SINGAPORE – Four films made with Singapore participation will be screened at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival (Tiff), which runs from Sept 4 to 14.

Singaporean film-maker Tan Siyou’s feature debut, the coming-of-age drama Amoeba, will be screened in the Discovery section, a showcase for film-makers making their first or second features.

Amoeba, about four misfits who form a gang at their all-girls school, is produced by Fran Borgia of Singapore-based label Akanga Film Asia. 

More Than Happy, an animated short film from Singaporean Tan Wei Keong, will be screened in the festival’s Short Cuts programme.

The seven-minute film is set in a queer utopia and shows two couples waiting in a restaurant, where they talk about time, happiness and their dreams. The voice acting is done by film-maker Kirsten Tan (Pop Aye, 2017) and novelist Amanda Lee Koe (Ministry Of Moral Panic, 2013), among others.

In 2019, Tan Wei Keong received the Young Artist Award from the National Arts Council, and his work reflects on LGBTQ+ issues in South-east Asia. Among them is the short film Kingdom (2018), which was nominated for Best Short Film at the 2019 Berlin International Film Festival.

The other two films with Singapore participation screening at Tiff are coming-of-age drama Renoir and black comedy A Useful Ghost.

Directed by Japanese film-maker Chie Hayakawa and co-produced by Akanga Film Asia, Renoir is a Japan-Singapore-France-Philippines-Indonesia production and is set in 1987 Tokyo. It follows Fuki (Yui Suzuki), an 11-year-old girl living with a terminally ill father and a harried mother.

A Useful Ghost is co-produced by Singapore-based Momo Film Co. The Thailand-Singapore-France-Germany co-production is directed by Thai film-maker Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke, who is making his feature debut.

It tells the story of Nat, played by Thai actress Davika Hoorne (Pee Mak, 2013). Following her death from dust pollution, Nat returns in the form of a vacuum cleaner. As the appliance,...