HER WORLD YOUNG WOMAN ACHIEVER 2017 Kirsten Tan Filmmaker Age: 35 Marital status: Single Why Her Kirsten Tan is a local filmmaker who has been making waves in the international film festival circuit. She has been praised by critics for having a highly original personal voice and visually stylistic approach to her filmmaking. She recently received the VPRO Big Screen Award at the International Film Festival Rotterdam 2017 and the World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award for Screenwriting at the famed Sundance Film Festival for her first feature film Pop Aye. It is the first Singapore film to win at the Sundance Film Festival. Prior to her two big wins, Kirsten s short films have been screened at more than 50 film festivals and garnered various accolades. She has more than 10 international awards under her belt and was nominated four times for the Silver Screen Award at the Singapore International Film Festival, and her short film Dahdi won Best Southeast Asian Short Film in 2014. Kirsten s work is a reflection of her sensitivity, sense of adventure and willingness to challenge the status quo. In 2008, she moved to Thailand for a year where she ran a market stall, formed a rock band and visited film sets. She connects deeply with her subjects to produce emotionally evocative and memorable films. She has also done impressive commercial work for clients such as a fashion film for Giorgio Armani and a stop-motion animation for Heineken.
Achievements in 2016 She released her feature film, Pop Aye, which took three years to complete and almost $1 million to make. The film is about a Thai architect who encounters an elephant that he knows from his childhood. It has won two prestigious international awards since then and is up for several other awards in 2017. Education/Awards/Scholarships Education 2014: Master of Fine Arts, Tisch School of the Arts, New York University 2007: Asian Youth Filmmaker s Forum, Residency Programme, Jeonbuk Independent Film Association 2005: Advanced Diploma in Film Production, Ngee Ann Polytechnic Awards 2017 VPRO Big Screen Award, International Film Festival Rotterdam World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury award for screenwriting, Sundance Film Festival 2015 2014 2013 2012 Young Artist Award, National Arts Council, Singapore Featured on Ones to Watch, CNN L'Atelier Showcase - "Popeye", Cannes Film Festival Student Award - "Dahdi", National Board of Review Winner-AICP Show & Next Awards - "Ella", Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), NYC As Long As It Takes Showcase - "Dahdi", International Film Festival Rotterdam Carl Lerner Award for Social Significance; Craft Award for Screenwriting; Cinematography; and Performance - "Dahdi", First Run Film Festival Best Southeast Asian Short Film - "Dahdi", Singapore International Film Festival Top Prize - "Popeye", Torino Film Lab, FrameWorks Programme Script Station - "Popeye", Berlinale Talent Campus Giorgio Armani's Films of City Frames- "Ella", Toronto International Film Festival Best Documentary Nominee - "John Clang", Singapore Short Film Awards AICP Show & Next Awards - "Play Your Part", Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York Volker Bahnemann Cinematography Award, Nominee, New York University Best Fiction Nominee Thin Air, Singapore Short Film Awards Winner - "Cold Noodles", Reel 13 Shorts, The PBS Channel
2011 2010 2008 2007 2006 2005 Shoot Magazine s New Director Showcase, Director's Guild of America, New York Best-of-all-Entries - "Play Your Part", Porsche Awards, Germany Tisch School of the Arts Fellowship, New York University Sonje Award Nominee Cold Noodles, Busan International Film Festival, South Korea Spectrum Showcase Sink, International Film Festival Rotterdam Best International Short Film - "Sink", Planet In Focus, Canada Best Cinematography, Singapore Short Film Awards Special Mention for Direction; Best Cinematography - "Fonzi", Asian Film Symposium Young Jury Award Best Director Award - "Fonzi", Singapore International Film Festival Best Concept Award - "Fonzi", 48th BRNO Sixteen 3rd place - "10 Minutes Later", International Women s Film Festival, Philippines Asian Youth Filmmaker s Forum (Residency), Jeonbuk Independent Film Association Special Jury Prize - "10 Minutes Later", Singapore International Film Festival National Prize Winner - "10 Minutes Later", Kodak Film Award Silver Medal - "10 Minutes Later", 47th BRNO Sixteen, Czech Republic 3rd place - "10 Minutes Later", Ohnekohle Video & Film Festival Best Experimental Film - "10 Minutes Later", Student Film Festival in the Greater China Region Media Education Scheme Scholarship, Media Development Authority Community Contributions Kirsten is passionate about growing the Asian film community and is very involved in the local filmmaking scene. She was part of the pre-selection jury for the Singapore Short Film Awards 2015. She was also the co-founder of the Asian Film Archive, a non-profit that aims to preserve and promote greater appreciation for Asian cinema. Kirsten is also a founding member of nu(studios) within the National University of Singapore, which offers a diverse range of activities and training programmes to undergraduates, including masterclasses by industry professionals. She uses film to explore important social issues and open up conversations about them. Her film Dahdi for example, was inspired by events of 2012 - when a group of asylumseekers, believed to be the Rohingya - were picked up by a Vietnamese vessel that was later turned away by the Singapore authorities. The film won the Best Southeast Asia Short Film award at the Singapore International Film Festival (SGIFF) Silver Screen Awards in 2014.
Quotes Filmmaking styles and aesthetics differ across different cultures. Living in all these cities, I absorb a little from everywhere I go. Having a broad-based understanding of form and style makes me feel a little like a chameleon sometimes where I can blend between those different modes of expressing. I like stuff that s a little offbeat, a little surreal, with certain humanistic themes and that has always been the same wherever I go to. Everyone s lives are ripe with comedy and tragedy, and victories and defeats the stories I focus on are a reflection of my attitude and world-view towards life. We re all imperfect beings trying our best to cope with our unpredictable existences, and I do feel a ton for our earnestly flawed humanity. Hopefully when people watch my films, they feel the inescapable forward motion of time and the bleak humour of existence. It isn t about how the audience remembers me; it s about how I ve made them feel.
Film-maker Kirsten Tan's Pop Aye wins another prize, this time at Rotterdam festival Published: The Straits Times (Feb 4, 2017) By: Yip Wai Yee http://www.straitstimes.com/lifestyle/entertainment/film-maker-kirsten-tans-pop-aye-winsanother-prize-this-time-at-rotterdam Home-grown film-maker Kirsten Tan, who won a prize last week for her debut feature Pop Aye at the prestigious Sundance festival in the United States, has picked up another major award the VPRO Big Screen Award at the International Film Festival Rotterdam in the Netherlands. On Friday (Feb 3) in the Dutch city, she received a cash prize of 15,000 euros for Pop Aye. Another 15,000 euros will go to the distributor of the film in the Netherlands. Tan s win is the first for a Singaporean film at Rotterdam, which industry professionals consider one of the most important film festivals in Europe. The Big Screen Award is given to the film that the members of the jury want most to be seen by Dutch arthouse audiences. Previous winners of the same award include Another Year (2014) by Russian film-maker Oksana Bychkova, and Second Coming (2014) by British director Debbie Tucker Green. Tan, 35, tells The Straits Times in a WhatsApp message: "It's totally insane! I'm actually still reeling from the Sundance prize, so this is truly really completely unexpected. "I'm also particularly happy about this award because the winning film will screen in Dutch cinemas. It means a lot to me that Pop Aye seems to be able to find traction both on the festival circuit as well as in a theatrical release, as these are worlds that don't always necessarily go together." Pop Aye, which follows a disenchanted Thai architect and his elephant on their journey across Thailand in search of the farm where they grew up together, will also be released in cinemas here, in the first half of the year. It has not premiered in Singapore yet. Tan says she hopes that Singaporean audiences will do more than just like the film when it screens here. "I hope that the Singaporean audience feels for the themes Pop Aye, whether or not it is set in Singapore, because that's the universal magic of storytelling," she says. On Jan 29, her film won the Special Jury award in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition for its screenplay at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. It was the first time a Singaporean had won an award at Sundance. The executive producer of the film is director of Ilo Ilo (2013) Anthony Chen, who is producing the film under his Giraffe Pictures company, which aims to support and nurture emerging Asian film talents.
On Pop Aye's recent accolades, he says: "One is never sure of how things will pan out, but it's heartening that our efforts seem to be paying off. My team and I at Giraffe Pictures have always believed in honest, hard work, and supporting talented directors and sincere storytellers. "This is also another affirmation of the growth and maturing of Singapore cinema."
Short film Dahdi (Granny) by Singapore's Kirsten Tan wins at Silver Screen Awards Published: The Straits Times (Dec 13, 2014) By: Venessa Lee http://www.straitstimes.com/lifestyle/entertainment/short-film-dahdi-granny-by-singaporeskirsten-tan-wins-at-silver-screen Two short films, dealing with the plight of foreigners and made by Singaporeans, won top honours on Saturday night at the Silver Screen Awards, organised by the 25th Singapore International Film Festival. Dahdi (Granny), which won Best Southeast Asian Short Film, was directed by Kirsten Tan, who is based in Brooklyn, New York. This work by Tan, 33, a director and cinematographer, features a young girl seeking asylum, who drops in on an elderly widow during dinner. It was inspired by a 2012 event, where 40 boat people were picked up by a Vietnamese vessel that was denied entry into Singapore. They were believed to have been Rohingya refugees escaping violence in Myanmar's western Rakhine state. Another Singaporean film-maker Shijie Tan, 33, won Best Singapore Short Film for Not Working Today. His film tells the tale of a foreign worker, who decides not to go to work one day, making his way instead to the authorities to ask for redress for the wages owed to him. It was the first time the Silver Screen Awards had introduced a Southeast Asian Short Film competition, which saw 19 short-film entries, including five from Singapore. The jury for this contest was headed by local director Royston Tan. His fellow jury members were Singaporebased, Malaysia-born actress Yeo Yann Yann and Nguyen Trinh Thi, a Vietnamese film-maker and video artist. The jury citation for Dahdi (Granny) lauded the "sensitive and poignant" work, noting the "mature direction" shown by Kirsten Tan, who recently received a Masters Degree in Film Production at Tisch School of the Arts, New York University. Dahdi means "grandmother" in the Rohingya language. The Silver Screen Award's biggest prize, Best Film, was conferred on Court, a debut feature by director Chaitanya Tamhane, which centres on the justice system in India. The first-time director also took home the Best Director award for his film, in which an ageing folk singer is tried for abetting the suicide of a manhole worker with an inflammatory song. A total of 11 feature films were contenders in this Asian Feature Film Category. The jury for this category, which included Singaporean film-maker Kelvin Tong, hailed Court as "a brilliant achievement" and a "glittering gem every facet of this film shines". The Singapore International Film Festival, which ends on Sunday, also presented an Honorary Award to veteran South Korean director Im Kwon Taek, dubbed the father of modern Korean cinema. The festival also paid tribute to the late Sir Run Run Shaw, who founded Shaw Brothers Studio and TVB.
Well-known German actress Nastassja Kinski, veteran Hong Kong actress Cheng Pei Pei and Taiwanese A-list actor Chen Bo-lin were among the celebrities who walked the red carpet before the awards ceremony.