What To Watch At This Year’s Singapore International Film Festival

What’s even trickier than writing a witty Letterboxd review? If you ask us, it’s choosing which films to catch during the biggest film event on the local calendar: the Singapore International Film Festival (SGIFF), which will run from October 21 to November 1. For its 2026 edition, the SGIFF will showcase a staggering selection of more than 100 features and short films from around the world—both contemporary titles and classics included.

There are obvious standouts: screenings for both Look Back, a live-action adaptation of a beloved Japanese manga, and Possible Love (South Korean auteur Lee Chang-Dong’s return to feature-filmmaking after an eight year gap), are already sold out. You can still get tickets for the 25th-anniversary screening of the Bollywood flick Lagaan, which will be attended by the lead actor Aamir Khan himself. 

But there are also plenty of hidden gems in SGIFF’s line-up that will appeal to cinephiles, including gritty crime dramas, surreal horror flicks and a sexy queer slasher movie. Ahead, we spotlight the films to see at SGIFF, whatever your mood or however niche your tastes may be.

For those who love a scandal: The Assassin(s) (2026)

SGIFF opens with The Assassin(s), a political thriller inspired by a key event in South Korean history: the attempted assassination of President Park Chung Hee in 1974. The film stars Lee Min-Ho and Park Hae-Il as journalists who, along with a cop, investigate the shooting in its aftermath—and who was really behind it.

Just as the case shook the country over 50 years ago, The Assassin(s) is now stirring up controversy in South Korea, with conservatives accusing the fictional film of historical distortion. The film’s cast and director have even pulled out of the upcoming Busan International Film Festival because of the backlash. Intrigued? Go see for yourself what all the fuss is about. 

Oct 21, 8.30pm, at Marina Bay Sands, Sands Theatre, and Oct 22, 2pm, National Museum Singapore, Gallery Theatre

Tickets here

For those who loved the ‘Anatomy of a Fall’ memes: Rose (2026)

The legendary Sandra Huller, the actress who covered Harry Styles’ signature track Sign of the Times in Project Hail Mary, and who delivered what is arguably the most memorable monologue in contemporary cinema, is back on the big screen. In Rose, Huller plays a woman disguised as a male soldier in a remote Protestant village in 17th-century Germany. The black-and-white period film is said to be a meditation on the violence of gender norms, but the real draw of Rose is possibly Huller’s performance—and already, critics are giving the actress her flowers.

Oct 25, 9.15pm at Green Room, Filmhouse, & Oct 28, 2pm, at National Museum Singapore, Gallery Theatre

Tickets here

For the Scorsese fans: Macho Dancer (1988)

The Filipinana screening may be sold out, but another Filipino film that should really be on your radar is Macho Dancer. This gritty picture by Lino Brocka follows a poor young man called Pol, who moves to Manila’s red-light district to find work and support his family. With its depiction of crime, corruption, sex work, drugs and violence, all set in Manila’s seedy underbelly, Macho Dancer has much in common with the early works of Martin Scorsese.

Oct 31, 7pm, at Oldham Theatre

Tickets here

For the romantics: The House on the Moon (2026)

The enduring Chinese myth of the moon goddess Chang-Er has long been an inspiration for a wide variety of works, including Sailor Moon, a King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard song, and now, Singapore’s first-ever wuxia (martial arts) film. The House on the Moon is directed by local filmmaker Nelson Yeo, who grew up watching Hong Kong martial arts flicks like Tsui Hark’s Zu: Warriors From the Magic Mountain and Wong Kar-Wai’s Ashes of Time.

Yeo’s sophomore film is a visually stunning tribute to the wuxia genre, with sci-fi and fantasy elements thrown into the mix. It stars local favourite Lim Shi-An as Chang-Er, a fairy maiden who travels to the dark side of the moon to find her husband, the sun-shooting archer Hou Yi (Dominick Rustam), after he goes missing. This is a film that will have you asking: how far would you go for love?

Oct 24, 3.30pm, at Golden Village VivoCity

Tickets here

For the thrill-seekers: Amores Perros (2000)

Before directing The Revenant, Digger and Birdman, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu was known for his 2000 debut feature film, Amores Perros, which ushered in a new wave of Mexican cinema. The fast-paced film opens with a car crash that connects three strangers in Mexico City: a model, a hitman, and a teenager who gets involved in dogfighting. The crime thriller offers a raw, unfiltered look at Mexico City’s brutal underworld, and as you’d expect from the guy who made The Revenant, it’s also pretty violent. But don’t worry: no dogs were actually harmed in the making of the film.

Oct 24, 10.30am, at Oldham Theatre, and Nov 1, 7.30pm, at Oldham Theatre

Tickets here

For those who love a revenge tale: Four Seasons in Java (2026)

What does justice look like for a victim of sexual violence? The acclaimed Indonesian filmmaker Kamila Andini poses this question in her fifth feature film, Four Seasons in Java. The film follows Pertiwi, a woman who has spent 20 years in prison for killing a man in self-defense. She returns to her hometown to find that she is less than welcome, and that the men who put her away are now the leaders of the village.

The film is not an easy watch: it explores themes like trauma, memory and healing through a surreal, Lynchian lens. Still, Four Seasons in Java couldn’t have come at a better time; its subject matter reflects ongoing movements around the world, from the women-led protests in India to the “I Am Jane Doe” social media trend in the US.

Oct 26, 6.30pm, at Golden Village Cineleisure, Hall 1, and Oct 27, 6pm, at Filmhouse, Redrum

Tickets here

For the slasher fans: Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma (2026)

Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma is a film that tells you exactly what to expect with its title. It’s also perfectly casted: the film stars Hannah Einbinder (of Hacks) and Gillian Anderson (of The X-Files and Sex Education). Einbinder plays a young filmmaker who is eager to revive the beloved Camp Miasma slasher film franchise with its original final girl, played by Anderson. What unfolds is a subversion of horror tropes and an exploration of queer desire, set against a synth-heavy soundtrack by Alex G. The film’s director, Jane Schoenbrun, already has fans in Scorsese and Paul Schrader—and you can count us in, too.

Oct 26, 4pm, at National Museum Singapore, Gallery Theatre, and Oct 31, 9pm, at Filmhouse, Green Room

Tickets here

For the Asian horror disciples: Sleep No More (2026)

While Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma draws from ’80s American horror films, Sleep No More references those from Indonesia. There are demons, possessions and gory deaths all in this fantasy horror flick, in which two sisters go to work at a bleak wig factory to replace their mother after her mysterious death. There’s also lots of hair involved, which, as we learned from 2002’s The Ring, can be pretty harrowing. Watch this and you’ll never complain about your office job again. 

Oct 27, 8.45pm, at Filmhouse, Green Room, and Oct 31, 9.30pm, at Golden Village Cineleisure, Hall 2

Tickets here

For the anime legion: We Are Aliens (2026)

Falling out with your best friend is a canon event for many of us, and it forms the heart of Kohei Kadowaki’s animated debut film, We Are Aliens. Tsubasa and Gyotaro are two close friends in a small Japanese town who are driven apart by misunderstandings. They go on to lead two very different lives as adults, but a chance encounter forces them to reflect on their childhood memories and mistakes. This melancholic film is beautifully brought to life with both rotoscope and hand-drawn animation, giving it the look and feel of a faded memory. 

Oct 28, 9pm, at Golden Village Cineleisure, Hall 4, and Oct 30, 4pm at National Museum Singapore, Gallery Theatre

Tickets here

For the arthouse crowd: Elephants in the Fog (2026)

In his directorial debut, Nepalese director and writer Abinash Bikram Shah shines a light on the country’s little-known Kinnar community: a regional and self-preferred term in the region for people who identify as the third gender, encompassing transgender, intersex, and eunuch individuals.

Elephants in the Fog is set in a remote Nepalese village and follows Pirati, a Kinnar matriarch who falls in love with a man. Pirati intends to elope with her lover to Delhi, but then her daughter Apsara goes missing in a forest inhabited by wild elephants. A gripping thriller defined by its emotional complexity and shots of beautiful, rarely-seen Nepalese landscapes, it’s little wonder that Elephants in the Fog won the prestigious Jury Prize in the Un Certain Regard section at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. 

Oct 28, 6pm, at Golden Village Cineleisure, Hall 1, and Oct 30, 5.45pm, at Golden Village Cineleisure, Hall 2

Tickets here