The Taipei Film Festival, which was postponed from June to this month due to COVID-19, is to begin selling tickets from noon today, the organizers said yesterday.
Despite rescheduling, the festival plans to showcase local films and trends in the industry over the past two years, with several movies to have their Taiwan premieres at the festival, Li Ya-mei (李亞梅), director of the annual event, said in a statement.
Local movies set to make their debut include the opening film, Till We Meet Again (月老) by writer-director Giddens Ko (九把刀) on Thursday next week, and the closing film, Treat or Trick (詭扯) by first-time film director Hsu Fu-hsiang (許富翔) on Oct. 7, Li said.
Yesterday, organizers said that Grit (鱷魚), directed by Chen Ta-pu (陳大璞), would also have its premiere at the festival.
Chen’s film tells the story of “a youngster trying to reintegrate into society,” and features actor Kai Ko (柯震東) and two Golden Horse Award winners, Angelica Lee (李心潔) and Lee Kang-sheng (李康生), they said.
The festival is also to host the world premiere of director Tsai Ming-liang’s (蔡明亮) The Moon and the Tree (月亮樹), a 34-minute short focusing on the lives of veteran singer Lee Pei-jing (李珮菁) and actor Chang Feng (常楓), they said.
The foreign filmmakers in focus this year are Karim Ainouz of Brazil and Radu Jude of Romania, the festival said.
Among the filmmakers’ movies being screened at the festival are Jude’s Bad Luck Banging, or Loony Porn, which won the Golden Bear award at the Berlinale this year, and Ainouz’s Nardjes A from last year.
The organizers said that the festival would also highlight 12 films competing in its International New Talent Competition, including Days Before the Millennium (徘徊年代) by Taiwanese filmmaker Chang Teng-yuan (張騰元) and Celts by Serbian filmmaker Milica Tomovic.
The competition winner, and recipient of the grand prize of NT$600,000 (US$21,668), is to be announced on Sept. 28.
The festival’s acting and technical awards are to be presented at its Oct. 9 awards ceremony, with 20 Taiwanese movies — feature films, documentaries, shorts and animated films — competing for the top prize of NT$1 million.
Festival movie tickets are sold on the OpenTix ticketing service, while the organizers said that changes in the COVID-19 situation could result in program changes.
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