PUBLISHED ONOctober 09, 2025 11:35 AMBYKristy ChuaSome see her as a content creator, but Annette Lee is now breaking out of the label with her first feature film Dream Stall, her directorial debut.
At the press conference for the comedy-drama held yesterday (Oct 8), the 33-year-old unveiled the cast, which include local actors Ya Hui, Xixi Lim, Jaspers Lai, Xander Pang, and lastly herself as the main character.
To be filmed in English and Mandarin, Dream Stall follows top university graduate Enya (Annette) who steps up to save her late mother's bak kut teh shop after her father (Mark Lee) decides to retire and close it down.
Speaking to AsiaOne, the social media personality explained why she's moving into directing: "I don't really see myself as a content creator trying to enter filmmaking - because I was a film student, after all. In fact, I never actually thought that I would do content creation."
Annette, who has a Bachelor's Degree in Film/Cinema/Video Studies from National Technological University, continued: "When I left school, all I wanted to do was create my own webseries, finding a way to be a writer-director. At some point, I didn't even think of making a movie because it felt so impossible."
While she shot to fame under the comedic persona of Sgag's Sue-Anne, acting was never her plan. "When I wanted to tell my own stories in a longer-form way, I stumbled into the social media space and ended up being on camera. It was solely because there wasn't much budget on social media and I wanted to make videos but had no budget for a cast - so I was like, 'Okay lor, I'll do it myself'."
After releasing the webseries Asian Billionaires, a "pure passion project", multiple movie houses began reaching out to her and suggesting that she make a movie.
She did not pay much heed until one day, she met local filmmaker Anthony Chen who directly told her: "You should work on a feature film."
Annette told us that Dream Stall was largely inspired by her own personal journey of being an artist navigating passion in an overtly commercial and profit-driven society.
Furthermore, having run her food show Adventure of the Day, she was highly inspired by the phenomenon of young Singaporean adults giving up their degrees or prestigious job offers to pursue the hawker business all in the name of passion.
"These are the stories that remind me a lot of my own journey as well, that even in Singapore, there are people out there who are passionate and want to pursue something unconventional. That is what makes this country full of soul, really," reflected Annette.
In May, along with the announcement of her plans to make the movie, she took to Instagram to jokingly challenge local director Jack Neo to a box-office fight. The 65-year-old is known for his overt product placement in his movies, which has led to criticism that his works are merely "feature-length commercials".
Annette also disagrees with his approach to commercial filmmaking; so what would she do differently? With sponsors like Ng Ah Sio Bak Kut Teh and Kewpie, she said: "I would not hard-sell verbal product placements. All the partners that we work with, they authentically fit into the story. I didn't write a scene to let them be there or anything.
"I understand where Jack is coming from, though. You do need people to help out as sponsors, but I want to strike a better balance [in the sense of telling my story and that of the products]."
Jack has since accepted her challenge and will also play a cameo role as a greedy landlord in the film.
With Dream Stall being a bilingual movie, she revealed that she took a year's worth of Mandarin classes in early 2024. "Actually, I've always been able to read Chinese characters just fine. But when it comes to speaking Mandarin, I wasn't that smooth.
"That's the one thing about our Singapore education system - we learn how to read and write very well, but we can't speak it well."
Ya Hui portrays Estella in the movie, a local celebrity who opens a restaurant as a side hustle next to Enya's bak kut teh stall. Thus, rivalry erupts between the two business owners.
"She's a bit jaded about life, because her life is somehow controlled by her manager (Cassandra See), so her lifestyle isn't what she likes and what she wants. So then Estella's at a crossroad of 'what should I do, should I continue, or...?" shared the 38-year-old.
Ya Hui, who is now also a creative director with production house Pointlineplane, told us that she only received the script for her role about two to three weeks ago, which meant a rushed process in channeling her character. She voiced her concern in portraying a role that audience members have not seen her in before, and said she would reference different films to aid with her character work.
She commends Annette as a big help, as the latter has been "very proactive in asking for cast meetings and cast discussions". As such, Ya Hui thinks no time will be wasted on set exploring their characters with the work having already been done beforehand.
Think he's a familiar face? You're not too far off; Xander Pang is local actor Adrian Pang's son and he's returning to local screens since his 2011 appearance in Okto's Zero Hero.
Xander, back to being a hero again, plays Preston in Dream Stall - a popular YouTuber whose documentaries are known for saving food businesses. In the film, it appears that the food reviewer is the only one who is not bought out by Estella's new, hot restaurant.
The 25-year-old told AsiaOne: "I think he's really interesting because there's this idea of social media influencers and a few years ago, the idea of them was very specific and they had to be a kind of personality type.
"But now, with the internet expanding, there're so many niches to be filmed and you can be this influencer online without ever even showing your face in front of the camera."
In preparing for his role, he watched a collection of "real chefs" and food and cooking films that Annette had advised him on, such as Netflix's reality show Culinary Class Wars. Hilariously, he reveals that one of his foodie scenes has Preston reacting in the "weirdest way possible" when trying Enya's bak kut teh for the first time.
Xander found Dream Stall through Annette's open casting call over a year ago and was drawn into the film after being touched by how highly involved she was in the process.
He elaborated: "Seeing how much she cared and the effort she put into making her vision work was a huge draw and I think having a director with such a strong vision and care for the show on so many different levels is very comforting - it makes me feel like I'll be taken care of."
Prior to working on Dream Stall, his screen works include playing Dan in Molly, a British East-Asian short film, as well as an unreleased project in the United Kingdom.
More familiar with the practice of theatre acting, he admitted that he rewatched some of his parts on Zero Hero as prep work for Dream Stall, where he realised how different he is on screen now.
"I think I'm really happy to treat this as a re-introduction to screen work for myself. So it's something that I'm excited and nervous about, but I'll treat it as a fresh step."
Dream Stall will be released in the second quarter of 2026.
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kristy.chua@asiaone.com
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