\tA decade after Singaporean filmmaker Anthony Chen parlayed his Cannes Camera d\u2019Or win for \u201cIlo Ilo\u201d into launching production house Giraffe Pictures, the company is expanding into distribution while strengthening its pan-Asian presence.<\/p>\n
\tChen is currently serving on the Indonesian Screen Award jury at the ongoing Jogja-Netpac Asian Film Festival. <\/p>\n
\t\u201cGiraffe was started off the back of \u2018Ilo Ilo.\u2019 After the success of the film \u2013 it was a small little film from Singapore \u2013 we didn\u2019t expect that it would go to Cannes and then win the Camera d\u2019Or, and then went on to win like 40 prizes around the world,\u201d Chen told Variety. <\/p>\n
\tThe company\u2019s name reflects its philosophy. \u201cIt\u2019s not just a very cute animal, but I think it\u2019s the only animal on Earth where it\u2019s always standing tall and above everyone else,\u201d Chen said. \u201cEveryone might just be muddled and everything else, going for the trees, the forest and everything. But we are constantly looking and taking a very objective, long term vision on things.\u201d \t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t \t\t\tPopular on Variety\t\t \t \t\t \t \tThe company, which Chen co-founded with radio broadcaster Huang Wenhong and later added former finance executive Teoh Yi Peng as partner, has notched several milestones including being the first Singapore film to compete at Sundance with \u201cPop Aye,\u201d producing Singapore\u2019s first co-production with Korea \u201cAjoomma,\u201d and backing Chen\u2019s English-language debut \u201cDrift.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tThis year marked Giraffe\u2019s first foray into Japanese cinema with Neo Sora\u2019s \u201cHappyend,\u201d which premiered at Venice. The company is also expanding across Southeast Asia with three Indonesian films in various stages \u2013 Edwin\u2019s \u201cSleep No More,\u201d Mouly Surya\u2019s \u201cA Road With No End\u201d and \u201cCrocodile Tears\u201d which bowed at Toronto. Their Filipino co-production \u201cSome Nights I Feel Like Walking\u201d recently premiered at Tallinn.<\/p>\n
\tLooking ahead, Chen is preparing to shoot \u201cWe Are All Strangers\u201d in Singapore in March 2024. The company is also developing its first horror film and animation feature \u201cSkin Coat.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tAfter a decade of experience, Giraffe is making strategic shifts. \u201cWe want to make films that would engage a wider audience. We no longer just want to make stuff which is playing in a niche way,\u201d Chen said. The company is also being more selective about co-productions where they don\u2019t have lead producer status. \t<\/p>\n
\t2023 also saw Giraffe venture into distribution, beginning with releasing films they haven\u2019t produced in Singapore. The first such title, Nelicia Low\u2019s Karlovy Vary winner \u201cPierce\u201d is currently on release. \u201cIf it\u2019s the right films that we want to champion, the right filmmakers that we want to champion, we\u2019re actually open to doing that,\u201d Chen said. \u201cWe are taking more and more control of the distribution space, especially in Singapore and territories that we are familiar with.\u201d <\/p>\n
\tThe company is also developing several episodic series, including one set in India. \u201cWe want to do good quality stories in the long form, episodic realm, without just pandering into \u2018Oh, this worked, so we\u2019re gonna do a version of that,’\u201d Chen said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A decade after Singaporean filmmaker Anthony Chen parlayed his Cannes Camera d\u2019Or win for \u201cIlo Ilo\u201d into launching production house Giraffe Pictures, the company is expanding into distribution while strengthening its pan-Asian presence. Chen is currently serving on the Indonesian Screen Award jury at the ongoing Jogja-Netpac Asian Film Festival. \u201cGiraffe was started off the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":19919,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19917","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieetv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19917","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieetv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieetv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieetv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieetv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19917"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/movieetv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19917\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieetv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19919"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieetv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieetv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieetv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}