Detail

Singaporean filmmaker Alvin Lee, 34, received the 2025 Young Artist Award and plans to use the $20,000 grant to develop his first feature film, continuing the dark-humour and mortality themes from his award-winning short Smoke Gets in Your Eyes. Now a part-time lecturer at SUSS and a commercial director, Lee began conceptualising the film after being selected for the Tokyo Talent Programme in 2024. Lee shared that he was rebellious in his youth, but filmmaking changed his path. He first discovered his passion at SP, where he studied Digital Media and won an award with his first festival-submitted short film. This inspired him to pursue formal training at the Beijing Film Academy, supported by an IMDA scholarship. Lee said that although no one in his family comes from the arts, he has always been “different”, and he hopes to bring more locally rooted stories to the international stage.

[Lianhe Zaobao]