List of Singaporean submissions for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film

Singapore has submitted films for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film[nb 1] on a fairly regular basis since 2005. Singapore also submitted a single film while a British colony in 1959. The Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film is handed out annually by the United States Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to a feature-length motion picture produced outside the United States that contains primarily non-English dialogue.[3]

As of 2019, a total of thirteen films have been submitted for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, but none has yet received an Oscar nomination.

Submissions

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has invited the film industries of various countries to submit their best film for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film since 1956.[4] The Foreign Language Film Award Committee oversees the process and reviews all the submitted films. Following this, they vote via secret ballot to determine the five nominees for the award.[3] Below is a list of the films that have been submitted by Singapore for review by the Academy for the award by year and the respective Academy Awards ceremony.

Year
(Ceremony)		Film title used
in nomination		Original titleLanguage(s)DirectorResult
1959
(32nd)		 The Kingdom and the Beauty Jiang shan mei ren(江山美人) Mandarin Chinese Li Han-hsiang Not Nominated
2005
(78th)		 Be With Me[5] Be With Me English, Cantonese,
Mandarin and Hokkien [6]		 Eric Khoo Disqualified[7]
2007
(80th)		 881[8] 881 Mandarin, Hokkien
and English		 Royston Tan Not Nominated
2008
(81st)		 My Magic[9] My Magic Tamil Eric Khoo Not Nominated
2011
(84th)		 Tatsumi[10] Tatsumi Japanese Eric Khoo Not Nominated
2012
(85th)		 Already Famous[11] Yi Pao Er Hong(一泡而红) Chinese Michelle Chong Not Nominated
2013
(86th)		 Ilo Ilo[12] 爸妈不在家 Chinese Anthony Chen Not Nominated
2014
(87th)		 My Beloved Dearest[13][14][15] Sayang Disayang Malay (both Malaysian and Indonesian) Sanif Olek Not Nominated
2015
(88th)		 7 Letters[16] 7 Letters Malay, Hokkien, Mandarin,
Malayalam, English		 Junfeng Boo, Eric Khoo, Jack Neo, K Rajagopal,
Pin Pin Tan, Royston Tan, Kelvin Tong		 Not Nominated
2016
(89th)		 Apprentice[17] Apprentice Malay, English Boo Junfeng Not Nominated
2017
(90th)		 Pop Aye[18] Pop Aye Thai Kirsten Tan Not Nominated
2018
(91st)		 Buffalo Boys[19] Buffalo Boys Indonesian, English Mike Wiluan Not Nominated
2019
(92nd)		 A Land Imagined[20] A Land Imagined Mandarin, English, Bengali Yeo Siew Hua Not Nominated

Three of the submissions - Be With Me, My Magic, and Tatsumi were directed by Eric Khoo. Both films were among the first Singaporean films featured at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival. Be With Me features four interconnected stories, with virtually no spoken dialogue. The majority of the story is told in English subtitles reflecting the thoughts of the deaf and blind lead actress, Theresa Chan. It was accepted by AMPAS as the official entry from Singapore but subsequently disqualified for being more than 50% in English and not in a Foreign Language.[21] My Magic tells the story of the relationship between an alcoholic Indo-Singaporean magician and his young son.

Two other submissions were large-scale musicals. In 1959, Colonial Singapore sent musical-drama The Kingdom and the Beauty, set in Imperial China. Directed by a Hong Kong based-Mainland Chinese director and produced by the famed Hong Kong Shaw Brothers film studio, there was minimal Singaporean input in the film-making. Nearly fifty years later, independent Singapore sent 881, a candy-colored musical-comedy-drama about a pair of Singaporean sisters who aspire to become champions at traditional Singaporean getai. This "uniquely Singaporean" film became the highest grossing Singaporean film of 2007 [22] and was released commercially in Japan.[23]

See also
  • List of Academy Award winners and nominees for Best Foreign Language Film
  • List of Academy Award-winning foreign language films
  • Cinema of Singapore

Notes
  1. The category was previously named the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, but this was changed to the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film in April 2019, after the Academy deemed the word "Foreign" to be outdated.[1][2]

References
  1. "Academy announces rules for 92nd Oscars". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 12 July 2019.
  2. "Academy Announces Rule Changes For 92nd Oscars". Forbes. Retrieved 12 July 2019.
  3. "Rule Thirteen: Special Rules for the Foreign Language Film Award". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Archived from the original on 22 August 2013. Retrieved 26 August 2013.
  4. "History of the Academy Awards - Page 2". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Archived from the original on 22 June 2008. Retrieved 7 August 2008.
  5. Lui, John. "No bias in voting for Oscars". Straits Times. Singapore Press Holdings. Retrieved 26 September 2019.
  6. Film is mostly dialogue-less
  7. Disqualified after its official Oscar screening for containing more than 50% English dialogue
  8. "881 for Singapore's Submission for the 80th Academy Awards". Infocomm Media Development Authority. Archived from the original on 26 September 2019. Retrieved 26 September 2019.
  9. "Eric Khoo's "My Magic" is Singapore's submission to the Academy Awards". Infocomm Media Development Authority. Archived from the original on 26 September 2019. Retrieved 26 September 2019.
  10. "63 Countries Vie for 2011 Foreign Language Film Oscar". oscars.org. Archived from the original on 21 May 2012. Retrieved 14 October 2011.
  11. "Already Famous is Singapore's entry for Best Foreign Film Oscar". Her World. Retrieved 26 September 2019.
  12. "Ilo Ilo is Singapore entry to Oscars". Asia One. Retrieved 26 September 2019.
  13. http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/oscars-singapore-selects-sayang-disayang-736277
  14. https://variety.com/2014/film/news/singapore-oscar-contender-sayang-disayang-1201315047/
  15. http://raymonddeasislo.blogspot.sg/2014/10/oscars-2015-sayang-disayang.html
  16. Chan, Boon (8 October 2015). "7 Letters is Singapore's entry to the Oscars in the Best Foreign Language Film category". Straits Times. Retrieved 8 October 2015.
  17. Blair, Gavin J. (15 September 2016). "Oscars: Singapore Selects 'Apprentice' for Foreign-Language Category". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 15 September 2016.
  18. Frater, Patrick (24 September 2017). "Singapore Picks 'Pop Aye' for Foreign-Language Oscar Contention". Variety. Retrieved 25 September 2017.
  19. Frater, Patrick (4 September 2018). "'Buffalo Boys' Selected by Singapore for Foreign-Language Oscar Campaign". Variety. Retrieved 4 September 2018.
  20. Ramachandran, Naman (27 September 2019). "Singapore Sends Locarno Winner 'A Land Imagined' to the Oscars". Variety. Retrieved 27 September 2019.
  21. Koehler, Robert. "Foreign Oscar pix lost in translation". Variety. Retrieved 26 September 2019.
  22. Source: Singapore Film Commission
  23. Wong, Silvia. "Be Wild takes Japanese rights to Royston Tan's musical drama 881". Screen Daily. Retrieved 26 September 2019.
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