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Kirsten Tan

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Kirsten Tan
Tan at Tokyo International Film Festival 2017
Born
Singapore
Alma materNew York University
Occupations
Years active2005—present
Notable workPop Aye
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese陳敬音
Simplified Chinese陈敬音
Hanyu PinyinChén Jìngyīn

Kirsten Tan（simplified Chinese: 陈敬音; traditional Chinese: 陳敬音; pinyin: chén jìngyīn）is a Singaporean film director and screenwriter. She is best known for her 2017 feature film debut, Pop Aye, which won the Special Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival,[1] and was Singapore's official submission to the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.[2]

Early life and education

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Tan was born in Singapore to Chinese-educated business parents who wanted her to study science or economics.[3] As a bilingual child, Tan read Charles Dickens and wuxia (swordfighting) novels by Jin Yong.[3] Of this period she has said: “Reading was my first escape, an immediate access to a larger world.”

As a teenager at Dunman High and Victoria Junior College, Tan wrote short stories and poems, sometimes on toilet paper squares she would flush away.[3] Tan said she was classified as “the oddball, the slacker".[4]

Tan studied English literature at the National University of Singapore. She then studied film production at Ngee Ann Polytechnic[3] and New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. [5]

Personal life

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Tan lived in Jeonju, South Korea, for a year as part of the Asian Young Filmmakers Forum.[3] For the next 2 years, she lived in Chiang Mai and Bangkok in Thailand. During this time, she formed a rock band called Century Ache[3] and had a shop at the Chatuchak Weekend Market where she sold T-shirts.[6] A Thai fortune-teller once said to Tan: “The gods are confused about where you sleep.”[7]

Tan moved to New York in 2008, where she obtained her MFA in Directing at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts.[5]

Tan is blind in one eye.[8]

Career

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Tan started her career with short films which were nominated many times at the Singapore International Film Festival. She was awarded Best Southeast Asian Film for Dahdi, Best Director for Fonzi, and Special Jury Prize for 10 Minutes Later.[9] Her films are marked by a fascination with time and a bleak humour towards existence.[10]

In 2017, Tan wrote and directed her debut feature film, Pop Aye. The film is about an architect who unexpectedly reunites with his long-lost elephant on the streets of Bangkok. The pair embark on a road trip across the country towards the rural farm where they grew up together.[11]

Pop Aye premiered in competition at Sundance as the opening film of the World Dramatic selection, and was awarded a Special Jury Prize for Screenwriting. It went on to win the Golden Eye at the Zurich Film Festival for Best International Feature Film[12] and the VPRO Big Screen Award at the International Film Festival Rotterdam.[13] Pop Aye was the first Singaporean film to win a major award at Sundance[14] and Rotterdam Film Festival.[15] Prime Minister of Singapore Lee Hsien Loong noted Tan's achievement on social media.[16] Tan's success in filmmaking was also mentioned in Parliament in April 2017 by Ong Ye Kung, the Minister for Education.[17] The film was Singapore's official submission to the 2018 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.[18]

Tan was nominated as a Singaporean of The Year by the Straits Times in 2017.[19]

Tan is a co-founder of the Asian Film Archive.[20] She has also curated an Ingmar Bergman retrospective for the 2017 Swedish Film Festival in Singapore.[21] Tan has cited Roy Andersson and Kurt Vonnegut as influences.[22]

Filmography

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Year Title Notes
2005 10 Minutes Later Short film
2007 Fonzi Short film
2009 Sink Short film
2010 Cold Noodles Short film
2010 Thin Air Short film
2015 Dahdi Short film
2017 Wu Song Slays the Seductress 《武松殺嫂》 Short film
2017 Pop Aye Feature film

References

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  1. ^ Olsen, Steven Zeitchik, Mark (29 January 2017). "Films about, and by, women take top honors at politics-heavy Sundance awards". Los Angeles Times.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  2. ^ Frater, Patrick (2017-09-25). "Singapore Picks 'Pop Aye' for Foreign-Language Oscar Contention". Variety.
  3. ^ a b c d e f Wong, Kim Hoh (2017-02-26). "It Changed My Life: Film-maker Kirsten Tan's journey from quirky distraction to movie magic". The Straits Times.
  4. ^ "The One #girlpower Speech we wished we'd heard when we were growing up". Her World.
  5. ^ a b "Five NYU Alumni Are Big Winners at Sundance 2017". New York University. 2017-02-02.
  6. ^ Rithdee, Kong (2017-06-29). "On the road, with the elephant". Bangkok Post.
  7. ^ "Kirsten Tan: Road To Success". Prestige Online - Society’s Luxury Authority.
  8. ^ "How to turn an elephant into a movie star: Filmmaker Kirsten Tan". Channel NewsAsia.
  9. ^ "Kirsten Tan". IMDb. Retrieved 2022-10-10.
  10. ^ Kelsey, Moore (January 17, 2019). "womenandhollywood.com".
  11. ^ "Film Forum · POP AYE". filmforum.org.
  12. ^ "'Pop Aye' wins best international film at 2017 Zurich Film Festival". Screen.
  13. ^ "Pop Aye - vpro cinema". VPRO (in Dutch).
  14. ^ "Kirsten Tan's Pop Aye wins screenwriting award at Sundance". TODAYonline.
  15. ^ "Another international award for Singapore film Pop Aye". The Straits Times. Retrieved 2017-02-05.
  16. ^ "Singaporean film-maker Kirsten Tan makes history with a win at prestigious Sundance Film Festival". mothership.sg. Retrieved 2022-10-11.
  17. ^ Soh, Joanne (April 12, 2017). "Long road to success for direction Kirsten Tan". TNP.
  18. ^ "Singapore picks Pop Aye for foreign-language Oscar contention". Channel NewsAsia.
  19. ^ Hermes (2017-12-25). "ST Singaporean of the Year 2017: Which local hero won your heart | The Straits Times". www.straitstimes.com. Retrieved 2022-10-10.
  20. ^ "Asian Film Archive 10" (PDF). www.asianfilmarchive.org. Retrieved 2019-01-12.
  21. ^ "Kirsten Tan on the Swedish Film Festival: "If a film god exists, I believe it would be Ingmar Bergman"".
  22. ^ "A poignant homecoming: Kirsten Tan on directing Dahdi | Singapore International Film Festival". Singapore International Film Festival.
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