From Annecy to Toronto, Busan and now Taipei, Singapore-led animated feature The Violinist is continuing its international journey with three nominations at the 63rd Golden Horse Awards.

The film has been nominated for Best Animated Feature, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Original Film Score, adding another milestone to a landmark year that began with its historic double win at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival. It was also selected for the 2026 Centrepiece programmes at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) and Busan International Film Festival (BIFF).

For Singaporean composer Ricky Ho, the Best Original Film Score nomination marks a return to the Golden Horse Awards, where he previously won the category in 2011 for Taiwanese historical epic Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale. This time, the recognition comes for a film deeply rooted in Singapore’s history, with music that gives voice to a story of friendship, memory and survival.

Supported by the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA), The Violinist is directed by Singaporean filmmaker Ervin Han and Spanish filmmaker Raúl García.

Running 114 minutes, The Violinist is an animated historical drama that moves through colonial Singapore, the Japanese Occupation and the decades that follow. At its centre are childhood friends Fei and Kai, whose enduring connection to music carries them through love, loss, changing identities and the upheavals of history.

The Best Adapted Screenplay nomination recognises the film’s expansion of Han’s 2015 animated short The Violin into a feature-length narrative spanning several decades.

For Han, the Golden Horse recognition is especially meaningful because the film has remained a Singapore story at its heart, even as its production and audience have crossed borders.

“The support the film has received at home and internationally has been incredibly meaningful to us. The Violinist has always been a Singapore story at its heart, and being recognised by the Golden Horse Awards is an honour for everyone who helped bring it to life. We hope these nominations continue to show that stories originating from Singapore can connect with audiences well beyond our shores,” says Han, Co-Director and Co-Writer of the film.

Yvonne Tang, Assistant Chief Executive of IMDA’s Media Industry Group, adds: “The Violinist’s Golden Horse nominations recognise the storytelling and craft of its Singapore-led creative team. Building on its achievements at Annecy, the film demonstrates the growing capabilities of Singapore’s animation industry. We hope this recognition encourages more creators to develop original stories rooted in our culture and experiences and for more Singaporeans to support this film.”

Music is central to The Violinist, not simply as accompaniment but as a thread connecting its characters across time. The original score is led by Golden Horse Award-winning Singaporean composer Ricky Ho, in collaboration with Spanish composer Isabel Latorre, with Singaporean violinist Joy Yong performing the lead violin parts.

Blending classical influences with original compositions, the score follows the film’s emotional shifts and its themes of memory, connection and the things that endure when circumstances change.

Ho’s previous Golden Horse win came in 2011 for Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale, alongside multiple nominations throughout his career. His work on The Violinist also marks a return to scoring a Singapore feature after a period of extensive work across regional and international productions.

“Music is inseparable from the story of The Violinist. It carries the characters through different periods of their lives and gives voice to emotions that cannot always be expressed through dialogue. To have the score recognised by the Golden Horse Awards again, this time through a film so deeply connected to Singapore, makes this nomination particularly meaningful to me,” says Ho.

For Yong, the film’s understanding of music was what drew her to the project. “One line from the film that really resonated with me was, ‘the violin is the closest sound to the human voice.’ When I heard that, I immediately connected with what the film was trying to express through music, and I knew this was a project I wanted to be part of,” she says.

The nominations place The Violinist within a longer history of Singapore films and filmmakers recognised at the Golden Horse Awards.

Anthony Chen’s Ilo Ilo won four awards in 2013, including Best Feature Film and Best New Director, while Yeo Yann Yann received Best Supporting Actress. In 2003, Megan Zheng became the first Singaporean Golden Horse winner when she received Best New Performer for Homerun. More recently, Singaporean filmmaker Chiang Wei Liang won Best New Director for Mongrel at the 61st Golden Horse Awards in 2024.

An official Singapore–Spain–Italy co-production, The Violinist is led by Singapore’s Robot Playground Media, in collaboration with Spain’s TV ON Producciones and Italy’s Altri Occhi. The cross-border production brings together creative talent from Singapore and Europe, reflecting the scale and ambition of a Singapore-led animated feature developed for international audiences.

Founded in 2013 by Han and Bernard Toh, Robot Playground Media specialises in high-end visual development and international production across film, television and digital content. The Violinist is the studio’s most ambitious project to date and marks Han’s feature directorial debut, following more than a decade of development.

Following its world premiere at Annecy, the film opened in Singapore cinemas on 17 September 2026.

The 63rd Golden Horse Awards will take place on 22 November 2026 at the Taipei Music Center in Taipei. For The Violinist, the three nominations extend a journey that has carried a distinctly Singaporean story from its local origins to some of the world’s major film and animation stages.

Listen to The Violinist soundtrack on platforms like Spotify now. The Violinist film opens at Golden Village cinemas across Singapore from Thursday, 17 September 2026 in both English and Mandarin.