Government-backed film bodies from Taiwan and Singapore head to the Cannes Film Market this month with six projects from the joint “Emerge 2.0” script accelerator programme.

The projects, presented under the first joint Singapore Film Commission (SFC) and Taiwan Creative Content Agency (Taicca) banner, include Singapore horror film “The Damned” by Michael Tay and Karl Gan and Taiwanese romance/comedy/sci-fi feature, “My NPC Lover”, by Ariel Lu.

Chosen from 170 applications, the six films will be presented at a closed-door pitching session on 16 May attended by potential collaborators and investors.

The session comes against a backdrop of rising interest in Chinese-language content and collaborations, and growing opportunities to blend international story telling techniques with local stories.  

Imagine Entertainment’s Janice Chua and Sixty Percent Production’s Cora Yim, both of whom were involved in Emerge 2.0, said today that Asia’s diversity was a strength to utilise in telling stories for global audiences.

The other two films from Singapore are comedy action feature “Forget Me Not”, by Wai Thong Chow (“Snow in Midsummer”) and Link Sng (“Geylang”); and “Do Not Go Gentle Into The Good Night”, a fantastical drama by Kang Sheng Tang and Zhi Qi Yeo.

“Forget Me Not” is about an aspiring Singaporean background performer who navigates the adventures of her new identity post plastic surgery mishap in Bangkok.

“Do Not Go Gentle Into The Good Night” is about a wife who chooses a treatment to prevent memory loss from her Alzheimer’s diagnosis so that she can seize control of her life once more.

The other two Taiwanese projects are dramedy “Next, Spring’s Around The Corner”, by Holly Chan and Jin Liao, about an Indonesian immigrant mother and her daughter forging a sense of belonging in Taiwan through their culinary aspirations; and crime thriller/romance “Lastly, Close to You” by Seamo Hsieh, which delves into the complexities of love and sacrifice through the perspective of an AI humoid.

The 12-week script development and pitch training was supervised by Imagine Entertainment and Sixty Percent Productions, with guest lectures and guidance by producers including Ron Howard (“A Beautiful Mind”), Sukee Chew, Trey Callaway (“9-1-1 Lonestar”), Derek Tsang (“3 Body Problem”), Jojo Hui (“The Warlords”) and Pawo Choyning Dorji (“The Monk and the Gun”).