-DOC has awarded S$30,000 each to three documentaries in production and S$20,000 to one project in post-production. SEA-SHORTS has selected three projects for a $5,000 cash grant from SGIFF, along with post-production support including colour-grading and subtitling services from Thailand’s White Light Post.

Tan Ean Kiam Foundation-SGIFF Southeast Asian Documentary Grant (SEA-DOC) 2025:

Black River – dirs: Tran Phuong Thao, Swann Dubus (Vietnam)
Status: Production
Synopsis: For three decades, a boat of itinerant merchants has chugged along the Black River in remote northwestern Vietnam to set up floating markets. Following their daily routines and the close-knit bonds between them, the film reflects upon Vietnam's economic and moral evolution amid rapid modernisation.

South Sea – dir: Riar Rizaldi (Indonesia)
Producers: B.M. Anggana, Sam Hewison
Status: Production
Synopsis: In 2022, 11 people were swept away by tidal waves while performing a mystical ritual at a beach in East Java. Blending true crime with cosmic horror, 'South Sea' draws on eyewitness accounts to investigate the social, spiritual and ecological forces that led to the tragedy.

The People Outside – dir: Jewel Maranan (Philippines)
Status: Production
Synopsis: A filmmaker journeys into the Pacific mountain ranges of rural Philippines in search of the unseen undercurrents that sustain a deep-rooted conflict for decades.

Arts Centre – dir: Tan Pin Pin (Singapore)
Status: Post-production
Synopsis: The lives of four independent artists—including the filmmaker herself—intertwine at Aliwal Arts Centre. From classical Indian dance to art tours on forgotten histories, their diverse practices are captured through fly-on-the-wall footage, revealing moments where the everyday meets the transcendent.

SGIFF Southeast Asian Short Film Grant (SEA-SHORTS) 2025:

Anastomose – dir: Thaweechok Phasom (Thailand)
Producers: Chalermchai Nuanonk, Parinda Phanwa
Status: Production
Synopsis: On the verge of reaching Nirvana, a Buddhist monk goes on a forest pilgrimage and arrives at a cave. There, he is consumed by the presence of a blind mermaid, who leads him on his path towards enlightenment.

Golden Island – dir: Arief Budiman (Indonesia)
Producer: Rugun Sirait
Status: Production
Synopsis: Two videographers, Arief and Edi, exchange memories based on their time in Papua. Weaving in archival images with personal recollections, the film refl ects on counter-histories and collective memory in the blurred space between fiction and documentary.

Untitled – dir: EXYL (Singapore)
Status: Production
Synopsis: A bird hovers in place, stuck in the middle of train tracks as the MRT hurtles towards it. A man runs down the tracks, desperate and flailing. Time halts. In this mixed-media film made from charcoal, ink and live action, the world is torn apart, ripped into shreds and made anew.