Two free concerts are to be held in Taipei at the weekend, celebrating the 60th anniversary of Taiwan’s Golden Horse Awards, a top film award in the Chinese-speaking world, the organizers said.
Twenty singers or groups are scheduled to perform music from 60 movies along with the Kaohsiung Symphony Orchestra conducted by Yang Chih-chin (楊智欽) on Saturday and Sunday evening, the General Association of Chinese Culture said. The event has been co-organized with the Ministry of Culture.
The musicians would be joined by the Taiwan National Choir, the Laba Lava band and Taipei Municipal San-yu Elementary School’s choir, the association said.
Photo courtesy of the General Association of Chinese Culture
Both concerts will open with the Shadow Legends Drama Group’s performance of traditional shadow play, and a show by the Taiwan Acrobatic Troupe, it said.
The association first released a 30-second video clip of 26 Taiwanese movies to announce the two concerts, similar to the ticketed “IMpact Taiwan” concerts the orchestra performed during the Kaohsiung Spring Arts Festival in March.
Organizers said that the first free concert is scheduled for 7pm on Saturday, and would be held at the plaza between the National Theater and Concert Hall in Taipei.
The second concert is scheduled to begin at 6pm on Sunday in the same location, but would not be broadcast.
In another clip released by the association on Sept. 7, screenwriter-turned-director Wu Nien-jen (吳念真) said he wrote his Golden Horse Award-winning theme song, along with the scripts for the 1987 film Osmanthus Alley (桂花巷), to help the audience to feel the emotions of the main female character when she recaps her story and accepts her fate at the end of the film.
Meanwhile, the Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival Executive Committee announced on Aug. 30 the opening and closing films for this year’s film festival to be held from Nov. 9 to 26.
The opening films include a new work by 2020 Golden Horse best new director award winner Chong Keat-aun (張 吉安) from Malaysia, the committee said.
Titled Snow in Midsummer (五月雪), the film focuses on the racial riots that broke out on May 13, 1969, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and it won Chong a “special mention dedicated to a multidisciplinary artist” award on Sept. 8, after it had its world premiere during the 80th Venice International Film Festival.
The committee said that the other opening film is Be with Me (車頂上的玄天 上帝), the feature film directorial debut by Hwarng Wern-ying (黃文 英), winner of the of two-time Golden Horse award for Best Art Direction.
The nominees of the 60th Golden Horse Awards are to be announced on Oct. 3, while the awards ceremony would be held in Taipei on Nov. 25, the committee said.
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