16 Oct 2023 – 31 Mar 2024
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ArtScience Cinema, Level 4 |
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Free Admission Screenings are on a first-come-first-served basis, subject to venue capacity. |
Spaceships, androids, floating cities and red dusty planets – In Search of Tomorrow celebrates visions of the future with science fiction films that depict fantasies of what life could be like, on Earth or elsewhere.
In the shiny and bold world of science fiction, humanity's aesthetic of the future has always been shaped by our fear of the unknown, and our unshakable desire to peek behind the curtain.
This October to December, we take an expansive dive into the kaleidoscopic tapestry of sci-fi on screen. From 1950s pseudoscience B-movies to space epics that pushed the boundaries of filmmaking, the genre continues to be redefined with new classics that explore speculative, even mystical, narratives.
In Search of Tomorrow line-up of films explores humanity’s insatiable creativity and fascination with divining our futures – featuring the visionary, modernist eras of Soviet cinema, glitchy wasteland cities of Japanese cyberpunk, and mind-warping, techno-spiritual worlds that blur the line between sci-fi and magical realism.
Due to popular demand, screenings of selected episodes of Astro Boy and Cosmos: A Personal Voyage have been extended till February and March respectively.
Cosmos: A Personal Voyage (1980)
Created by Carl Sagan, Ann Druyan, Steven Soter
60 minutes per episode
Free Admission
Showtimes
8 – 12 Feb
4.15pm: Episode 3: Harmony of the Worlds
5.30pm: Episode 6: Traveller’s Tales
14 Feb
11.00am: Episode 5: Blues for a Red Planet
5pm: Episode 6: Traveller’s Tales
Every weekday till 31 Mar 2024
11.00am: Episode 5: Blues for a Red Planet
2.00pm: Episode 3: Harmony of the Worlds
3.30pm: Episode 5: Blues for a Red Planet
5.00pm: Episode 6: Traveller's Tales
Every weekend till 31 Mar 2024
11.00am: Episode 3: Harmony of the Worlds
Additional weekend screenings from 23 to 31 Mar 2024
4.00pm: Episode 3: Harmony of the Worlds
5.30pm: Episode 5: Blues for a Red Planet
Documentary as arthouse poetry – covering everything between the origin of life and the far beyond in space and time, super tag-team Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan navigate between scientific fact and iconic historical fiction; discussing everything from the impact of War Of The Worlds on Mars studies to Da Vinci’s artistic impact on spaceships. Shot in dreamy analogue video-tape grain with groundbreaking special effects of its time, it’s a complete masterpiece not to be missed.
Episodes:
Image credit: Photographer: Eduardo Castaneda
Image credit: Photo by Bill Ray
Astro Boy (1980)
Created by Osamu Tezuka
Six episodes screened together, 24 minutes per episode
Free Admission
Showtimes
1 – 7 Feb
11.00am – 6.30pm
8 – 12 Feb
11.00am, 1.30pm
Created almost as a cybernetic response to Pinocchio and a scientific conduit for creator Osamu Tezuka to convey his frustration with war and intolerance, Astro Boy represented both post-war steely resolve and childlike hope for a shiny, collective future. Today, it is a beloved retrofuturist icon spawning everything between animated blockbusters to high-fashion accessories, and we look back at the series that started it all.
Episodes:
Dir. Jude Chun
80 minutes | PG13 (Some Coarse Language) | Korean and various languages with English subtitles
Showtimes
22 Oct (Sun), 4pm
4 Nov (Sat), 2pm
In 1993, planet-like spheres descended from space, hovering above every major city on earth. 29 years later, the UFOs remain, having become a part of the landscape of modern life.
Following a cast of characters through multiple genres of documentary, comedy, musical, and romance, UNIDENTIFIED explores the search for identity and the desire to feel at home as ourselves, on this earth.
Dir. Ann Oren
86 minutes | R21 (Sexual Scenes) | German with English subtitles
Singapore Premiere
Showtimes
29 Oct (Sun), 2pm
5 Nov (Sun), 4pm
23 Dec (Sat), 4pm
If Sofia Coppola, Julia Ducournau, David Cronenberg and David Lynch join forces to create a film – this would be it.
Eva is an introverted foley artist struggling to create the best sounds for a horse commercial. When the beginnings of a horse-tail start growing from her body, her life takes a sharp veer into the surreal – passionate affairs are ignited and dark-hour rituals stalk the hours of her life.
Dir. Anocha Suwichakornpong, Ben Rivers
94 minutes | PG13 (Some Sexual References) | Thai and English with English subtitles
Showtimes
22 Oct (Sun), 2pm
12 Nov (Sun), 2pm
In the Buddhist year of 2562, a soft-drink commercial is being shot in Thailand’s favourite playground of Krabi. But when a woman suddenly goes missing, and prehistoric cavemen make an alarming appearance in the deep forests, things start to take a darkly humourous turn as mysticism, mystery and capitalistic tourism collide.
Dir. Apichatpong Weeraseethakul
136 minutes | PG | Spanish and English with English subtitles
Showtimes
29 Oct (Sun), 4pm
18 Nov (Sat), 4pm
31 Dec (Sun), 11am
From the extraordinary mind of Palme D’or winning director Apichatpong Weerasethakul, and starring Academy Award winner Tilda Swinton, comes a bewildering drama about a Scottish woman, who, after hearing a loud ‘bang’ at daybreak, begins experiencing a mysterious sensory syndrome while traversing the jungles of Colombia. Are these occurrences just a figment of her imagination, or is there something out there?
Dir. Asif Kapadia
87 minutes | PG (Some Violence)
Singapore Premiere
Showtimes
28 Oct (Sat), 11.30am
5 Nov (Sun), 2pm
12 Nov (Sun), 4pm
18 Nov (Sat), 2pm
Choreographed by dance legend Akram Khan and directed by Oscar-winning director Asif Kapadia, CREATURE is an exhilarating genre-twist between Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Tarkovsky’s Solaris and Del Toro’s The Shape Of Water – a truly moving and striking portrait of a lonely creature searching for the meaning of humanity in an abandoned Arctic station.
Dir. Phuttiphong Aroonpheng
105 minutes | PG | Thai with English subtitles
Showtimes
28 Oct (Sat), 2pm
4 Nov (Sat), 4pm
Near a remote coastal village of Thailand, peculiar occurrences begin to surround a hapless local fisherman – first is the appearance of an unconscious refugee; followed by a mysterious, neon-speckled creature stalking the night. As events begin to unravel, so does the fisherman’s life – as the refugee’s own life starts blending into his own, will he be too powerless to stop the karmic fate of both their lives?
Dir. Andrei Tarkovsky
162 minutes | PG | Russian with English subtitles
Showtimes
28 Oct (Sat), 4pm
2 Dec (Sat), 3pm
31 Dec (Sun), 3pm
Widely considered one of the greatest sci-fi films ever made, co-opting ahead-of-its time ideals of Taoism, secularism and a nuclear future, Tarkovsky’s STALKER is a mesmerising yet bleakly humorous portrait of the human condition through the eyes of one man called the ‘Stalker’, who gatekeeps an extra-terrestrial space known as the Zone which grants a person's innermost desires.
Dir. Hu Bo
16 minutes | PG13 (Some Disturbing Scenes) | Mandarin with English subtitles
Southeast Asian Premiere
Showtimes
22 Oct (Sun), 11.30am
23 Dec (Sat), 2pm
24 Dec (Sun), 4pm
In a not-so-distant post-apocalpytic future, a pair of humans scour the remnants of the landscape in search of something – be it food, survivors, or simply a chance at redemption. This short film from Chinese filmmaker Hu Bo was supervised by cinema legend Béla Tarr. Hu Bo tragically passed after the completion of his critically acclaimed feature film debut, An Elephant Sitting Still (2018).
Man in the Well will be screened before Last and First Men (Jóhann Jóhannsson).
Dir. Jóhann Jóhannsson
70 minutes | PG
Showtimes
22 Oct (Sun), 11.30am
23 Dec (Sat), 2pm
24 Dec (Sun), 4pm
Immersive cinema at its finest – narrated by Tilda Swinton and with a soul-blitzing score by the late Jóhann Jóhannson's, Last and First Men beckons us into a world of surreal and phantasmagorical monuments where a future race of humans finds themselves on the verge of extinction.
The film Man in the Well (Hu Bo) will be screened before Last and First Men.
Created by Osamu Tezuka
Six episodes, 24 minutes per episode
Free Admission
Showtimes
Mon to Thu: 11am – 6.30pm (on loop) except 19, 24 and 31 Oct.
Fri: 11am and 4.30pm
Created almost as a cybernetic response to Pinocchio and a scientific conduit for creator Osamu Tezuka to convey his frustration with war and intolerance, Astro Boy represented both post-war steely resolve and childlike hope for a shiny, collective future. Today, it is a beloved retrofuturist icon spawning everything between animated blockbusters to high-fashion accessories, and we look back at the series that started it all.
Episodes:
- The Birth of Astro Boy
- Save the Classmate
- Frankenstein
- Astro Fights Aliens / Adventure on Mars
- Atlas Forever
- The Robots Nobody Wanted
Dir. Lana Wachowski, Lilly Wachowski
136 minutes | PG13 (Some Violence and Coarse Language)
Free Admission
Showtimes
20 Oct (Fri), 2pm
27 Oct (Fri), 2pm
3 Nov (Fri), 2pm
What is the Matrix?
Have you ever had a dream that you were so sure was real? What if you couldn't awaken? How would you know the difference between dream and reality?
When a beautiful stranger (Carrie Ann Moss) leads computer hacker Neo (Keanu Reeves) to a forbidding underworld, he discovers the shocking truth--the life he knows is the elaborate deception of an evil cyber-intelligence. Neo joins legendary and dangerous rebel warrior Morpheus (Lawrence Fishburne) in the battle to destroy the illusion enslaving humanity. Now, every move, every second, every thought becomes a fight to stay alive--to escape The Matrix.
Dir. Gakuryū Ishii
55 minutes | PG | Japanese with English subtitles
Showtimes
11 Nov (Sat), 2pm
26 Nov (Sun), 4pm
9 Dec (Sat), 4pm
17 Dec (Sun), 4pm
High octane Tokusatsu-industrial-cyberpunk madness in glorious black-and-white. When a reckless, guitar-playing and electrically-charged boxer finds himself at odds with a cybernetic half buddha-wizard, their final showdown will be one that will shake the very foundations of y2k Tokyo – it’s bonkers arthouse-videogame aesthetic at its very peak, setting new trends for the cyberpunk genre.
Dir. Shinya Tsukamoto
87 minutes | NC16 (Some Violence and Drug Use) | Japanese with English subtitles
Showtimes
19 Nov (Sun), 4pm
3 Dec (Sun), 4pm
Cyberpunk pioneer Shinya Tsukamoto goes full monochromatic Chungking Express – after an unspeakable series of tragedies plague a hapless film director, he goes out into the night in search of a hand weapon, only to discover that in the quasi-industrial-futuristic version of Tokyo, he isn’t the only one looking for an eventful evening.
Dir. Shinya Tsukamoto
67 minutes |R21 (Sexual Scenes and Violence) | Japanese with English subtitles
Showtimes
26 Nov (Sun), 2pm
9 Dec (Sat), 2pm
Forging likes of early David Cronenberg, Lynch and Sam Raimi with a warped hint of Maya Deren, TETSUO: THE IRON man is cult director Shinya Tsukamoto’s unhinged hot-take on humanity’s longstanding struggle with technology. When a salary man gets ‘infected’ by a techno-virus, he transforms into Tokyo’s worst nightmare – a walking, clanging cyberpunk predator of all manner of horrors.
Dir. Mamoru Oshii
84 minutes | M18 (Some Violence) | Japanese with English subtitles
Showtimes
11 Nov, Saturday - 4pm
19 Nov, Sunday - 2pm
3 Dec, Sunday - 2pm
17 Dec, Sunday - 2pm
The cyberpunk anime that put the world on notice – and influenced everything from The Matrix to Ex Machina. When an elite cyborg federal agent is dispatched in pursuit of a genius hacker who can modify the identity of people, it/she is soon confronted by the vision of her own humanity. And as she corners the hacker, her growing curiosity towards her own identity spins the case in unforeseen directions.
149 minutes | PG
Showtimes
13 Nov (Mon, PH), 3pm
10 Dec (Sun), 4pm
16 Dec (Sat), 4pm
1 Jan 2024 (Mon), 3pm
"I'm sorry Dave. I'm afraid I can't do that."
Hal 9000 2001: A Space Odyssey
Stanley Kubrick redefined the limits of filmmaking in his classic science fiction masterpiece, a contemplation on the nature of humanity, 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Stone Age Earth: In the presence of a mysterious black obelisk, pre-humans discover the use of tools--and weapons--violently taking first steps toward intelligence. 1999: On Earth's moon astronauts uncover another mysterious black obelisk. 2001: Between Earth and Jupiter, the spacecraft's intelligent computer makes a mistake that kills most of the human crew--then continues to kill to hide its error. Beyond Time: The sole survivor of the journey to Jupiter ascends to the next level of humanity.
Whether it’s your first or two-thousandth (and one) time, seeing this on the big screen is a cinematic odyssey like no other.
NOTE: This film is preceded by a 3-minute overture. There will be a brief intermission, followed by a 2-minute interlude.
Dir. David MacDonald
77 minutes
Showtimes
25 Nov (Sat), 7.30pm
25 Dec (Mon), 2pm
The very height of British high-camp-B-grade-sci-fi goodness. Nyah, high commander of Mars, is on a mission – to kidnap all the men from Earth to replenish Mars reproductive systems. Armed with dominatrix tights and a deceptively adorable robot in Balenciaga boots named Chani who could withstand a.) a Scottish tree, b.) a Scottish barn, and c.) a countryside truck, nothing can stop their warpath in search of a better tomorrow.
Created by Carl Sagan, Ann Druyan, Steven Soter
60 minutes per episode
Free Admission
Showtimes
26 Nov
11am: Episode 5: Blues for a Red Planet
27 – 30 Nov
2pm: Episode 5: Blues for a Red Planet
3.30pm: Episode 8: Travels in Space and Time
5pm: Episode 13: Who Speaks for Earth?
Documentary as arthouse poetry – covering everything between the origin of life and the far beyond in space and time, super tag-team Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan navigate between scientific fact and iconic historical fiction; discussing everything from the impact of War Of The Worlds on Mars studies to Da Vinci’s artistic impact on spaceships. Shot in dreamy analogue video-tape grain with groundbreaking special effects of its time, it’s a complete masterpiece not to be missed.
Episodes:
- Episode 5: Blues for a Red Planet,
- Episode 8: Travels in
- Space and Time
- Episode 13: Who Speaks for Earth?
Image credit: Photographer: Eduardo Castaneda
Dir. Ridley Scott
122 minutes | NC16 (Violence and Some Nudity)
Free Admission
Showtimes
10 Nov (Fri), 2pm
17 Nov (Fri), 2pm
24 Nov (Fri), 2pm
Harrison Ford stars in this fascinating, dark vision of the near future as a policeman who tracks engineered humans--a Blade Runner.
In the year 2019, the police department forces Rick Deckard (Ford) out of retirement to hunt four genetically engineered humans who have come to earth. Designed to do difficult, hazardous work, the manufactured humans are stronger, faster and smarter than nonengineered humans. They feel no pain or remorse; they are almost indistinguishable from other humans ... and they are killing people. Now Deckard must stop them before they kill again.
Based on the novel Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick.
Academy Award nominations for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration and Best Effects, Visual Effects
Created by Osamu Tezuka
Six episodes, 24 minutes per episode
Free Admission
Showtimes
1 – 24 Nov
Mon to Thu: 11am - 6.30pm (on loop) except 13 and 23 Nov
Sat and Sun: 11am
Mon, 13 Nov (PH): 11am
27 – 30 Nov
Mon to Fri: 11am
Created almost as a cybernetic response to Pinocchio and a scientific conduit for creator Osamu Tezuka to convey his frustration with war and intolerance, Astro Boy represented both post-war steely resolve and childlike hope for a shiny, collective future. Today, it is a beloved retrofuturist icon spawning everything between animated blockbusters to high-fashion accessories, and we look back at the series that started it all.
Episodes:
- The Birth of Astro Boy
- Save the Classmate
- Frankenstein
- Astro Fights Aliens / Adventure on Mars
- Atlas Forever
- The Robots Nobody Wanted
Dir. Jérémie Périn
85 minutes | NC-16 (Some Nudity and Sexual References) | French with English subtitles
Showtimes
10 Dec (Sun), 2pm
16 Dec (Sat), 2pm
24 Dec (Sun), 2pm
A riveting and high-octane cross between Ghost in the Shell, The Matrix and Blade Runner, MARS EXPRESS centers around private detective Aline Ruby and her android partner Carlos Rivera unravelling a dark story of brain farms, corruption, and a missing girl who holds a secret about the robots that threats to change the face of the universe.
Dir. Andrei Tarkovsky
167 minutes | NC16 (Some Nudity) | Russian with English subtitles
Showtimes
2 Dec (Sat), 11am
25 Dec (Mon), 4pm
30 Dec (Sat), 3pm
Widely considered as one of the greatest sci-fi films of all time by one of the greatest arthouse auteurs of the millennium, SOLARIS is a space-age epic set on a lunar craft orbiting an unknown planet.
As the crew slowly descends into a stupor of madness, their captain wanders the deck in search of an apparition haunting him and the mission from the start – have the ghosts of his pasts caught up with him, or is the planet ensnaring humanity into its gravitational grasp?
149 minutes | PG
Showtimes
13 Nov (Mon, PH), 3pm
10 Dec (Sun), 4pm
16 Dec (Sat), 4pm
1 Jan 2024 (Mon), 3pm
"I'm sorry Dave. I'm afraid I can't do that."
Hal 9000 2001: A Space Odyssey
Stanley Kubrick redefined the limits of filmmaking in his classic science fiction masterpiece, a contemplation on the nature of humanity, 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Stone Age Earth: In the presence of a mysterious black obelisk, pre-humans discover the use of tools--and weapons--violently taking first steps toward intelligence. 1999: On Earth's moon astronauts uncover another mysterious black obelisk. 2001: Between Earth and Jupiter, the spacecraft's intelligent computer makes a mistake that kills most of the human crew--then continues to kill to hide its error. Beyond Time: The sole survivor of the journey to Jupiter ascends to the next level of humanity.
Whether it’s your first or two-thousandth (and one) time, seeing this on the big screen is a cinematic odyssey like no other.
NOTE: This film is preceded by a 3-minute overture. There will be a brief intermission, followed by a 2-minute interlude.
Dir. Andrei Tarkovsky
162 minutes | PG | Russian with English subtitles
Showtimes
28 Oct (Sat), 4pm
2 Dec (Sat), 3pm
31 Dec (Sun), 3pm
Widely considered one of the greatest sci-fi films ever made, co-opting ahead-of-its time ideals of Taoism, secularism and a nuclear future, Tarkovsky’s STALKER is a mesmerising yet bleakly humorous portrait of the human condition through the eyes of one man called the ‘Stalker’, who gatekeeps an extra-terrestrial space known as the Zone which grants a person's innermost desires.
Dir. Hu Bo
16 minutes | PG13 (Some Disturbing Scenes) | Mandarin with English subtitles
Southeast Asian Premiere
Showtimes
22 Oct (Sun), 11.30am
23 Dec (Sat), 2pm
24 Dec (Sun), 4pm
In a not-so-distant post-apocalpytic future, a pair of humans scour the remnants of the landscape in search of something – be it food, survivors, or simply a chance at redemption. This short film from Chinese filmmaker Hu Bo was supervised by cinema legend Béla Tarr. Hu Bo tragically passed after the completion of his critically acclaimed feature film debut, An Elephant Sitting Still (2018).
Man in the Well will be screened before Last and First Men (Jóhann Jóhannsson).
Dir. Jóhann Jóhannsson
70 minutes | PG
Showtimes
22 Oct (Sun), 11.30am
23 Dec (Sat), 2pm
24 Dec (Sun), 4pm
Immersive cinema at its finest – narrated by Tilda Swinton and with a soul-blitzing score by the late Jóhann Jóhannson's, Last and First Men beckons us into a world of surreal and phantasmagorical monuments where a future race of humans finds themselves on the verge of extinction.
The film Man in the Well (Hu Bo) will be screened before Last and First Men.
Created by Carl Sagan, Ann Druyan, Steven Soter
60 minutes per episode
Free Admission
Showtimes
Mon – Thu:
2pm: Episode 5: Blues for a Red Planet
3.30pm: Episode 8: Travels in Space and Time
5pm: Episode 13: Who Speaks for Earth?
Fri, 5pm: Episode 5: Blues for a Red Planet
Documentary as arthouse poetry – covering everything between the origin of life and the far beyond in space and time, super tag-team Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan navigate between scientific fact and iconic historical fiction; discussing everything from the impact of War Of The Worlds on Mars studies to Da Vinci’s artistic impact on spaceships. Shot in dreamy analogue video-tape grain with groundbreaking special effects of its time, it’s a complete masterpiece not to be missed.
Episodes:
- Episode 5: Blues for a Red Planet,
- Episode 8: Travels in
- Space and Time
- Episode 13: Who Speaks for Earth?
Image credit: Photographer: Eduardo Castaneda
Dir. Christopher Nolan
169 minutes | PG13 (Brief Coarse Language)
Free Admission
Showtimes
1 Dec (Fri), 2pm
8 Dec (Fri), 2pm
With our time on Earth coming to an end, a team of explorers undertakes the most important mission in human history: traveling beyond this galaxy to discover whether mankind has a future among the stars.
From acclaimed filmmaker Christopher Nolan (“The Dark Knight” films, “Inception”), “Interstellar” stars Oscar winner Matthew McConaughey (“Dallas Buyers Club”), Oscar winner Anne Hathaway (“Les Miserables”), Oscar nominee Jessica Chastain (“Zero Dark Thirty”), Bill Irwin (“Rachel Getting Married”), Oscar winner Ellen Burstyn (“Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore”), and Oscar winner Michael Caine (“The Cider House Rules”). The main cast also includes Wes Bentley, Casey Affleck, David Gyasi, Mackenzie Foy and Topher Grace.
Dir. Ridley Scott
144 minutes | PG13 (Some Coarse Language and Disturbing Scenes)
Free Admission
Showtimes
15 Dec (Fri), 2pm
22 Dec (Fri), 2pm
29 Dec (Fri), 2pm
During a manned mission to Mars, Astronaut Mark Watney (Matt Damon) is presumed dead after a fierce storm and left behind by his crew. But Watney has survived and finds himself stranded and alone on the hostile planet. With only meager supplies, he must draw upon his ingenuity, wit and spirit to subsist and find a way to signal to Earth that he is alive.
Millions of miles away, NASA and a team of international scientists work tirelessly to bring "the Martian" home, while his crewmates concurrently plot a daring, if not impossible rescue mission. As these stories of incredible bravery unfold, the world comes together to root for Watney’s safe return.
Created by Osamu Tezuka
Six episodes, 24 minutes per episode
Free Admission
Showtimes
Mon to Thu: 11am – 6.30pm (on loop) except 19, 24 and 31 Oct.
Fri: 11am and 4.30pm
Created almost as a cybernetic response to Pinocchio and a scientific conduit for creator Osamu Tezuka to convey his frustration with war and intolerance, Astro Boy represented both post-war steely resolve and childlike hope for a shiny, collective future. Today, it is a beloved retrofuturist icon spawning everything between animated blockbusters to high-fashion accessories, and we look back at the series that started it all.
Episodes:
- The Birth of Astro Boy
- Save the Classmate
- Frankenstein
- Astro Fights Aliens / Adventure on Mars
- Atlas Forever
- The Robots Nobody Wanted
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