December 5, 2019

SINGAPORE: The Government Of Singapore Has Unveiled A $15 Million Start To Become A Major Entertainment Industry Funding Center For The Region.

Variety.com
written by Patrick Frater
Tuesday December 3, 2019

The Singapore government is to allocate $14.7 million (S$20 million) to launch itself as a major funding center for the entertainment industry.

The announcement was made on Wednesday by S Iswaran, Minister for Communications and Information, at the opening ceremony of the Asia Television Forum.

The money will be used as seed capital that sits alongside “top tier media funds that set up and invest out of Singapore.”

Partner companies are expected to have track records in media finance and have fund management capabilities, as well as a regional, Southeast Asian brief.

The funds are expected to be genre and technology agnostic and can be applied to production facilitation, access to talent, and co-production projects.

The number and value of each allocation has not been specified, though relevant sources suggested that only a handful will be retained, in order to ensure that each has significant finance top have an impact. The first round of partner funds is expected to be announced in the first half of 2020.

Similarly, the ministry is understood to regard the S$20 million allocation as a first step that will be repeated and enlarged with other funding rounds, if the first is deemed as successful.

Other official sources said that applicants will be carefully scrutinized for strategy, execution potential and market circumstances. That is because a previous Media Development Authority initiative to partner with local funding structures ended unfortunately, and the ministry is determined to learn lessons from the past.

Iswaran said that the country is no longer pushing the make it in Singapore narrative of old, so much as “a make it with Singapore” axis.

“Southeast Asia is more than a market. There are exciting Asian stories here. Technology meets media here. And East meets West,” said Iswaran.
Variety.com
written by Patrick Frater
Wednesday December 4, 2019

Animation companies, Singapore’s Robot Playground Media and Malaysia’s The R&D Studio are co-producing original animated anthology “Spectrum.”

The anthology will consist of seven short films inspired by the heritage and shared culture of Singapore and Malaysia. The project enjoys the support of Singapore’s Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) and the Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC).

Robot will produce four films and R&D, three. The companies expect the project to be completed by the end of 2020.

“We hope these films travel across Southeast Asia and beyond, because at their core, they are stories about life, love and our collective memories,” said Ervin Han, MD of Robot.

Irwan Junaidy, co-founder of R&D Studio, said: “This collaboration is important not only at the knowledge-sharing level, but also as a catalyst to provide a new sustainable platform to further strengthen the bond between our two countries. We hope that our shared stories, the commonalities and cultural ties that bind us will be apparent to Malaysians, Singaporeans and viewers from all over the world.”

Robot’s previous animated anthology “Timescapes” was the national winner in the 2D animation category at the Asian Academy Creative Awards in 2018. The company is also the lead behind The Walt Disney Company’s “Mickey Go Local” – the first original animated series produced by Disney in Southeast Asia.

R&D’s “The Batik Girl” has been to numerous film festivals and the company also produced live action TV series “Wizards of Warna Walk” for The Walt Disney Company, the first long form TV series produced by Disney in South East Asia.

Posted by Princess Mononoke at 9:15 PM

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