Acting Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) pledged yesterday to continue to encourage filmmakers to shoot their films in the port city by offering them various incentives.
Chen said he hopes to turn Kaohsiung into a city similar to Nantes or Cannes in France.
Chen made the remarks while presenting a NT$10 million (US$322,581) prize to film director Tsai Ming-liang (蔡明亮) for his latest film, The Wayward Cloud, which won a Silver Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival last month.
Chen noted that Kaohsiung is the first city in the country to have put forth a film policy, offering cash prizes to support the domestic film industry and encourage filmmakers to shoot their films in the city.
Chen said the city government will in the future study the possibility of expanding the policy to the television industry and provide more resources, assistance and tax deductions to filmmakers to develop Kaohsiung into a center of digital imaging.
Expressing his gratitude for the city government, Tsai said he will soon return to Kaohsiung to shoot a new film.
Tsai praised the city's efforts to develop Kaohsiung into an international city in recent years.
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