In Chinese-language cinema, there are four film awards that stand above the rest – mainland China’s Golden Rooster Awards and Hundred Flowers Awards, Taiwan’s Golden Horse Awards, and the Hong Kong Film Awards.
Singapore is now looking to join the ranks with a bold, new event – the inaugural Golden Singa Awards, which is slated to take place on 1 December, during the Singapore Media Festival.
Organised by the Singapore-based media entertainment firm, NoonTalk Media, the Golden Singa Awards will celebrate the best of Chinese-language cinema with 22 categories, including Best Feature Film, Best Male Actor, Best Female Actor and Best Director.
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Unlike many other major Chinese-language film prizes, the Golden Singa Awards will not impose geographic restrictions, but will instead embrace Chinese-language filmmaking worldwide.
The goal is to ultimately elevate the award to the same stature as the other major Chinese-language film awards within the next five years. In order to achieve this, the organisers are leaving no stones unturned. They have hired a panel of filmmaking professionals and experts to serve as the judges and also enlisted the help of Chinese filmmaking veterans such as Tsai Sung-Lin and Lu Meihui, who are part of the awards’ committee.
Macao News spoke with Dasmond Koh, the CEO of NoonTalk Media and the Chairman of the Golden Singa Awards Committee, to find out more about the upcoming ceremony.
This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
How was the idea of the Golden Singa Awards conceived?
We started curating this project about two or three years ago, when we were wondering if there was anything we can do for Singapore, especially this year, during the SG60 [the 60th anniversary of Singapore’s independence].
When we looked around, we found out that if [you’re talking about] Chinese award ceremonies for film, there aren’t a lot. There’s the Hundred Flowers and the Golden Rooster from the China side, but these ones are only limited to mainland China productions. When it comes to Hong Kong, they have the Hong Kong Film Awards, but that one as well is only limited to Hong Kong productions.
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The only one that is more regional is the Golden Horse Award. It has a pretty long history already, so there could be an opening for a brand new award ceremony to come into the picture because I feel that there should be some rejuvenation of award shows or award ceremonies in the region.
What have been some of the challenges that you’ve faced in organising a new awards ceremony?
It’s a double-edged sword. We don’t have much prominent [film] production running in Singapore, so it gives us more neutral ground. But that also leaves us with not a lot of world-renowned producers or even directors.
With that said, running the Golden Singa Awards with our own capacity is not easy, and we have to outreach to all the veterans and professionals from the region like Taiwan, Hong Kong or China.
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It took us quite a bit of effort to persuade and share the vision and thought of why we are running this regional award. On top of that, getting linked to all these professionals is another challenge because we have to go through some renowned producers or executive producers to get us to be in talks with all these parties.
Have you sought inspiration from the other preexisting Chinese film awards?
Definitely. When we were trying to see what actually fits in the current entertainment scene and the current industry, we did take a look at how Golden Horse [and the awards from Hong Kong and China] are being run, what types of awards they offer and, on top of that, the whole procedure from registering all the way to the award ceremony itself. We tried to get to know how they’re being done , what their backstories were and the inspiration for when they first started.
Are there any unique Singaporean elements that you’re going to incorporate into the Golden Singa Awards?
It’s not easy because we are not so vibrant in terms of the film producing market itself. But what we are trying to put together are more of our own Singapore brands to make this award be seen like it’s a Singapore effort.
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That is why apart from us running the show, we have brought in a local jewellery brand, Risis [to be our official trophy partner]. They actually produced the trophy for the F1 Grand Prix in Singapore.
Can we expect veterans of the Singaporean film industry such as Mark Lee, Jack Neo or Fann Wong to take on the role as award presenters?
Yes, definitely. I think [actor] Mark Lee; our veteran director, Jack Neo and even [directors] Anthony Chen, Royston Tan and [actress] Fann Wong – whoever has done some parts for movies that are related – we are more than happy to extend our invitation. Of course, local performers, like singers, we are also trying to outreach. But at this point, it’s difficult for us to mention who is in the list. Most of them are in talks.
How many people will make up the preliminary and final jury?
For preliminary judging, we have the usual suspects like Mark Lee [whom] we are in talks with. [We also have ] some local reporters, our filmmakers and our TV production veterans like executive producers etc. It’s difficult to name the preliminary [judges] because we are looking at close to 40-50 of them.
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When it comes to the final judges, we plan to do an announcement soon. There will be people from all over the world like Singapore, Taiwan, Malaysia or even Hong Kong or China. Most of them will be pretty related [to film]. For example, he could be the ex-chairman of the Hong Kong Film Festival. We will have experienced jury members.
What is your barometer for judging whether or not the Golden Singa Award will become a leading film event in the Asia-Pacific region within five years?
That is a dream that we are going after. If we can be put side by side or mentioned alongside big names like the Golden Horse, the Golden Rooster or One Hundred Flowers, I think it’s already something that we should feel happy and blessed with.
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If you’re asking me how I will be judging the success of this award show – number one, it will be the standard of the entries that have been submitted. The other part that I will be putting quite a lot of effort and attention into will be the jury panel. The third one, which is the last one, will be the attendees. I think these three components will put together and give us a gauge of how successful the award show is.
How have the advisors such as Tsai Sung-Lin and Lu Meihui helped in the organisation of the Golden Singa Awards?
They are veterans in this industry. They know a lot of people in the industry from the more senior ones all the way to the new directors. They are trying to connect [us with] as many people as they can, which they thought will help us like directors, producers and to hear their advice.
They were also involved in the Golden Horse before and they also have a connection [with] the Hong Kong Film Awards, so through them, I have been meeting quite a number of veterans that know how to go about making award shows.
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Apart from interpersonal connection, they are also trying to give us advice on who we should be inviting and how the award show should be tailored with what they are seeing in terms of the transformation of the industry. They have been telling us to take note of this and that – for example, AI. We have to look into giving awards to all these different categories. It might not be seen in the current list of awards that we are giving out, but we are definitely looking at planning and curating all this into the award list.
How many film submissions have you received so far and how many do you expect to receive when the 31 July deadline hits?
I hope minimally, we will be reaching between 30 to 50 films coming in [after the submission has been closed]. To be frank, I didn’t ask and I didn’t check. Reason being, I wanted to give myself some time.
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But I’m not worried about that because usually when I consult other award shows, usually everybody plays along the lines of those pretty last minute submissions. This is the normal advice that I’ve gotten from the rest of the award show committees themselves.
Aside from the award itself, is NoonTalk Media organising any auxiliary or outreach events relating to the award?
That one is in the pipeline. We did think about it. For example, the revealing of the trophy itself. There is a brand new award that’s coming in and everyone’s interested and excited to see how it’s going to be run. The trophy is going to be one of the highlights that [people] are pretty excited to see how it will be like. Of course, [there’s also] the revealing of the jury panel.
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Whether or not there will be fan meet and greet sessions has to depend on who the nominees are and whether they can make the time to come over. We are also thinking of whether there’s a possibility we can do a [movie] marathon. The most nominated four or five featured films – can we get the rights and then do a marathon where everyone can go and watch in the cinema?
