Four Taiwanese films, including the multiple Golden Horse Award-winning movies My Missing Valentine (消失的情人節) and Dear Tenant (親愛的房客), are to make their US premieres at the semi-annual Asian Pop-Up Cinema film festival in Chicago opening today, the Ministry of Culture said on Friday.
For its 12th edition, which runs from today to May 1, the festival would showcase 33 films from Asia in a series of online and drive-in events, the ministry said in a statement.
Among them are five films from Taiwan, which are being presented in collaboration with the Taipei Cultural Center in New York, the ministry said.
They include director Chen Yu-hsun’s (陳玉勳) romantic comedy My Missing Valentine, which received 11 nominations at last year’s Golden Horse Awards and director Cheng Yu-chieh’s (鄭有傑) LGBT-themed Dear Tenant, which received six nominations.
My Missing Valentine won Best Narrative Feature and Best Director, among other categories, at the Golden Horse Awards, while actors Mo Tzu-yi (莫子儀) and Chen Shu-fang (陳淑芳) won Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress respectively for their work in Dear Tenant.
Also to be featured at the festival is the thriller The Silent Forest (無聲), which marked director Ko Chen-nien’s (柯貞年) full-length feature film debut; Chen Uen (千年一問), a documentary on the late comic artist Chen Uen (鄭問) by director Wang Wan-jo (王婉柔); and the short-film series 76 Horror Bookstore (76?恐怖書店) by directors David Chuang (莊絢維) and Pon Hung Tzu-peng (洪子鵬).
The selections are some of the most critically acclaimed Taiwanese films of last year, the center said, adding that they reflect the diverse storytelling seen throughout the nation’s film industry in the past few years.
The Silent Forest, Chen Uen, Dear Tenant and My Missing Valentine are to have their US premieres at the festival on Wednesday, Wednesday next week, April 16 and April 24 respectively, according to the festival program.
Launched in 2015, Asian Pop-Up Cinema is aimed at facilitating US audiences’ understanding of the diversity of Asian films, as well as of Asian society, economy, culture and history, the ministry said.
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