Singapore International Film Festival (SIFF) makes a comeback for its 25^th edition which will be held on December 4 to 14, following a two year hiatus.

According to media reports, the 2014 SIFF will be showcasing a total of 147 short and feature films which originated from 50 countries. These films, which have been selected from more than 1,000 submissions, are going to be divided into 11 categories.

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Based on data gathered by the media from the officials of the film festival, 25 films will be making it to the world premiere. Another 20 films in the list will also be making it to their Asian debut.

The film entitled, 'Unlucky Plaza' which was directed by Singaporean filmmaker Ken Kwek, will be featured for the opening gala of SIFF. Kwek expressed his relief for being featured in SIFF since his last film, 'Sex. Violence. Family Values' had been banned in Singapore.

He explained that he felt rather nervous after his previous movie was rejected by local censors. Still, he emphasized that it does not affect his strategies in making movies.

Besides the 147 films that will be featured in this year's SIFF, additional events had been added to the festival, one being the Southeast Asian Film Lab which aims to explore movies that are of Southeast Asian origin. It will be held in connection with the opening of the Singapore Media Festival.

Furthermore, the officials of SIFF also added the Youth Jury program which aims to educate young aspiring filmmakers about scriptwriting techniques.

Another new category had been added to SIFF's Silver Screen Awards called, the Southeast Asian Short Film competition.

"Singapore has always been a very prominent showcase for Southeast Asian film-makers and we wanted to go back to that and create that platform," says SIFF Chairman Mike Wiluan, who believes that this year's festivities would benefit regional filmmakers.

He added that although the festival is mostly aiming to promote local filmmakers, they are also using SIFF as a platform to promote Southeast Asian films and filmmakers.

The Media Development Authority (MDA) is sponsoring the 2014 SIFF which would serve as one of the constituent events of the launching of the Singapore Media Festival.

TagsSingapore International Film Festival, SIFF