
Anthony Chen
Directing
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.
Known For

Two sisters deal with the sudden death of their mother at a wig factory. One believes it was suicide while the other is certain it was a result of possession and takes a job at the factory to uncover the truth. Meanwhile, their brother - born with an eerie gift to regenerate his own body - catches the attention of a ghostly figure roaming the factory, searching for a vessel to inhabit.
Sleep No More

In a near-future Japanese city bracing for a devastating earthquake, a group of teenage friends navigate personal struggles and fractured bonds amid rising tension.
Happyend

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.
Wet Season

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.
The Breaking Ice

In war-torn Jakarta 1946, a haunted violinist ordered to bomb a colonial theatre sees his plan unravel when a charismatic rebel falls for his wife—jeopardising Indonesia’s freedom and their lives.
This City Is a Battlefield

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.
Crocodile Tears

A life-altering event forces 21-year-old Junyang and his girlfriend to face reality. At the same time, while Junyang’s father is struggling to hold their modest life together, a woman enters his life and both generations are forced to redefine their family.
We Are All Strangers

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.
The Year of the Everlasting Storm

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.
Ajoomma

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.
Drift

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.
Pop Aye

During the late 1990s, a busy working-class Singaporean couple hires a Filipino woman as a maid and nanny to their young son.
Ilo Ilo

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.
Arnold Is a Model Student

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.
Ah Ma

A rich teenager 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.
Some Nights I Feel Like Walking
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.
Secret Daughter

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.
Distance

Over the course of 45 days, a relationship begins to break apart as confinement tests its bonds.
The Break Away

Director Anthony Chen and Qu Chuxiao collaborate for the second time to tell a story about bodies and regrets in the rainforests of Malaysia.
Reflection

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.