IMDA announced partnerships with SPH and Viddsee respectively at the launch of the Singapore Media Festival.
IMDA Chief Executive, Mr Gabriel Lim, announced IMDA's new partnerships with SPH and Viddsee respectively at the launch reception of Singapore Media Festival 2016.
By Annabelle Liang
True to its vision of celebrating the region’s storytellers, the opening day of the Singapore Media Festival (SMF) featured two partnerships that will bring more local content to Singapore audiences and beyond.
The third edition of SMF, hosted by the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA), runs from 23 November to 9 December.
Building on the success of previous editions, the festival is expected to draw more than 20,000 visitors and bring together media industry players from all over the world to showcase and celebrate quality content from the region.
In line with encouraging collaboration among storytellers, two partnerships were announced at the festival’s opening reception, held at the ArtScience Museum on 23 November.
The first, between the IMDA and Singapore Press Holdings (SPH), will see the production and distribution of short videos on the latter’s multimedia platforms. This is part of a pilot Public Service Broadcast initiative.
Spanning up to eight minutes in length, the videos will revolve around themes such as culture, current affairs, sports, lifestyle and entertainment.
For example, the InstaScram travel series will take a presenter to “Instagram-worthy” heritage spots around Singapore. Inspired by local users of the popular app, the fortnightly programme debuted on 25 November.
“The convergence between infocomm and media presents fresh opportunities to showcase and deliver compelling content to a wider, and increasingly digital savvy audience,” said Gabriel Lim, IMDA Chief Executive.
“With the digital medium becoming increasingly visual, videos are an important and growing segment of digital content consumption,” said Alan Chan, SPH Chief Executive.
The second partnership is between the Singapore Film Commission, which is part of the IMDA, and home-grown online entertainment platform Viddsee.
The partnership has resulted in the launch of a Singapore Film Channel on Viddsee, which has more than 500 million users globally.
Up to 30 short films, of genres ranging from documentary to animation, will be curated for the channel. It will feature the works of up-and-coming student and independent filmmakers.
Viddsee will additionally commission its first short film by a local filmmaker, who will work on a heartfelt Singapore-inspired production. It will be released in the first half of 2017.
“If you have tried to put content up online, discoverability is a real issue. With billions of hours loaded (on platforms), how do you find locally-produced content?” said Mr Lim.
The two partnerships will “build a vision... of a future Singapore that we can all make wonderful content in, export it to the world and capture everyone's attention,” he summed up.
The first day of SMF also marked the start of one of its key events, the Singapore International Film Festival (SGIFF), which runs from 23 November to 4 December.
SGIFF’s opening film, Interchange, by Malaysian auteur Dain Iskandar Said premiered for the first time in Asia to much fanfare. The supernatural thriller challenges the way myths and stories are told in urban Southeast Asia.
The red carpet gala event, held at Marina Bay Sands, was attended by esteemed guests from the industry, which included actress Michelle Yeoh, who starred in James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies and martial arts blockbuster Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
Michelle, the event’s guest-of-honour, was last year’s SGIFF Cinema Legend Award recipient. Other attendees included acclaimed Southeast Asian filmmakers Eric Khoo, Royston Tan, Joko Anwar and Brillante Mendoza.
Robert Gilby, Chairman of the SMF Advisory Board, said that the festival had more to offer. He cited other SMF key events, such as ScreenSingapore, the Asian Television Awards, the inaugural SMF Ignite, and the Asia TV Forum & Market, which has a special virtual reality showcase this year.
“We are very excited by all that we have to offer,” said Mr Gilby. “We want to make sure this event... really differentiates from any other event, attracting participants from the industry here and all around the globe.”
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