SINGAPORE — Cultural Medallion recipient Abdul Ghani Hamid, one of Singapore’s literary and visual arts pioneers, died at the age of 81 due to pneumonia. The theatre scene is also set to bid farewell to one of its most daring groups, spell#7, as the husband-and-wife team of Paul Rae and Kaylene Tan move to Australia. Meanwhile, over at ArtScience Museum, celebrity photographer Annie Leibovitz dropped by to open her exhibition. The National Book Development Council of Singapore announced new changes to its biennial Singapore Literature Prize (it will have separate categories for fiction and poetry, and a new literary non-fiction category). In cinema, the Singapore Chinese Film Festival and South-east Asian Film Festival were in full swing and the Cannes Film Festival will have an additional Singapore presence aside from the previously reported A Yellow Bird feature from K Rajagopal for the Cinefondation showcase. Han Fengyu’s Last Trip Home and Atsuko Hirayanagi’s Oh, Lucy! short films have also been included in the festival’s Cinefondation’s official selection. MAYO MARTIN