Sandi Tan (born 1972 in

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...

) is a film critic, writer, and filmmaker. After attending the

University of Kent , motto_lang = , mottoeng = Literal translation: 'Whom to serve is to reign'(Book of Common Prayer translation: 'whose service is perfect freedom')Graham Martin, ''From Vision to Reality: the Making of the University of Kent at Canterbury'' ...

, she wrote as the film critic for ''

The Straits Times ''The Straits Times'' is an English-language daily broadsheet newspaper based in Singapore and currently owned by SPH Media Trust (previously Singapore Press Holdings). ''The Sunday Times'' is its Sunday edition. The newspaper was establish ...

'' from 1995 to 1997 before attending

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

's film school and earning a Master of Fine Arts in

Screenwriting Screenwriting or scriptwriting is the art and craft of writing scripts for mass media such as feature films, television productions or video games. It is often a freelance profession. Screenwriters are responsible for researching the story, de ...

. Her first short film, ''Moveable Feast'', was her entry in the 1996 Singapore International Film Festival. Tan has worked as the director for short films ''Moveable Feast'' (1996) and ''Gourmet Baby'' (2001), but is best known for her full-length 2018 documentary, ''

Shirkers ''Shirkers'' is a 2018 British-American documentary film by Singapore-born filmmaker Sandi Tan about the making of an independent thriller featuring a teenage assassin set in Singapore. It premiered at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival in January ...

''. ''Shirkers'' made its debut at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival, at which it won the Directing Award: World Cinema Documentary. Her

debut novel A debut novel is the first novel a novelist publishes. Debut novels are often the author's first opportunity to make an impact on the publishing industry, and thus the success or failure of a debut novel can affect the ability of the author to p ...

, ''The Black Isle'', was published by Grand Central Publishing in 2012 and was generally well received by critics and readers. Tan's novel ''Lurkers'' is forthcoming from

Soho Press Soho Press is a New York City-based publisher founded by Juris Jurjevics and Laura Hruska in 1986 and currently headed by Bronwen Hruska. It specializes in literary fiction and international crime series. Other works include published by it inclu ...

. She will be directing a film adaptation of

Elif Batuman Elif Batuman (born 1977) is an American author, academic, and journalist. She is the author of three books: a memoir, ''The Possessed'', and the novels ''The Idiot,'' which was a finalist for the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, and '' Either/Or'' ...

's novel ''

The Idiot ''The Idiot'' ( pre-reform Russian: ; post-reform rus, Идиот, Idiót) is a novel by the 19th-century Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky. It was first published serially in the journal ''The Russian Messenger'' in 1868–69. The title is an ...

''."Whose Story Will Sandi Tan Tell Next?
''The Cut'', 4 June 2019. Retrieved 27 June 2019.

Filmography

References

External links

* 1972 births 21st-century American women writers 21st-century American writers American documentary filmmakers American film directors Living people People from Singapore Singaporean emigrants to the United States Singaporean film directors Singaporean women film directors Singaporean writers American women documentary filmmakers Alumni of the University of Kent {{US-writer-stub