Taipei Film Awards Reveals Full 2013 Line-Up,
41 Films to Compete for the NT$ 1 Million Grand Prize
Among all the film competitions in Taiwan, Taipei Film Awards offers the highest prize money to the winners. The line-up of nominees was announced on May 14th at Taipei Zhongshan Hall. This year, a total of 229 films have been submitted to the selecting committee, by which 41 films are carefully chosen to enter the official competition and go up against each other for the highest accolade, the NT$ 1 Million Grand Prize. Festival President Sylvia Chang attended the press conference and presented the nominee certificates to the entrants.
Dedicated to honor the outstanding works of Taiwanese cinema from the past year, Taipei Film Awards comprise four categories: narrative feature film, short, documentary and animation. Through scrupulous deliberation and voting, around 10 nominees are selected in each respective category.
The feature film line-up this year is particularly strong. Soul, directed by acclaimed director Chung Mong-Hong and starring actors Joseph Chan and Jimmy Wang Yu, is selected to kick off the 2013 Taipei Film Festival with its world premiere. Burmese/Taiwanese director Midi Z’s Poor Folk, previously selected in International Film Festival Rotterdam and Busan International Film Festival, is also among the nominees. Several films tackle the subject of Chinese overseas diaspora, such as Hsieh Chun-yi’s cross-strait romantic comedy Apolitical Romance, and New York-based director Chen Ming-lang’s Tomorrow Comes Today.
The short films and animations this year both demonstrate the diverse styles, refined craftsmanship, and varied subjects from Taiwan’s independent filmmakers. Documentary remains one of the most anticipated categories this year. For the past three years, documentaries have managed to edge out other competitors and consecutively garner the Grand Prize. This year’s entrants focus on various social issues and call for attention to the underprivileged and marginalized communities on this island. Rock Me to the Moon chronicles the journey of a rock band of middle-aged men juggling between their dreams to land on the stage of a major music festival, and taking care of their children with rare diseases. Sakuliu 2: the Conditions of Love captures the conflicts between generations during the reconstruction following Typhoon Moraket. School on the Road follows a group of middle-school dropouts learning to regain their inner peace through the drum training and spiritual cultivation at the world-renowned U-Theatre. Other contenders include: former Grand Prize winner, Huang Hsin-yao’s Ali 88, which criticizes the absurd development history of Ali Mountain and its devastating aftermath during Typhoon Moraket; Shen Ko-shang’s A Rolling Stone; and recent winner of this year’s Golden Harvest Awards, The Weight of Life.
The caliber of the nominated films this year embodies the burgeoning force of the new generation in Taiwanese cinema, showing optimistic signs of the local industry regaining the momentum to enter the next golden era. The results of the competition will be announced in the Taipei Film Awards Ceremony held at Taipei Zhongshang Hall on July 20. The show will be broadcast live on SET Metro channel at 7 pm and rerun on MTV at 10 pm. The event information and lists of jury members and presenters will be late revealed on www.taipeiff.org.tw.
※ See All Selected Films