SINGAPORE – It was a random conversation at a work event in 2022 with home-grown film-maker Anthony Chen that planted the seed for local content creator Annette Lee’s next big career leap.

The Cannes-winning writer-director of Ilo Ilo (2013) fame suggested she should consider a comedy.

“When Anthony asks you to think about making a movie, you should do it,” Lee tells The Straits Times at the Singapore Oceanarium on Oct 8.

The 33-year-old social media personality was announcing the start of production of

her debut feature film Dream Stall

Dream Stall is an English-Mandarin comedy about Enya (Lee), a university graduate who takes over her family’s bak kut teh stall that is managed by her father (Mark Lee).

The unexpected encouragement from Chen, 41, three years ago made Annette Lee realise she had a story to tell. She had then taken time...