Au Revoir, Taipei, (一頁台北), a romantic comedy set in Taipei City, won the Best Asian Film Award from the Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema (NETPAC) at the Berlin International Film Festival on Saturday, beating 11 other Asian entries.
The love story, which takes place over the course of one evening in Taipei City, was produced by German director Wim Wenders and directed by Arvin Chen (陳駿霖).
Chen is no stranger to the Berlin film festival. He won a Silver Berlin Bear-Jury Grand Prix for Short Films for a short he made titled May in 2007.
PHOTO: CNA
Starring singer Amber Kuo (郭采潔), Jack Yao (姚淳耀) and Joseph Chang (張孝全), Au Revoir, Taipei screened to packed audiences and won loud applause in Berlin.
Frank Chen (陳志寬), director of the Government Information Office’s (GIO) Motion Picture Affairs Department, conveyed the government’s congratulations to Chen on Saturday over the honor.
By winning the top award at NETPAC, which is an alliance of the Berlin film festival organizers, Au Revoir, Taipei now has the opportunity of winning a prize of NT$1.5 million (US$47,000) awarded by the GIO.
Another Taiwanese movie, Monga (艋舺), which has enjoyed huge box office success in Taiwan, was also screened at the festival, but did not win a prize.
Upon learning of the victory in Berlin, Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) said the performance of the two movies filmed in Taipei was a successful marketing campaign for the city.
Various aspects of Taipei, including the MRT system, night markets and the round-the-clock Eslite bookstore, all feature in the film.
“From Monga to Au Revoir Taipei, the Taipei Film Commission has worked closely with film production teams during the filming process and turned the movies into successful campaign for the city,” Hau told reporters while inspecting a construction site in the city yesterday. “Our cooperation with film crews not only increases publicity and visibility of Taipei worldwide, but also made many movie scenes new destinations for visitors to the city.”
In the making of the movie Monga, the city government closed streets to facilitate the filming, while for Au Revoir Taipei, the city government closed off an MRT station, allowing the crew to use an MRT train for filming and even dispatched real police officers to play police in the movie.
The city government cooperated with 15 countries in the production of 25 motion pictures last year, Hau said.
Outgoing GIO Minister Su Jun-pin (蘇俊賓) sent a message to the Au Revoir, Taipei team in Berlin to congratulate them for winning the award.
Au Revoir, Taipei and Monga will both receive GIO money.
“As it won an award at an international film festival, the production team of Au Revoir, Taipei will be awarded NT$1.5 million for their achievement,” GIO Motion Picture Affairs Department Director Joanne Tien (田又安) told the Taipei Times by telephone.
“Monga will receive a NT$200,000 prize for being nominated,” she said.
The Berlin International Film Festival concluded yesterday.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY LOA IOK-SIN
US President Donald Trump yesterday announced sweeping "reciprocal tariffs" on US trading partners, including a 32 percent tax on goods from Taiwan that is set to take effect on Wednesday. At a Rose Garden event, Trump declared a 10 percent baseline tax on imports from all countries, with the White House saying it would take effect on Saturday. Countries with larger trade surpluses with the US would face higher duties beginning on Wednesday, including Taiwan (32 percent), China (34 percent), Japan (24 percent), South Korea (25 percent), Vietnam (46 percent) and Thailand (36 percent). Canada and Mexico, the two largest US trading
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
RSS