Singapore writer/director Royston Tan's script 0430 has been chosen byJapanese broadcaster NHK as one of the four projects for its 6th AsianFilm Festival, making it the first Singapore-Japan co-production.

NHK executive producer Makoto Ueda who is inSingapore for the filming of 0430says, 'I have been hoping to co-produce a film with Singapore for the past10 years. The first NHK Asian Film Festival started in 1995 as a biennialproject to support young and emerging Asian filmmakers.'

Past projects include Golden Globe best foreignlanguage film Osama (2003), Taiwanesedirector Chang Tso-chi's TheBest of Times (2001) and Hong Kong director Fruit Chan's Little Cheung (1999).

0430is a US$400,000 co-production between NHK, SingaporeFilm Commission and Singapore director Eric Khoo's Zhao Wei Films.

NHK owns the Japanese TV broadcast rights and islooking for a Japanese distributor.

Tan's script,which has only two main and lonely characters (an 11-year-old Singapore boy anda Korean man in his 30s), was selected as one of the official projects forPusan Promotion Plan last year.

The 28-year-old Tan is touted as one of the mostexciting new talents of his generation, having won close to 40 internationalfilm awards for his shorts and debut feature 15, which is the first Singapore film invited to compete at Venice.

The other projects selected for the 6thNHK Asian Film Festival are: Vietnamese director Bui Tac Chuyen's Hill Land, Korean director Kim Young-Nam'sDon't Look Back and Israeli director DrorShaul's Sweet Mud. The four filmswill be premiered at the Asian Film Festival in Tokyo in December and will beaired on NHK's HD channel around next February.

NHK also organises the Sundance/NHK InternationalFilmmakers Award presented to emerging directors from the US, Japan, LatinAmerica and Europe.

Topics