Featuring the region’s best contemporary art expressed via the moving image, the Singapore Art Museum (SAM) is proud to present the fourth Southeast Asian Film Festival (SEAFF). Organised by SAM, along with prominent film critic Philip Cheah, veteran arts administrator Teo Swee Leng and SAM curator Sam I-shan, this annual Festival puts the spotlight on Southeast Asia through the compelling contemporary visual art genre of film.

This year’s festival will highlight 20 films created by both established and up-and-coming directors from across the region including Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. All the films will be making their Singapore premieres at the Festival, including four Asian premieres and one world premiere. Festival-goers from the region will explore some of the most urgent contemporary challenges facing this diverse and rapidly developing region through the lenses of the directors, from the religious sectarian conflict in Mindanao to cross-border migration between Myanmar and China, to the hardship of ordinary families and more. Visitors will also get a glimpse of life in turbulent regions across Asia through War is a Tender Thing by Adjani Arumpac, The Journey of the Stars into the Dark Night by Arnel Mardquio, Letters of Solitude by Gutierrez ‘Teng’ Mangansakan II and Ice Poison by Midi Z, that tell the stories of communities that live through adversity.

This year’s Southeast Asian Film Festival will take place from 11 April (Friday) to 4 May (Sunday) at the Moving Image Gallery at SAM at 8Q. Tickets ($10 for each film screening or $8 concession for students with valid ID, senior citizens and NSFs) are available from SISTIC from 11 March.