Singaporean films are once again making headlines, with the world premiere of Nelson Yeo’s Dreaming & Dying at the prestigious Locarno Film Festival. Receiving critical acclaim and overwhelming positive response, Dreaming & Dying won two prizes – the coveted Filmmakers of the Present – Golden Leopard (Pardo d’oro Cineasti del presente) award and Swatch First Feature Award (Prize for Best First Feature), marking the first time a Southeast Asian film and Singaporean director have won the two top prizes in the Cineasti del Presente category of the prestigious festival.

“It is a really amazing experience to return to Locarno Film Festival with my first feature film, to win this distinguished award and screen to sold out audiences that appreciate and love our film. We are excited to bring the Leopard home and share it with our team.” says Yeo, Writer and Director of Dreaming & Dying.

Screened at Locarno’s Cineasti del Presente, the film – Dreaming & Dying《好久不见》 loosely revolves around the story of three friends in their fifties, who reunite after years apart. All three of them seem to be stuck in some ways, as they search for human connection and are also suffering from repressed desires. The film stars veteran thespian Doreen Toh, and the premiere of Dreaming & Dying also marks Peter Yu and Kelvin Ho’s return to the festival since A Land Imagined (Golden Leopard Winner, 2018).

Nelson is a Singaporean filmmaker. He participated in Berlinale Talents Tokyo in 2014 and took part at the Locarno Filmmakers Academy in 2018. Prior to his wins at Locarno, his film, Mary, Mary, So Contrary (2019), won Best Experimental Short at Golden Ger International Film Festival. Here is Not There (2020) was awarded Best ASEAN Short Film at Bangkok ASEAN Film Festival and Best Singapore Short Film at SGIFF. More recently, Plastic Sonata (2022) won the CathayPlay Best Chinese Short Film at SeaShorts Film Festival. Dreaming & Dying is his first feature film.

The film is shot by rising Singaporean cinematographer Lincoln Yeo. Sold by Italy’s Lights On, co-produced by Kawankawan Media and Widewall Pictures, Dreaming & Dying is lead produced by Momo Film Co, one of Singapore’s most prominent production outfits. This film is produced by Singapore’s Momo Film Co with Tan Si En and Sophia Sim as producers. Si En was the producer for Wet Season by Anthony Chen, which made its World Premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival 2019, Platform Competition. Her latest co-production The Year Of The Everlasting Storm premiered at Cannes Film Festival 2021, and Arnold is a Model Student by Sorayos Prapapan premiered at Locarno Film Festival in 2022.

“We started the journey of this film with no funds, grants, markets but with a solid team and dream we kept preserving. This is a wonderful recognition and we are thankful to everyone who supported us along the way and partners who believed in the space and story we tried to create,” says the producers of Dreaming & Dying.

Photos Courtesy of Momo Film Co

Wider release dates for Dreaming & Dying are yet to be announced. More information about the film available here