On May 3, The 2013 Taipei Film Festival revealed its official list of nominees for the International New Talent Competition at the press conference in Taipei Zhongshan Hall.
The International New Talent Competition is Taiwan’s only global feature film competition in which directors who recently completed their first or second features are eligible to participate. The nominees will compete for the Grand Prize (with prize money of US$ 20,000) and the Special Jury Prize (with prize money of US$ 10,000) given by an international jury. Screenings of the entrants’ films will be held during the Festival, which kicks off its opening on June 28. The winners will be announced at the award ceremony on July 3.
Cast members and directors of the two Taiwanese nominated films also attended the press conference on May 3, including director Hsu Chao-jen and actor Umin Boya of Together and director Chen Ming-lang of Tomorrow Comes Today.
The list also includes Northwest from Danish director Michael Noer, whose R was nominated in the 2010 edition of the Competition, and 2013 Berlinale’s Crystal Bear winner Baby Blues from Polish director Kasia Rosłaniec.
Other highlights include Swedish film Call Girl, which garnered multiple Guldbagge Awards back in Sweden this year, Brazilian film Jonathas’ Forest, Israel-Germany co-production Youth, and Turkish film Watchtower.
German film Dust on Our Hearts and Dutch film Matterhorn both won audience awards respectively in Munich and Rotterdam. Besides from the two Taiwanese films, the other Asian film selected in the competition section is Japanese film Kuro, which was nominated for the Japanese Eyes Award in 2012 Tokyo International Film Festival.
In order to resonate with the youthful and independent spirit of New Talent Competition, the Festival this year will cooperate with Pixnet Movie Circle to establish the Pixnet Bloggers’ Award, and convene a jury composed of young film bloggers to select the winner, adding more diverse perspectives to the final outcome. For more information, please visit Taipei Film Festival's official website at http://www.taipeiff.org.tw