About

Founded in 2010 by Elizabeth Wijaya and Lai Weijie, E&W Films works with visionary writers and directors to create forceful sensorial works that challenge and resonate with audiences. Taking an active role in project development and valuing long-term collaborations, feature films include POP AYE by Kirsten Tan, Taste by Lê Bảo, and Mongrel by Chiang Wei Liang.

Elizabeth Wijaya

Elizabeth Wijaya is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Visual Studies and Graduate Faculty in the Cinema Studies Institute at the University of Toronto. She is the Director of the Southeast Asian Seminar Series at the Asian Institute, Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy. She is the Co-Producer for Mongrel (dir. Chiang Wei Liang, Directors’ Fortnight, awarded the Caméra d’Or Special Mention at Cannes Film Festival 2024). She is Associate Producer for Viet and Nam (dir. Truong Minh Quý, Un Certain Regard, Cannes Film Festival 2024) and Associate Producer for Taste (dir. Lê Bảo, awarded the Special Jury Award at Encounters, Berlinale 2021). Taste was also awarded at Taipei, Asia Pacific Screen Awards, and Jogja-NETPAC. She co-founded E&W Films and co-edits World Picture Journal (worldpicturejournal.com). She has published articles in the journals Verge, Cultural Critique. Discourse, Parallax and chapters in the edited volumes: Erotics of Deconstruction: Auto-Affection After Derrida (Edinburgh University Press, 2024, forthcoming), Routledge Companion to Asian Cinemas (2024), Remapping the Cold War in Asian Cinema (Amsterdam University Press, 2024), Ecology and Chinese-Language Cinema: Reimagining a Field (Routledge, 2021).

Lai Weijie

Lai Weijie is a film producer based in Singapore and Toronto, Canada. In 2010 he co-founded E&W Films, a Singapore-based film development and production company with Elizabeth Wijaya. He is the producer of POP AYE (2017), awarded at Sundance, Rotterdam, and Zurich, Taste (2021), awarded at Berlinale, Taipei, Asia Pacific Screen Awards, and Jogja-NETPAC, and Mongrel (2024), awarded the Caméra d’Or Special Mention at the Cannes Film Festival. As co-producer, his credits include Vengeance Is Mine, All Others Pay Cash (2021), winner of the Golden Leopard at Locarno, Cu Li Never Cries (2024), winner of GWFF Best First Feature Award at Berlinale, and Viet and Nam (2024), selected in Un Certain Regard, Cannes Film Festival. Weijie has several years of experience as a senior programmer formerly at the Singapore International Film Festival, developing its film academy and overseeing its Asian selection. He has served on the selection committee for several fund bodies.