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Birthday:
04-18-1984
(40 years)
Birthplace:
Singapore
Biography
Anthony Chen (Chinese: 陈哲艺; born 18 April 1984) is a Singaporean film director, screenwriter and film producer. He is known for directing the feature films Ilo Ilo (2013) and Wet Season (2019).
His debut feature film, Ilo Ilo, won the Camera d'Or at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival, making him the first and only Singaporean to have been awarded at Cannes. The film also earned him the Achievement in Directing award at the 2013 Asia Pacific Screen Awards, and the Golden Horse Award for Best Feature Film, Best New Director and Best Original Screenplay.
His debut feature film, Ilo Ilo, won the Camera d'Or at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival, making him the first and only Singaporean to have been awarded at Cannes. The film also earned him the Achievement in Directing award at the 2013 Asia Pacific Screen Awards, and the Golden Horse Award for Best Feature Film, Best New Director and Best Original Screenplay.
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Their works
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Singapore Cinema: Between Takes
Act like Self
event2018
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From Crazy Rich Asians (2018) to 12 Storeys (1997) to Sumpah Pontianak (The Curse of Pontianak) (1957), Singapore’s film industry is a diverse one and its evolution is nothing short of colourful. Recollecting Singapore’s famed studios in the 1950s to uncovering new waves of filmmakers in 90s and into today’s digital revolution, Singapore Cinema: Between Takes provides an insight into the rich history, and culture of Singapore films and its industry through candid reflections of filmmakers and content creators.
Singapore Films: To The World & Back
Act like Self
event2024
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Uncovers the remarkable story of how this small nation has made an indelible mark on Asian cinema in the past five years. Through exclusive interviews and captivating scenes across seven countries, we learn the rich diversity of Singaporean stories, and cast a forward-looking gaze towards an exciting cinematic future. A documentary commemorating the 25th anniversary of the Singapore Film Commission.
The Breaking Ice
Producer
event2023 star_border 6.4
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In cold wintry Yanji, a city on China's northern border, young urbanite Haofeng, visiting from Shanghai, feels lost and adrift. By chance, he goes on a tour led by Nana, a charming tour guide who instantly fascinates him. She introduces him to Xiao, a personable but frustrated restaurant worker. The three bond quickly over a drunken weekend. Confronting their individual traumas, their frozen desires slowly thaw as they seek to liberate themselves from an icy world.
Secret Daughter
Director
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A global story through the eyes of two women interconnected by a child. Somer is a newly married physician in San Francisco who makes the devastating discovery that she will never be able to have children. The same year in India, poor mother Kavita makes the heartbreaking choice to save her newborn daughter’s life by giving her away and will be haunted by that decision every moment for the rest of her life. Asha, the child adopted out of a Mumbai orphanage, binds the destinies of the two women.
Ajoomma
Producer
event2022 star_border 6.9
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A widow obsessed with Korean soap operas travels abroad for the first time in her life and finds more than she bargained for in Seoul.
The Year of the Everlasting Storm
Director
event2021 star_border 6.5
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Featuring seven stories from seven auteurs from around the world, the film chronicles this unprecedented moment in time, and is a true love letter to the power of cinema and its storytellers.
Distance
Director
event2021 star_border 9
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A conversation between a divorced couple that took place in London
Hotel 66
Director
event2010
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When the 2002 Korea-Japan World Cup was underway, a pair of strangers met at Hostel 66 in London's Chinatown. The newly arrived female security guard and the long-term renter who took the initiative to strike up a conversation observe and test each other.
Drift
Producer
event2024 star_border 6.7
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After fleeing civil war in Liberia, a formerly-privileged refugee is barely scraping by in her new life in Greece when she strikes up an unexpected friendship with a rootless tour guide.
Ah Ma
Director
event2007 star_border 5.5
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Ah Ma is lying in the hospital, her life hanging by a thread. Her family gathers by her deathbed to send her off. Overwhelmed by sadness, they struggle to find their own way of coming to terms with the impending end.
Ilo Ilo
Producer
event2013 star_border 7
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During the late 1990s, a busy working-class Singaporean couple hires a Filipino woman as a maid and nanny to their young son.
The Cigarette
Director
event2023 star_border 1
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From the music of Polish composer Abel Korzeniowski, Singaporean filmmaker Anthony Chen crafts a story that imagines spending the burning time of a cigarette between the sheets, interlocking smiles and touches with your loved one. This short film is part of the 2x25 Project of Film Fest Gent and the World Soundtrack Awards. The project commissioned 25 composers to compose a short piece of music, after which 25 filmmakers made short films that are the ultimate symbioses of music and cinematography, fitting completely within the DNA of the festival. The result: 25 exceptional films where the music inspired the form, narrative and texture.
Arnold Is a Model Student
Co-Producer
event2023 star_border 6.2
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Arnold is a clever student who has won many academic awards. One day, he meets Bee who has an underground business of helping students to cheat their exams. Bee asks Arnold to join his cheating ring and offers him a lot of money. While Arnold is considering working with Bee, at his school, many students are not happy with the school’s disrespect of their freedom and they organize a big protest.
The Reunion Dinner
Director
event2011 star_border 6
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The Reunion Dinner depicts one Singaporean family’s celebration of Chinese New Year from the 1960s to present day. They may adapt their traditions to the country’s modernisation, but this does not change: celebrating with loved ones over a shared meal.
The Break Away
Director
event2021
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Over the course of 45 days, a relationship begins to break apart as confinement tests its bonds.
Some Nights I Feel Like Walking
Co-Producer
event2024
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Some Nights I Feel Like Walking tells the story of a rich teenager who runs away from home and joins a group of street hustlers who go on a road trip to fulfill the final wish of their dead friend.
Haze
Director
event2008
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On a hot humid day, Singapore is shrouded by the haze from Indonesia. Two teenagers skip school to idle the time away, and an innocent love affair plays out indoors.
Distance
Writer
event2016 star_border 5.7
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Three stories which each focus on one of three types of relationships: family, friendship, and love. The first story is about conflicted manager on a business trip who is intrigued by an elderly worker and investigates his life. The second story is about a young father who receives a letter that brings him to a foreign land, where old emotions come unburied. The last story is about a visiting professor from overseas who sets a student's heart fluttering, while having to deal with his own.
Pop Aye
Executive Producer
event2017 star_border 6.7
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On a chance encounter, a disenchanted architect bumps into his long-lost elephant on the streets of Bangkok. Excited, he takes his elephant on a journey across Thailand in search of the farm where they grew up together.
G23
Director
event2005
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The lives of three characters intertwine through a ticket-tearer working at the local Indian cinema, who soon develops an interest in the stories of his patrons.
Homesick
Director
event2013
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A homesick son studying abroad calls home to Singapore, having an unspoken longing for home.
Lighthouse
Writer
event2010
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A mother takes her three children on a road trip but finds that home cannot easily be left behind.
Reflection
Director
event2024 star_border 8
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Director Anthony Chen and Qu Chuxiao collaborate for the second time to tell a story about bodies and regrets in the rainforests of Malaysia.
Happyend
Producer
event2024 star_border 8.8
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A near-future city in Japan awaits destruction as the it is rocked by a series of foreshocks that predict a larger, more disastrous quake on the horizon. With the anxiety looming over them, a group of teenage best friends and musicians get into typical teenager trouble that tests the strength of their relationships.
Wet Season
Director
event2019 star_border 6.5
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Wet Season revolves around the life of Ling, a schoolteacher who deals with infertility while having to take care of her infirm father-in-law at home. One of Ling's students, Kok Wei Lun, develops a crush on her during remedial Chinese classes. The two become closer as Wei Lun embraces Ling's extra tutoring.
Karung Guni
Director
event2012
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A chance encounter between strangers, a foreigner and a local, results in the possibility of an unlikely friendship.
Crocodile Tears
Co-Producer
new_releases Release: April 24, 2025
An overbearing mother who lives with her son in a secluded crocodile farm spirals out of control when her son sees the outside world and falls for a girl for the first time.
Four Seasons In Java
Co-Producer
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Pertiwi returns to her hometown and is faced with four stories from her past. About winter when she was raped by a dozen men until she was dazed. About spring, the time of solitude. About summer when her family was constantly threatened. And autumn, when she contemplated about the person she really loves.
Sleep No More
Co-Producer
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The workers of an Indonesian factory that manufactures custom-made fake body parts have hidden dark and greedy sides, and the place’s elderly owner knows how to bring out those demons. Despite being warned by a Taiwanese visitor, a young woman seeks out the factory’s secret.
This City Is a Battlefield
Co-Producer
new_releases Release: April 30, 2025
Isa, a taciturn school teacher working for the resistance, is tasked with carrying out an assassination with the help of Hazil, a charming rebel who finds himself falling for Isa’s wife, Fatimah.
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