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The Projector Announces Closure Amidst Challenging Cinema and F&B Landscape in Singapore

By Riin / 19 Aug 2025 (Tuesday)

Singapore’s beloved independent cinema and arts venue, The Projector, will enter voluntary liquidation after a decade of championing alternative films, local creativity, and community-led programming.

Since opening its doors in 2014, The Projector has been more than a place to watch movies — it has been a cultural and events space where artists, filmmakers, and audiences gathered to experience cinema, creativity in its various forms and engage with diverse communities.

From showcasing award-winning independent films to hosting film festivals, like the Singapore International Film Festival, the European Film Festival, Pink Screen, poetry slams, vintage markets, and charity fundraisers, The Projector has remained committed to broadening the definition of cinema and a community space in Singapore.

However, the realities of the cinema industry have been increasingly unforgiving. Rising operational costs, shifting audience habits, and the global decline in cinema attendance have made sustaining an independent model in Singapore especially challenging. These pressures have been compounded by the broader realities of operating in the arts and culture sector in Singapore, where independent ventures navigate limited resources while contributing to the country’s evolving cultural landscape.

"It breaks our hearts to make this decision," said Karen Tan, founder of The Projector. "We’ve fought to keep The Projector alive through every challenge — from breathing new life into a disused cinema at Golden Mile Tower, to weathering the pandemic, to expanding to new spaces. But the combination of rising costs, changing audience habits, and the worst consumer market conditions in a decade has left us with no viable path forward."

The Projector’s operations will cease on 19 August 2025, immediately following this announcement.

“We are immensely grateful to everyone who has been part of this journey — our dedicated team, collaborators, partners, and most of all our loyal audiences who believed in what we were trying to do,” Karen Tan added. “This hasn’t been the work of a single person or team, The Projector was also built and shaped in all its forms by our fans and collaborators, and we are incredibly proud of what we’ve created together – a home for the creatives, misfits and dreamers. The home of the alternative voice. The Projector may be closing, but we hope its spirit will live on in the conversations, ideas, and communities we’ve nurtured.

If Singapore wants to thrive, it must find a way for creative and cultural businesses to survive — because culture is the cornerstone of identity and civil society."

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The Projector Announces Closure Amidst Challenging Cinema and F&B Landscape in Singapore