Singapore Filmmaker Ang Geck Geck Wins Top Prize for Debut Feature
The director’s film about a young girl in 1990s Singapore took the Best Film award at the Silver Screen Awards, while Afghan director Shahrbanoo Sadat received the directing honor.
By Lina Lewis ·
Ang Geck Geck Priscilla claimed the top prize at the Singapore International Film Festival on Saturday. Her debut feature, Ah Girl, won the Best Film award in the Asian Feature Film Competition. The film centers on a seven-year-old girl in 1990s Singapore dealing with her parents' separation. Ang developed the project at the festival’s Southeast Asian Film Lab in 2015. She also serves as an alumna of the Busan Asian Film Academy. Her 2012 short film, Broken Crayon, previously won the best short film prize at the Singapore Short Film Awards.
Afghan filmmaker Shahrbanoo Sadat received the Best Director award for her film No Good Men. The drama is set in Kabul just before the Taliban returned to power. It follows a camerawoman whose career and family life face sudden uncertainty. Sadat has lived in Germany since 2021. Her previous works include Wolf and Sheep, which premiered at Cannes in 2016, and The Orphanage in 2019. No Good Men opened the Berlinale earlier this year.
The jury split the Best Performance prize between two actors. Pushpa Thing Lama was honored for her role in Elephants in the Fog. The film depicts a member of Nepal’s third-gender Kinnar community searching for her missing daughter. Putri Marino shared the award for Four Seasons in Java. That magical realist drama follows a woman returning to her hometown after spending two decades in prison.
Japanese director Nagahisa Makoto received the Special Jury Prize for Burn, his second feature. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. Nagahisa previously won awards at Sundance for his 2017 short And So We Put Goldfish in the Pool and his 2019 feature We Are Little Zombies.
In the Southeast Asian Short Film Competition, Arief Budiman’s Golden Island was named the best short. The film follows a videographer from Java and another from Papua as they collaborate on a project. Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke won Best Director for The Bovine Comedy, a Locarno premiere set in 2036 where cows are nearly extinct. His 2025 feature debut, A Useful Ghost, won the Critics’ Week Grand Prize at Cannes.
Berthold Wahjudi took the shorts Special Jury Prize for Vaterland or A Bule Named Yanto, which premiered in Cannes’ Critics’ Week. Sarah Lingam won Best Performance for Flame of the Forest. The film tells the story of a young nurse returning home and being blamed for her grandmother’s death. Singaporean animator Exyl’s Singapore God was named the best Singapore short. The Audience Choice Award went to the Singapore Panorama Programme 2 package titled Second Life, Second Skin, which included five shorts by local directors.
The festival also recognized industry figures during the event. Aamir Khan received the SGIFF Screen Icon Award from Peter Chan during a conversation session on Oct. 22. Hirokazu Kore-eda, who released Sheep in the Box and Look Back this year, was presented with the SGIFF Cinema Honorary Award by Boo Junfeng on Oct. 24. Prizes for the SGIFF Pro Pitching Forum were distributed on Oct. 30. Agape by Yamaguchi Shin and Miyahara Takuya won the main forum award. Dea Son An by Le Diah Ha received the Asian Producers Network award. Beg, Borrow, Steal by Tong Khoon Mun and Zhou Ke Xin won the SGIFF Abroad Award supported by Sony. Primal by Sam Chua Weishi and Rein Maychaelson received a separate SGIFF Abroad Award.
The ceremony was held at the Singtel Waterfront Theatre on the penultimate day of the 37th SGIFF. The festival runs through Nov. 1. The Silver Screen Awards, launched in 1991, was the first international film competition to include a dedicated section for Asian cinema.
