Cover Writer and director of “Dreaming & Dying” Nelson Yeo receiving the Filmmakers of the Present –Golden Leopard for ‘Dreaming & Dying’, alongside producer Tan Si En (Photo: Momo Films Co)
Writer and director of “Dreaming & Dying” Nelson Yeo receiving the Filmmakers of the Present –Golden Leopard for ‘Dreaming & Dying’, alongside producer Tan Si En (Photo: Momo Films Co)
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The world premiere of the Singaporean filmmaker’s debut feature bags two historic awards—a first for Singaporean and Southeast Asian cinema
Singaporean film is now enjoying its time in the spotlight again with local filmmaker Nelson Yeo’s film Dreaming & Dying, which has won the Filmmakers of the Present – Golden Leopard at the Locarno International Film Festival. The film has also bagged the Swatch First Feature Award, mkaing Yeo the first Singaporean director and a Southeast Asian film to sweep up two of the most prestigious awards in the Filmmakers of the Present category.
Yeo joins the pantheon of Singaporean directors who have won big at prestigious film festivals, such as Yeo Siew Hua (A Land Imagined), Anthony Chen (Ilo Ilo), and Kirsten Tan (Pop Aye). Dreaming & Dying, which had its world premiere at Locarno, is a phantasmagoric love triangle between three friends in their fifties, who have reunited after years apart. Starring screen veteran Doreen Toh alongside Peter Yu and Kelvin Ho, the film wrestles with the consequences of repressed desires and a search for human connection.
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Above Doreen Toh, Armiliah Aripin, Tan Si En, Nelson Yeo, Sophia Sim, and Lincoln Yeo (left to right) after receiving the awards for ‘Dreaming & Dying’
Doreen Toh, Armiliah Aripin, Tan Si En, Nelson Yeo, Sophia Sim, and Lincoln Yeo (left to right) after receiving the awards for ‘Dreaming & Dying’
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“It is a really amazing experience to return to Locarno Film Festival with my first feature film to win this distinguished award and screen to sold out audiences,” Yeo said in a statement. The Singaporean filmmaker has previously received acclaim for his short films, such as Mary, Mary, So Contrary (2019) which won the Best Experimental Short at Golden Ger International Film Festival, and Here is Not There (2020), which won the Best Singapore Short Film at Singapore International Film Festival.
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Above Sophia Sim, Nelson Yeo, Tan Si En, Lincoln Yeo, Doreen Toh, and Armiliah Aripin at Locarno International Film Festival 2023
Sophia Sim, Nelson Yeo, Tan Si En, Lincoln Yeo, Doreen Toh, and Armiliah Aripin at Locarno International Film Festival 2023
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The film was lead produced by veteran producers Tan Si En and Sophia Sim of Momo Film Co, one of Singapore’s most renowned production outfits. Tan’s notable work include Wet Season (2019) by Anthony Chen, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, and The Year of the Everlasting Storm (2021) which premiered at Cannes Film Festival. Dreaming & Dying marks Tan’s return to the Locarno Film Festival after her latest co-production, Arnold is a Model Student by Sorayos Prapapan, premiered there in 2022.
“We started the journey of this film with no funds, grants, markets but with a solid team and dream we kept preserving,” Tan and Sim said, thanking “everyone who supported us along the way” and the “partners who believed in the space and story we tried to create.”
Ethan Kan was Tatler Singapore’s dining writer.
