City Singapore Showbiz Latest News and Updates

Marcus Lim Chinese streaming firm iQIYI and production company G.H.Y. Culture & Media are launching Uni-Icon Entertainment, a Singapore-based talent agency focusing on Southeast Asian performing talent.Announced at a signing ceremony in Singapore on Wednesday, the talent agency aims to identify and promote talent, with an emphasis on performers from Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines.

direct to your inboxA British citizen has been jailed for breaking a coronavirus quarantine order in Singapore.Nigel Skea, the first Briton to be put behind bars for flouting the rule in the city-state, has been sentenced to two weeks in jail after he climbed an emergency stairwell to visit his fiancee's hotel room.Skea has also been fined 1,000 Singapore dollars (£533).He left his room at The Ritz-Carlton, Millenia Singapore on three occasions last September and was not wearing a mask,

Zash Global Media and Entertainment, co-founded by former MoviePass chairman Ted Farnsworth, has struck a definitive agreement to acquire a majority stake in Lomotif, a Singapore-based video-sharing social networking platform a la TikTok that encourages users to "turn your favorite moments into a music video." Financial details weren’t disclosed.

Now the creature has been identified – but the answer has only deepened the mystery.

direct to your inboxA British man is facing jail in Singapore for breaking quarantine to visit his wife.The British citizen pleaded guilty to violating a coronavirus quarantine order by leaving his room at the hotel he was staying in.Skea Nigel left his room, without wearing a mask, at The Ritz-Carlton, Millenia Singapore hotel on three occasions in September, according to the charge sheets.On one occasion, he climbed an emergency stairwell and went into the room that his Singaporean fiancee was

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefThe Disney Plus streaming service will launch later this month in Singapore with the promise of large volumes of new content.Details of the Feb. 23 launch and upcoming programming were announced Tuesday from hybrid broadcast studios at the Marina Bay Sands resort.

Blackstone Group has started the process of buying Lucasfilm's flagship building in Singapore for about $132 million (175 million Singaporean dollars). The iconic commercial development, known as the Sandcrawler Building, features a facade designed to resemble the Jawas' vehicle on Tatooine from 1977'sStar Wars.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefThe Disney Plus streaming service will launch in Singapore in an exclusive arrangement with local cable provider StarHub.The Feb.

Vivienne Chow A virtual awards presentation ceremony honoring digital creators from the fast-growing gaming sector in Southeast Asia and a live streamed eSports championship concluded the inaugural edition of SuperGamerFest 2020.

During a barnstorming Investor Day presentation, the Walt Disney Co. said Thursday that its Disney+ streaming service will soon be adding Singapore to its footprint in Asia.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefNegotiations are underway concerning a possible merger of the cinema exhibition operations of Golden Village and mm2. The companies say that the deal talks are spurred by the negative effects of the coronavirus pandemic.Multi-territory cinemas group Orange Sky Golden Harvest said in a regulatory filing that it had signed a heads-of-agreement with Singapore-listed mm2 Asia, which operates the Cathay Cineplexes circuits in Singapore and Malaysia.

Vivienne Chow An intense weekend of live-streamed esports action, comprising a regional championship, kicked off the inaugural edition of SuperGamerFest 2020. The event is a new addition to this year’s Singapore Media Festival and taps into the region’s fast growing gaming industry.Spanning the first two weekend of the month (Dec.

Naman Ramachandran Cult Filipino filmmaker Mikhail Red is deep in post-production on action thriller ‘Arisaka.’ The shoot was temporarily delayed because of the coronavirus pandemic and following COVID-safe production protocols, principal photography was completed in the third quarter of 2020.News of the film was first announced by Variety during the Singapore Media Festival’s Southeast Asian Film Financing Project Market in 2019.Variety has been given exclusive access to the first teaser for

Naman Ramachandran Key practitioners working across Southeast Asia and beyond unpacked the various processes and benefits that go into the creation of short films at the Singapore International Film Festival, part of the overarching Singapore Media Festival.Filmmaker Kan Lume, whose 2012 short “Libertas” won the NETPAC Award at the Tripoli Film Festival, described the process of how he was commissioned and executed projects from the German Embassy in Singapore, Asian Film Archive and National

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefIndian drama film “Milestone” (aka “Meel Patthar”) was named the best film at the Silver Screen Awards, the closing event of the Singapore International Film Festival. The festival is a cornerstone of the Singapore Media Festival consumer and industry event.Directed by Ivan Ayr, “Milestone” recounts the foretaste of doom that follows a veteran truck driver when his vehicle passes half a million kilometers and he is asked to train a younger operator.

Naman Ramachandran Industry practitioners from Southeast Asia deliberated the devastating effects of COVID-19 on the entertainment industry in the region, but also found some silver linings, at the concluding session of the Asian Television Forum, part of the Singapore Media Festival, on Friday.Speaking at a panel discussion moderated by producer Jeremy Chua of Singapore outfit Potocol (“A Love Unknown”), Micah Tadena, country manager, Philippines, 108 Media, said that the government’s decision

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefNetflix Korean-language “Crash Landing on You” was named as the best drama series at the third running of the Asian Academy Creative Awards. Malaysia-Singapore co-production “The Garden of Evening Mists” was named as the best feature film.Singapore actors features prominently among the performance winners.

Vivienne Chow Legendary Japanese producer Ichiyama Shozo encouraged young filmmakers not to give up despite the challenging climate brought upon by digital revolution and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Naman Ramachandran “The Diam Diam Era Too,” the sequel to current release “The Diam Diam Era” by Singapore superstar Jack Neo, and period thriller “Precious is the Night” are among the upcoming releases from regional mini-conglomerate MM2 Entertainment.The company revealed a host of titles for 2020-21 release at the ongoing Asian Television Forum, which is part of the Singapore Media Festival.The “Diam Diam” films continue the story of Neo’s 2016 two-parter “Long Long Time Ago” that followed

Naman Ramachandran Canada-based global distribution group Blue Ant International has notched up sales of crime-themed content to several Asian platforms, coming into the Asian Television Forum (ATF) in Singapore.The ATF runs as part of the Singapore Media Festival.Pan-Asian linear network, A+E Networks Asia has picked up season five of Arrow Media and Saloon Media’s “See No Evil,” a series about how real crimes are solved with the help of surveillance cameras.In Thailand, linear broadcaster,

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefThe Singapore government is expanding its range of content industry support measures through two new partnerships. One is with Amazon offshoot Audible, the other with KC Global Media.The moves were unveiled on Tuesday Minister for Communications and Information, S Iswaran.

Naman Ramachandran Film co-productions are on the rise in South East Asia, but their growth brings tricky choices for producers.Leading practitioners Monday shone a useful light on how to navigate the often tricky paths of co-productions at a Singapore International Film Festival panel discussion.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefJapanese entertainment group Nippon Television is using the Asian Television Forum in Singapore this week to launch hit series “A Girl of 35” as a scripted format. The underlying drama has been airing on Nippon TV since October.The show follows a young girl who in 1995, age 10, has a freak accident and is left in an unconscious state.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefEmily J. Hoe took over as executive director of the Singapore International Film Festival just as the world was waking up to the coronavirus as a full-on pandemic.

Naman Ramachandran Indian arthouse filmmaker Pushpendra Singh’s latest effort, feminist fable “The Shepherdess and the Seven Songs” (Laila Aur Satt Geet) is bowing at the Singapore International Film Festival after plaudits at Berlin, Hong Kong and Jeonju.The film, based on renowned Rajasthani writer Vidaydan Detha’s story of a woman discarding all identities society wants to impose on her, and making her own choices, uses the narrative device of seven local folk songs to describe the

Naman Ramachandran As is customary, the local fare on offer at the Singapore International Film Festival (SGIFF) is linguistically and thematically diverse, reflecting the nature of the island city-state.The opening film, Tan Bee Thiam’s “Tiong Bahru Social Club,” is presented in several languages, including English, Cantonese, Mandarin, Hokkien, Malay and Tamil.

Vivienne Chow Taiwan’s Studio76 is joining hands with Singapore’s MediaCorp launch a new script competition to be launched in 2021. The mission is to boost Chinese-language storytelling in the pan-Asia region.Unveiled at the Taiwan Creative Content Fest, “Rising Stories” will begin accepting applications from Feb.

Ubisoft Singapore, which is currently developing Skull & Bones, has removed managing director Hugues Ricour from his position following a “leadership audit”.This is according to Kotaku, which obtained a copy of an internal company email that was sent by Ubisoft chief studios operating officer, Virginie Haas.“Effective immediately, Hugues Ricour is no longer managing director of Ubisoft Singapore,” she wrote.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefThe Singapore International Film Festival will open with the screening of local film “Tiong Bahru Social Club” at the Shaw Lido theater. But, for social distancing reasons, the occasion will not be marked with a red carpet pageant.Throughout its 11-day stretch (Nov.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefThe wide-ranging cluster of events operating under the Singapore Media Festival banner will this year shift largely online. The move is a response to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and the limited opportunities for travel in the Asia region.The Singapore International Film Festival, running the full length of the SMF (Nov.

Naman Ramachandran Hotstar, the Disney-owned streaming service focused on live cricket and entertainment, will launch on Singapore’s StarHub Plus service on Nov. 1.Customers in Singapore will have two methods of accessing the streamer.

Rebecca Davis editorUniversal Music Group on Tuesday appointed Simon Jerome Nasser as managing director for Universal Music Singapore and its Southeast Asia head of live, a newly created role.

Singapore has picked Anthony Chen's slowburn romantic drama Wet Season as its entry for the best international feature film category at the 2021 Oscars. The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2019 and later screened at Taiwan's Golden Horse Film Festival, where its star, Yeo Yann Yann, won the best actress award.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefSingapore has selected cross-generational relationship drama “Wet Season” as its national representative in the Academy Awards best international feature film category.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefCinemas in different parts of Asia-Pacific are increasingly able to expand their operations, as local authorities around the region judge the need for social distancing to be reduced.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefThe Asia TV Forum, the annual TV convention and market held in Singapore, will this year shift entirely online, as a response to the continuing effects of the coronavirus pandemic. It will retain the same Dec.