Royston Tan

A graduate from Temasek Polytechnic, Royston Tan’s films have screened worldwide at film festivals and received over 40 awards. He has made 4 feature-length films and continues to work within the short film genre when the right idea comes along. Tan is one of the most influential filmmakers locally. In 2002, he was honoured with Young Artist Award by the The National Arts Council. In 2004, Tan was cited as one of the “Top 20 Asian Heroes” by Time Magazine.

His works were outstanding since his days as a student when he won awards such as the NTU's All-School Students' Photo-Videographic Competition: First prize for Music Video "Remains" (1995) and the UTV International Book Prize for “Adam.Eve.Steve” (1997).

After graduation, Tan received the Best Short Film and Special Achievement Award for the short film “Sons” in 2000. In 2001, his short film “Mother” received the Voice Award at The Substation’s Singapore Short Film Festival. He has won two awards at Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival, what is considered one of the most important short film festivals worldwide – the Canal+ Award 2005 for "Cut" and the Grand Prix for "Monkeylove" in 2007.

Tan remains one of the filmmakers in Singapore who can straddle both the commercial film world and the international film festival critics. His film “881” grossed over S$3 million, making it the top grossing Asian film in Singapore in 2007. In 2009, he was invited to be part of the Jury at the Shanghai International Film Festival.

 

Filmography as Director

Feature films

  1. 15: The Movie (feature) (2003)
  2. 04:30 (feature) (2006)
  3. 881 (feature) (2007)
  4. 12 Lotus (feature) (2008)

 

Short films

  1. Adam.Eve.Steve (1997)
  2. Jesses (1999)
  3. Sons (2000)
  4. 4A Florence Close (2000)
  5. Hock Hiap Leong (2001)
  6. 48 on AIDS (2002)
  7. 24 HRS (2002)
  8. Mother (2002)
  9. 15 (short) (2002)
  10. The Old Man and The River (2003)
  11. 177155 (2003)
  12. Cut (2004)
  13. The Blind Trilogy: Blind / Old Parliament House / Capitol Cinema (2004)
  14. The Absentee (2004)
  15. Careless Whisperer (2005)
  16. New York Girl (2005)
  17. Monkeylove (2005)
  18. DIY (2005)
  19. Sin Sai Hong (2006)
  20. After The Rain (2007)
  21. My SARS Lover (2008)
  22. Little Note (2009)
  23. Anniversary (2009)
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