Conceived in 2010 by Anonymous as a film festival dedicated solely to design, A Design Film Festival launched in Singapore and has traveled to Portland, Berlin, Taipei, Kaohsiung, and Bangkok.

The festival is a curated collection of films dedicated to architecture, fashion, photography, street art, motion graphics, technology and the subcultures of design.

Since its inception in 2010, critical acclaim for the festival have been published in Monocle, Wallpaper*, It's Nice That, Wall Street Journal, The Design Society Journal, The Business Times, The Straits Times, Lianhe Zaobao and more.

Designed by award-winning architecture firm, WOHA — the School of the Arts (SOTA) is a specialist high school for the visual and performing arts. The school is located in the heart of Singapore‘s Civic district and combines a high-density, inner-city school with a professional performing arts venue.

Located along the stretch of Singapore's prime shopping district, the festival will take place in the Drama Theatre at SOTA, located 3 mins from Dhoby Ghaut — a major interchange MRT station.

The venue is conveniently located to shopping malls — Plaza Singapura, The Cathay, PoMo, providing patrons with food, shopping and other amenities.

Featuring a traditional proscenium stage with full-height fly tower and motorised forestage elevator, the Drama Theatre is an intimate space with a 421 audience capacity over two tiers of seating in a compact horseshoe arrangement.

— Photo © WOHA / Patrick Bingham-Hall

In 2010, A Design Film Festival (DFF) was founded with the support of Arts Patron, Old School. With the closure of Old School in 2012, the festival has lost a venue partner, a supporter and a friend.

To keep the festival running and ticket prices from rising, we are reaching out to individuals who are able to pay a bit more, to contribute to our fundraising effort by becoming a festival patron.

The DFF Festival Patron Pass is a system of sponsorship in bite-sizes.

The Pass empowers the individual attendee to partake in the festival as a Festival Patron. Attendees who choose to become a Festival Patron will fundamentally contribute to keep the festival going.

Each pass entitles the Patron to:
- 12 tickets to any screening at the festival
- tickets are transferable so they can be shared with friends
- best seats in the house
- patron will be honoured through the festival guide and website
- invitation for one to the festival's opening dinner party

A limited number of 60 Patron Passes priced at $300 each are available for purchase online or at the Anonymous studio.

The sale of Patron Passes closes on 31 May 2013 for all patrons' names to be credited into the festival programme guide.

In April 2012, 21_21 Design Sight hosted the exhibition "Tema Hima: The Art of Living in Tohoku", designed by Taku Satoh and Naoto Fukasawa. The exhibition also featured 7 short films about the food and living spaces of the Tohoku region

This will be the first time that the film is presented out of Japan in its entirety.

The story of the most ambitious project ever conceived on the Internet, and the people who tried to stop it. In 1937 HG Wells predicted the creation of the "World Brain", a giant global library that contained all human knowledge which would lead to a new form of higher intelligence. Seventy years later the realisation of that dream was underway, as Google scanned millions and millions of books for its Google Books website. But over half those books were still in copyright, and authors across the world launched a campaign to stop them, climaxing in a New York courtroom in 2011. A film about the dreams, dilemmas and dangers of the Internet, set in spectacular locations in China, USA, Europe and Latin America.

The rebuilding of ground zero is one of the most architecturally, politically, and emotionally complex urban renewal projects in American history. 16 Acres is the story of how and why this historic project got built. At the heart of the story is the dramatic tension between noblest intentions, the desire of everyone involved to "get it right," and the politics, hubris, ego and ideology that is the bedrock of New York City. With inside access to the project and key players, 16 Acres tells the story behind the headlines and follows the dramatic rush to complete the memorial in time.

Have you ever imagined a place where Vulcans and vampires get along? Where wizards and wookies can be themselves? Welcome to Comic-Con San Diego. What started as a fringe comic book convention for 500 fans has grown into the pop culture event of the year that influences every form of entertainment, now attended by over 140,000 strong.

Comic-Con Episode IV: A Fan‘s Hope - a film by Morgan Spurlock explores this amazing cultural phenomenon by following the lives of five attendees as they descend upon the ultimate geek mecca at San Diego Comic-Con 2010.

Movies were shot, edited and projected using photochemical film. But over the last two decades a digital process has emerged to challenge photochemical filmmaking.

Side By Side, a new documentary produced by Keanu Reeves, takes an in-depth look at this revolution. Through interviews with directors, cinematographers, film students, producers, technologists, editors, and exhibitors, Side By Side examines all aspects of filmmaking - from capture to edit, visual effects to color correction, distribution to archive. At this moment when digital and photochemical filmmaking coexist, Side By Side explores what has been gained, what is lost, and what the future might bring.

Seductive, fearless, and outrageous, Marina Abramović has been redefining what art is for nearly 40 years. Using her own body as a vehicle, pushing herself beyond her limits - and at times risking her life in the process – she creates performances that challenge, shock, and move us.

Marina Abramovic: The Artist Is Present follows the artist as she prepares for what may be the most important moment of her life: a major new retrospective of her work, taking place at The Museum of Modern Art. To be given a retrospective at one of the world's premier museums is the most exhilarating sort of milestone. For Marina, it is far more: it is the chance to finally silence the question she has been hearing over and over again for four decades: “But why is this art?”

Far-reaching and definitive, this fast-paced history of the birth of New York‘s Fashion Week illuminates events which made New York City the international fashion destination. The Tents takes us behind-the-scenes with top fashion industry players to reveal the origins of the Bryant Park tent shows and their evolution to high profile and high art now at Lincoln Center as Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week. The film features candid and revealing interviews with industry heavy-hitters, designers, industry execs and journalists, capturing the talent, energy and vision of this world-class, multi-billion dollar industry, still, in its way, decidedly “Downtown”.

“If you can‘t find it, design it” is the motto of the Vignellis, considered by many to be the most important designers of the late 20th century. Their international achievements cover the spectrum – industrial, product, and graphic design, interiors, and beyond. 50 years ago Massimo "imported" the Helvetica typeface to the US; 40 years ago his famous NYC Subway map debuted. Corporate identity programs for Ford, Knoll, Benetton, American Airlines, and Bloomingdales are renowned, as well as Venini lamps, Heller dinnerware, and Poltrona Frau furniture. Design is One brings us into the Vignelli‘s world of their husband-and-wife collaboration.

50 % of the world‘s population lives in urban areas. By 2050 this will increase to 80%. Life in a mega city is both enchanting and problematic. Today we face peak oil, climate change, loneliness and severe health issues due to our way of life. But why? For 40 years the Danish architect Jan Gehl has systematically studied human behavior in cities. His starting point was an interest in people, more than buildings - in what he called Life Between Buildings. He has documented how modern cities repel human interaction, and argues that we can build cities in a way, which takes human needs for inclusion and intimacy into account. The Human Scale questions our assumptions about modernity, exploring what happens when we put people into the center of our equations.

An acclaimed photographer with the eye of a filmmaker, Gregory Crewdson has created some of the most gorgeously haunting pictures in the history of the medium. His meticulously composed, large-scale images are stunning narratives of small-town American life - moviescapes crystallized into a single frame. While the photographers are staged with crews that rival many feature film productions, Crewdson takes inspiration as much from his own dreams and fantasies as the world of Alfred Hitchcock, David Lynch, Edward Hopper and Diane Arbus. Crewdson‘s imagery has also infiltrated the pop culture landscape - including his inimitable Six Feet Under ads and Yo La Tengo album art. Shot over a decade with unprecedented access, Gregory Crewdson: Brief Encounters beautifully bares the artist‘s process - and it‘s as mesmerizing and riveting as the images themselves.

The Naked Brand is a story about how corporations can help save the planet one small step at a time. It's an introduction to a bright new future where companies tell the truth and work hard to create better products and a better planet.

Corporations have incredible influence on the world we live in and that's given them free reign to pollute, collude and mislead us, but advances in technology are rapidly making them accountable not just to shareholders, but to everyone. Now that we have constant access to the truth about the products we use and the ethics of the companies behind them, big brands are realizing that looking great isn't enough. It's time to actually be great.

There was a time, as recently as the 1980s, when storefronts, murals, banners, barn signs, billboards, and even street signs were all hand-lettered with brush and paint. But, like many skilled trades, the sign industry has been overrun by the techno-fueled promise of quicker and cheaper. The resulting proliferation of computer-designed, die-cut vinyl lettering and inkjet printers has ushered a creeping sameness into our landscape. Fortunately, there is a growing trend to seek out traditional sign painters and a renaissance in the trade. Sign Painters, the first anecdotal history of the craft, features stories and photographs of more than two dozen sign painters working in cities throughout the United States.