Taiwan’s Golden Horse Film Festival has unveiled that a massive 40 aspiring feature film projects have been selected for its annual project market, the Film Project Promotion. A further 8 efforts will be presented in the work in progress section.
The event runs Nov. 19-21 in Taipei. The winners will be announced at a closing ceremony on Nov. 21st. The festival runs Nov. 7-24 and hosts its prestigious Golden Horse Film Awards at a Saturday night gala on Nov. 23.
The awards are under severe pressure from strained political relations with mainland China. While in previous years, the Golden Horse Awards have seen the participation of Chinese-language films from around the Asia region, the 2019 edition has been boycotted by mainland Chinese films on the order of China’s National Film Administration. Many films and filmmakers from Hong Kong have followed the mainland example, stripping the Awards of much of their meaning.
Project market organizers report that they received 382 submissions from 15 countries and regions. The large majority hail from Taiwan, but there are at least eight that hail from overseas, or are already set up as co-productions with overseas partners.
Standout projects from Taiwan include: documentary “Hypnos,” directed by Ho Chao-ti, ); “Hunter Brothers,” a tale about two brothers who end up on different paths, by documentary director Su Hung-en; “Day Off,” directed by Tien-yu, and “Out of the Science,” directed by Lien Yi-chi. Former Golden Horse Awards nominees Lee Chung and Jim Wang, return with “Mr. Li,” and “My Incredible Mom,” respectively. Former winner, Lin Yu-hsien (“Jump! Boys”) also returns, in tandem with Japan’s Kitamura Toyoharu for romantic comedy “Youth 18×2.”
Among the foreign projects are French director Morgan Simon’s “Vanished Days”; Singaporean director Boris Boo’s “Paradise Island”; Malaysian director Leon Tuck Fai’s “Amphibian Life”; Malaysia-Hong Kong co-production Hilang (director Kyo Chen) and the Hong Kong-Indonesia co-production “Masks” to be directed by Chris Chow Chun).