The 37th Singapore International Film Festival (SGIFF) runs from 21 October to 1 November 2026 and adds two new strands. Junior Explorers is a three-film kids’ programme with relaxed, sensory-friendly screenings. Parallax is a free cinema-meets-tech programme at Esplanade. If your younger cousin has only ever watched films on an iPad, these are the sessions to look at.
This is the first SGIFF line-up with a dedicated corner for both a five-year-old and a budding VR (virtual reality) creator. The full festival slate still carries its usual heavyweight Asian cinema. For anyone under 12, or anyone curious about where filmmaking tools are heading, these two strands are the easiest way in.
At a Glance
| What | When | Where | Ages | Cost / Booking |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brave Cat (relaxed screening + paper-plane activity) | 25 October | National Museum of Singapore, Gallery Theatre | 5 and above | Tickets on sale now via SGIFF’s Brave Cat page |
| Julián (relaxed screening + storytelling and group dance) | 25 October | National Museum of Singapore, Gallery Theatre | 5 and above | Tickets on sale now via SGIFF’s Julián page |
| Brave Cat and Julián | 1 November | Golden Village (GV) Bugis+ | Rated PG | Same film pages as above |
| The Invisibles | 31 October | GV Bugis+ | 10 and above (PG13) | Tickets on sale now via SGIFF’s The Invisibles page |
| Parallax VR demos, talks and panels | 23 and 24 October | Esplanade Theatre Studio and White Room | Ages: not specified | Free; registration and walk-ins both accepted |
A Cat on a Rescue Mission
Opening Junior Explorers is Brave Cat, a 92-minute Chilean animated feature rated PG. It follows Kona, a young cat who saw her mother snatched by a giant human’s guard dogs and forced into his circus. Years later, she sets off to find her, travelling through woodland and glaciers and all the way out to sea.
She doesn’t go alone. Colin is a puppy the guard dogs abandoned because of his disability, while Bernard is a bear with a habit of breaking out of the circus, and the trio bond over the hope of finding the families they’ve lost.
The person behind it carries real weight. According to SGIFF’s programme page for Brave Cat, director Gabriel Osorio Vargas is the Chilean animator whose short Bear Story (2015) won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film. The same page says Brave Cat is his feature debut, picks up the same threads of historical memory and human rights, and took home the Annecy Presents Audience Award after premiering at Annecy, one of the world’s major animation festivals. A kids’ film about loss and forgiveness from an Oscar winner is a good sign that this won’t talk down to anyone in the room.
A Mermaid Costume in Brooklyn
Julián comes from Cartoon Saloon, the Irish animation studio, and is directed by Louise Bagnall. SGIFF’s programme page for Julián notes that she was a character designer on The Breadwinner (2017) and wrote and directed the Oscar-nominated short Late Afternoon (2019). Julián is her feature debut, and SGIFF lists Annecy as its premiere too.
The 85-minute, PG-rated film adapts the picture book Julián Is a Mermaid. Seven-year-old Julián spends the summer in New York City with his no-nonsense Dominican American grandmother, Carmela, discovering his Caribbean heritage and the bustling Brooklyn neighbourhood around him. When new friends invite him to the Coney Island Mermaid Parade, he recruits Carmela to sew him a costume. Not everyone believes in his mermaid dream, though, so he gets a little help from a magical ocean spirit.
Visually, this one’s the scene-stealer. It’s drawn in 2D with a marker-and-coloured-pencil look and a zesty palette, so it should feel like a picture book that learned to move. If you have a kid who fills sketchbooks, bring them to this one.
An Invisible Little Sister
The third pick skews older. The Invisibles is a Japanese live-action family adventure rated PG13 for some frightening scenes, and it’s pitched at viewers aged 10 and above.
Widower Manabu and his three daughters live quietly on a green, isolated island to protect a family secret: the youngest, Hikari, was born invisible. The older sisters dream of acting and filmmaking, shooting home movies inspired by their grandmother, who is famous for an iconic horror role. When she’s suddenly hospitalised in Tokyo, the family hits the road. The trip brings near-misses, comic run-ins, and frank talks about Hikari’s safety and Manabu’s anxieties as a grieving dad.
According to SGIFF’s programme page for The Invisibles, director Ryo Takebayashi started in commercials before his feature debut, Mondays: See You ‘This’ Week! (2022), won the New Director and Best Editing prizes at the Japan Film Critics Awards. SGIFF also says The Invisibles, co-written with his frequent collaborator Natsuo Saeri, premiered at Bucheon and won the Children’s Fantastic Choice Award there. That’s about as direct a stamp of kid approval as a festival film gets.
Paper Planes and a Group Dance
Here’s where Junior Explorers earns its “relaxed” label.
- When: 25 October
- Where: National Museum of Singapore’s Gallery Theatre
- Who: Ages five and above
- What: Relaxed, sensory-friendly screenings of Brave Cat and Julián, each followed by hands-on activities
After Brave Cat, children decorate paper planes that stand for moments of frustration, then launch them together as a way of letting go. After Julián, kids and parents celebrate what makes them different through self-decoration and personal storytelling, turning their stories into gestures before joining a group dance. That’s a lot more fun than the usual “sit still and stay quiet” cinema rule!
Can’t make 25 October?
– Brave Cat and Julián screen again on 1 November at Golden Village (GV) Bugis+
– The Invisibles screens on 31 October at GV Bugis+
Free VR at Esplanade
For the older crowd, Parallax is a free programme of VR demos, artist talks and panels on filmmaking, artificial intelligence (AI) and immersive tech. It sits under SGIFF Pro, the festival’s industry platform.
- When: 23 and 24 October
- Where: Esplanade Theatre Studio and White Room
- Cost: Free
- Entry: Registration and walk-ins both accepted
The demos come from Korea’s Ubac Studio and several French VR companies. SGIFF says Ubac’s work has been presented at Cannes Immersive and Venice Immersive, and that the studio won the Festivals Connexion Award at Annecy 2026.
Listed speakers include:
– Rebeca Cervantes, a senior post-production executive at Amazon MGM Studios
– Chetan Shah, who leads video strategic development for APAC and Japan at Adobe
– Jay Kim, CEO of Studio Realive (part of SM Entertainment Group)
The conversations tackle authorship, ethics and where human creativity fits as these tools improve. That means an Amazon MGM Studios post-production executive and an Adobe video strategy lead weighing in on the same questions about AI that young editors and creators are asking, for free.
Which to Book
- Child aged five to nine: the 25 October relaxed screening of Brave Cat at the National Museum. It pairs an animal quest with a paper-plane launch afterwards.
- Art-loving kids (and grown-ups): Julián, for its hand-drawn, marker-and-coloured-pencil look.
- Tweens who can handle a few scares: The Invisibles, on 31 October.
- Into editing, VR or content creation: block out 23 or 24 October for Parallax, since it costs nothing.
For comparison, our earlier coverage of SGIFF’s 35th edition focused on the festival’s scale. This year’s additions focus on who the festival is making room for.
🗓️ Date: Parallax on 23 and 24 October 2026; Brave Cat and Julián on 25 October and 1 November 2026; The Invisibles on 31 October 2026
📍 Location: Esplanade Theatre Studio and White Room (Parallax); National Museum of Singapore Gallery Theatre (25 October); Golden Village Bugis+ (31 October and 1 November)
💰 Price: Parallax is free; Junior Explorers tickets are on sale now via SGIFF’s film pages for Brave Cat, Julián and The Invisibles
🔗 Details: Relaxed screenings on 25 October are for ages five and above; The Invisibles is for ages 10 and above; Parallax accepts registration and walk-ins
Tickets for the 37th SGIFF are on sale now, so pick your film and grab seats on the official pages for Brave Cat, Julián and The Invisibles. A first trip to the cinema that ends with a dance party or a paper-plane launch is the sort a kid remembers, and the free VR sessions at Esplanade mean the grown-ups get a treat too!
Photos and Visuals courtesy of Singapore International Film Festival.
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