List of Singaporean submissions for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film
Encyclopedia
Singapore
has submitted films for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film
on a fairly regular basis since 2005. Singapore also submitted a single film while a British colony in 1959. The Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film is handed out annually by the United States
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
to a feature-length
motion picture produced outside the United States that contains primarily non-English
dialogue.
As of 2009, a total of four films have been submitted for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, but none has yet received an Oscar nomination.
to determine the five nominees for the award. Below is a list of the films that have been submitted by Singapore for review by the Academy for the award by year and the respective Academy Awards ceremony.
Two of Singapore's four Oscar submissions- Be With Me and My Magic were directed by Eric Khoo. Both films were among the first Singaporean films featured at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival
. Be With Me features four interconnected stories, with virtually no spoken dialogue. The majority of the story is told in English subtitles reflecting the thoughts of the deaf and blind lead actress, Theresa Chan. It was accepted by AMPAS as the official entry from Singapore but subsequently disqualified for being more than 50% in English and not in a Foreign Language. My Magic tells the story of the relationship between an alcoholic Indo-Singaporean magician and his young son.
The other two Singaporean submissions were large-scale musicals. In 1959, Colonial Singapore sent musical-drama The Kingdom and the Beauty, set in Imperial China. Directed by a Hong Kong
based-Mainland Chinese
director and produced by the famed Hong Kong Shaw Brothers film studio, there was minimal Singaporean input in the film-making. Nearly fifty years later, independent Singapore sent 881, a candy-colored musical-comedy-drama about a pair of Singaporean sisters who aspire to become champions at traditional Singaporean getai
. This "uniquely Singaporean" film became the highest grossing Singaporean film of 2007 and was released commercially in Japan but it won few awards overseas.
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
has submitted films for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film
Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film
The Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film is one of the Academy Awards of Merit, popularly known as the Oscars, handed out annually by the U.S.-based Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences...
on a fairly regular basis since 2005. Singapore also submitted a single film while a British colony in 1959. The Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film is handed out annually by the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is a professional honorary organization dedicated to the advancement of the arts and sciences of motion pictures...
to a feature-length
Feature length
Feature length is motion picture terminology referring to the length of a feature film. According to the rules of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, a feature length motion picture must have a running time of more than 40 minutes to be eligible for an Academy Award.The term may also...
motion picture produced outside the United States that contains primarily non-English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
dialogue.
As of 2009, a total of four films have been submitted for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, but none has yet received an Oscar nomination.
Submissions
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has invited the film industries of various countries to submit their best film for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film since 1956. The Foreign Language Film Award Committee oversees the process and reviews all the submitted films. Following this, they vote via secret ballotSecret ballot
The secret ballot is a voting method in which a voter's choices in an election or a referendum are anonymous. The key aim is to ensure the voter records a sincere choice by forestalling attempts to influence the voter by intimidation or bribery. The system is one means of achieving the goal of...
to determine the five nominees for the award. Below is a list of the films that have been submitted by Singapore for review by the Academy for the award by year and the respective Academy Awards ceremony.
| Year (Ceremony) | Film title used in nomination | Language(s) | Director | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1959 1959 in film The year 1959 in film involved some significant events, with Ben-Hur winning a record 11 Academy Awards.-Events:* The Three Stooges make their 190th and last short film, Sappy Bull Fighters.... (32nd) 32nd Academy Awards The 32nd Academy Awards honored film achievements of 1959 on 4 April 1960.MGM's and director William Wyler's three and a half-hour long epic drama Ben-Hur won 11 Oscars in 1959, breaking the previous year's all-time record of nine... |
The Kingdom and the Beauty The Kingdom and the Beauty The Kingdom and the Beauty is a 1959 Hong Kong musical-drama film directed by Li Han-hsiang. The film was set in Imperial China, directed by a Hong Kong based-Mainland Chinese director and produced by the famed Hong Kong Shaw Brothers film studio, there was minimal Singaporean input in the... |
Mandarin Chinese | ||
| 2005 2005 in film - Highest-grossing films :Please note that following the tradition of the English-language film industry, these are the top-grossing films that were first released in the United States in 2005... (78th) 78th Academy Awards The 78th Academy Awards honored the best films of 2005 and were held on March 5, 2006, at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, California. They were hosted by The Daily Show host Jon Stewart, with Tom Kane making his first appearance as the show's announcer... |
Be With Me Be with Me Be with Me is a 2005 Singaporean drama film directed by Eric Khoo. The film is inspired by the life of deaf-and-blind teacher Theresa Poh Lin Chan. It premiered as the Director's Fortnight selection in the 2005 Cannes Film Festival. It was also the official entry from Singapore for the 78th Academy... |
English English language English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria... , Cantonese, Mandarin and Hokkien Hokkien Hokkien is a Hokkien word corresponding to Standard Chinese "Fujian". It may refer to:* Hokkien dialect, a dialect of Min Nan Chinese spoken in Southern Fujian , Taiwan, South-east Asia, and elsewhere.... |
align="center" | |
| 2007 2007 in film This is a list of major films released in 2007.-Top grossing films:Please note that following the tradition of the English-language film industry, these are the top grossing films that were first released in the USA in 2007... (80th) 80th Academy Awards The 80th Academy Awards ceremony honored the best films in 2007 and was broadcast from the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, California on ABC beginning at 5:30 p.m. PST/8:30 p.m. EST, February 24, 2008 . During the ceremony, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences presented Academy Awards in 24... |
881 881 (film) 881 is a 2007 Singaporean musical-comedy-drama film written and directed by Royston Tan, based on the Singapore Getai scene. It is only the second Singaporean film that has been released in Japan.... |
Mandarin, Hokkien Hokkien Hokkien is a Hokkien word corresponding to Standard Chinese "Fujian". It may refer to:* Hokkien dialect, a dialect of Min Nan Chinese spoken in Southern Fujian , Taiwan, South-east Asia, and elsewhere.... and English English language English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria... |
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| 2008 2008 in film This is a list of all major films made in 2008.-Highest-grossing films:Please note that following the tradition of the English-language film industry, these are the top grossing films that were first released in the USA in 2008... (81st) 81st Academy Awards The 81st Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences , honored the best films of 2008 and took place February 22, 2009, at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles beginning at 5:30 p.m. PST / 8:30 p.m. EST... |
My Magic My Magic My Magic is a 2008 Singaporean Tamil language drama film directed by Eric Khoo and produced by Zhao Wei Films in association with Infinite Frameworks. My Magic was the 1st Singapore film to be nominated for the Palme D'Or, the top award for film at the Cannes Film Festival. Its has been also... |
Tamil Tamil language Tamil is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by Tamil people of the Indian subcontinent. It has official status in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and in the Indian union territory of Pondicherry. Tamil is also an official language of Sri Lanka and Singapore... |
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| 2011 2011 in film The year 2011 is notable for containing the release of the most film sequels in a single year, at 27 sequels. The following tables list films that are in production or have completed production and will be released in the United States and Canada at some point in 2011.- Highest-grossing films :... (84th) 84th Academy Awards The 84th Academy Awards ceremony will honor the best films of 2011 and will take place on February 26, 2012, at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, California. It will be televised in the United States on ABC. The host was originally going to be Eddie Murphy. However, after Brett Ratner resigned as... |
Tatsumi Tatsumi (film) Tatsumi is a 2011 Singaporean animated drama film directed by Eric Khoo. It is based on the manga memoir A Drifting Life and five earlier short stories by the Japanese manga artist Yoshihiro Tatsumi... |
Japanese Japanese language is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an... |
Two of Singapore's four Oscar submissions- Be With Me and My Magic were directed by Eric Khoo. Both films were among the first Singaporean films featured at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival
Cannes Film Festival
The Cannes International Film Festival , is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films of all genres including documentaries from around the world. Founded in 1946, it is among the world's most prestigious and publicized film festivals...
. Be With Me features four interconnected stories, with virtually no spoken dialogue. The majority of the story is told in English subtitles reflecting the thoughts of the deaf and blind lead actress, Theresa Chan. It was accepted by AMPAS as the official entry from Singapore but subsequently disqualified for being more than 50% in English and not in a Foreign Language. My Magic tells the story of the relationship between an alcoholic Indo-Singaporean magician and his young son.
The other two Singaporean submissions were large-scale musicals. In 1959, Colonial Singapore sent musical-drama The Kingdom and the Beauty, set in Imperial China. Directed by a Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
based-Mainland Chinese
Mainland Chinese
Mainland Chinese or Mainlanders are Chinese people who live in a region considered a "mainland". It is frequently used in the context of areas ruled by the People's Republic of China, referring to people from Mainland China as opposed to other areas controlled by the state such as Hong Kong or...
director and produced by the famed Hong Kong Shaw Brothers film studio, there was minimal Singaporean input in the film-making. Nearly fifty years later, independent Singapore sent 881, a candy-colored musical-comedy-drama about a pair of Singaporean sisters who aspire to become champions at traditional Singaporean getai
Getai
A getai , is a usually boisterous live stage performance held during the Ghost Festival commonly held in Singapore and Malaysia, in contrast to the generally solemn mood of the festival. However the performance is also routinely played at other Chinese festivals...
. This "uniquely Singaporean" film became the highest grossing Singaporean film of 2007 and was released commercially in Japan but it won few awards overseas.
See also
- List of Academy Award winners and nominees for Best Foreign Language Film
- List of Academy Award-winning foreign language films
- Cinema of SingaporeCinema of SingaporeDespite having a flourishing Chinese and Malay film industry in the 1950s and 1960s, Singapore's film industry declined after independence in 1965. There were a few films that featured Singaporean actors and were set in Singapore, including Saint Jack and They Call Her Cleopatra Wong...