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Festival President
LIAO Ching-sung
Liao Ching-sung is a senior film editor, scriptwriter, director, and executive producer. In the following year after he graduated from the first edition of the CMPC film technician training course in 1973, Liao joined the CMPC Central Motion Picture Corporation. To date, Liao has edited more than a hundred films, and his first work as editor, He Never Gives Up, was nominated for Best Film Editing at the Golden Horse Awards. Liao has collaborated with many renowned Taiwanese directors such as Hou Hsiao-hsien, Edward Yang, Wan Jen, and Ko I-chen; together, they initiated New Taiwan Cinema and therefore, Liao is hailed as the “nanny of New Taiwan Cinema.” In addition to the film awards, Liao received the 10th National Award for Arts in 2006. As an editor, he is best known for The Boys from Fengkuei, Super Citizen Ko, That Day, on the Beach, Terrorizers, Dust in the Wind, A City of Sadness, and The Assassin. Liao’s directorial works include Be My Lovely Child Again and When the Ocean Is Blue.
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Committee
Gavin LIN
Director and screenwriter known for his detailed portrayal of the characters and their emotions as well as the moving stories told in his films. His short films, Liberty Avenue and Erotica, were selected for many prestigious film festivals in Taiwan and abroad. Lin’s feature, More than Blue, grossed almost 150 million US dollars at the box-office worldwide. In recent years, Lin began serving as executive producer on productions, including More Than Blue: The Series, which received twelve nominations at the Golden Bell Awards and the film, Someday or One Day, whose global box-office reached nearly two billion US dollars.
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Committee
FU Tien-yu
Her debut feature film, Somewhere I Have Never Travelled, was selected for numerous domestic and international film festivals. Her television film The Happy Life of Debbie won the Golden Bell Award for Best Television Film. Other feature works include Cities in Love and My Egg Boy. In 2023, her film Day Off won Best Actress and Best Supporting Actor at the Taipei Film Awards, as well as Best Supporting Actress and Best Original Film Song at the 60th Golden Horse Awards.
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Committee
Rachel CHEN
Producer and talent manager. Beginning in the 1990s, she worked for several major media outlets, including China Times, Tomorrow News Online, and Taiwan’s Next Magazine. She later served as General Manager of Zephyr Films and is currently the head of Touch of Light Films Ltd., focusing on film production, distribution, and talent management. Her planned and produced films include Miao Miao and Touch of the Light, while her producer credits include My Egg Boy and We Are Champions. Her recent works as producer include the series Mixologist and the feature film Dangling.
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Committee
CHEN Ming-Ho
An animation director who participated in the motion board production for the film Double Vision, served as visual director for Fist & Faith, and directed the animation for Jay Chou’s music video The Era. His original work Rock Rabbit won the Best Visual Effects Award at the 16th Taipei Film Awards; Root was selected for the non-competition section of the 33rd Annecy International Animation Film Festival in France; and Shel won the Best Taiwanese Film Award at the 5th Golden Horse Digital Short Film Festival – DHL Awards. In 2018, he was the visual design director for Zhang Jun’s New Kunqu Opera: Shui Mo Xin Diao at the Shanghai Jing’an Modern Drama Valley “Night of the Peak” concert.
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Committee
WANG Ken-yu
WANG Ken-yu is a senior festival organiser and producer as well as a documentary filmmaker. Over the last decade she has been a distinguished programmer at many film festivals, including the Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival, Children Film Festival and Taiwan International Documentary Festival. She also produced the road movie, Island Etude, dir. En Chen, 2007, The Inspired Island Series of Eminent Writers from Taiwan, and Flowers of Taipei – New Taiwan Cinema. Recently, she focuses on image education.
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Committee
Zoë C.J. Chen
Graduated from University of Edinburgh with Msc degree in European Film Studies, CHEN worked as Programme Director in Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival from 2006 to 2012, and as producer for 2010 Berlinale selected feature film One Day directed by Hou Chi-Jan. Currently CHEN works independently as curator for children film related activities, and translator for cinema subtitles and children picture books. She also works as Assistant Professor in the Department of Filmmaking in Taipei National University of the Arts.
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Committee
Lin Chun-yang
A renowned Taiwanese director and cinematographer known for his socially realistic style, he is acclaimed for his delicate portrayal of humanity and his versatility across diverse genres. His recent notable television works include The World Between Us, Gold Leaf, and Wave Makers, all of which sparked widespread social discussion. He won the Best Director in a Drama Series at the 54th Golden Bell Awards and Best Director in a Miniseries at the 58th Golden Bell Awards. His film Eye of the Storm earned him the Best Director Award at the 25th Taipei Film Awards.
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Committee
Hui-Chen Huang
An independent filmmaker, she has served as a founding board member of the Taiwan Film and Audiovisual Institute and as Secretary-General of the Taipei Documentary Filmmakers’ Union. Her debut feature documentary Small Talk won the Teddy Award at the 2017 Berlin International Film Festival, along with several other international honors, and was the first documentary ever selected to represent Taiwan in the Academy Awards’ Best International Feature Film category.
In addition to directing, she has recently worked as a producer on several films, including the feature documentaries Some Dreams of the Fire Room and A Taste of Hometown: Thailand, the documentary short The Long Departure, and the narrative short The Fishbowl Girl. These works have been selected for festivals such as the Golden Horse Film Festival, Busan International Film Festival, Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival, and Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival. -
Committee
Laha Mebow
A Tayal filmmaker and screenwriter whose works primarily focus on Indigenous themes. His second feature film Lokah Laqi Hang in There, Kids won five awards at the Taipei Film Awards, including the Grand Prize, was selected by nearly 20 international film festivals, and represented Taiwan in the Academy Awards’ Best International Feature Film category. His subsequent film GAGA earned him the Best Narrative Feature at the Taipei Film Festival and the Best Director awards at both the Golden Horse Awards and the Singapore International Film Festival.
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Committee
Tom LIN
A Taiwanese film director and screenwriter, Tom Shu-Yu Lin made his feature debut in 2008 with Winds of September, which won multiple awards including the Golden Horse Award for Best Original Screenplay. His 2011 film Starry Starry Night, adapted from Jimmy Liao’s bestselling illustrated book, pioneered the children’s fantasy genre in Chinese-language cinema. In 2015, Zinnia Flower earned its lead actress the Golden Horse Award for Best Actress and received wide acclaim at numerous international film festivals. In 2019, he was nominated for Best Director at the Golden Horse Awards for The Garden of Evening Mists. His 2025 film Yen and Ai-Lee won Best Narrative Feature, Best Screenplay, and Best Supporting Actress at the 27th Taipei Film Awards. Lin has also served as producer on several acclaimed films, including American Girl, which received multiple awards both domestically and internationally.
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Committee
TANG Tsai-Yang
A veteran Taiwanese producer with over 20 years of experience, he began as a film journalist for the United Daily News Group before shifting to production in 2006. He worked on major projects such as John Woo’s Red Cliff and Chen Kaige’s Forever Enthralled and Caught in the Web. Since founding his own company in 2010, he has focused on developing quality Chinese-language films and nurturing new talent.
His notable works include Who Killed Cock Robin, The Soul, Dad’s Suit, Stand By Me, Hate the Sin, Love the Sinner, and The Abandoned, which have earned recognition from the Golden Horse, Taipei Film, and Golden Bell Awards. His recent productions — A Boy and A Girl, Doubles Match, and The Uniform — continue to promote new Taiwanese actors on the international stage. -
Committee
Chih-Hsiang Yuan
A film producer, Secretary-General of the NMEA, and Ph.D. candidate in Communication at National Chengchi University. Formerly Director of Film and TV Content at Huafon Creative and Marketing Manager at Huayi Brothers, he combines academic insight with industry expertise. Dedicated to cultural and film development, he bridges artistic vision and market strategy. His works include Shards of Her, My Missing Valentine, Mickey on the Road, The 9th Precinct, Secrets in the Hot Spring, Missing Johnny, and Our Times. In 2022, he received the British Council Taiwan Cultural and Creativity Award.
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Committee
Venu CHEN
Executive Director of the Taiwan Film Culture Association and Administrative & Program Director of SPOT Huashan Cinema. Since 2012, she has led Taiwan’s first national art-house theater through organizational reform, talent cultivation, and audience development, redefining its role with innovative approaches. Dedicated to strengthening Taiwan’s film industry chain, she connects production, exhibition, and film education to revitalize the ecosystem. She received the Outstanding Female Innovator Award from the Ministry of Economic Affairs and the Arts Education Contribution Award from the Ministry of Education. Under her leadership, SPOT also earned the National Industry Innovation Team Award and the Golden Thumb Award for Public-Private Partnership.
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Committee
Lin Shih-ken
He entered the film industry in 2005, starting with commercials and expanding to music videos, short films, TV movies, and features, gaining extensive production experience and a strong creative vision. In 2015, he founded Frontier Pictures Co., Ltd., focusing on film development, financing, and international strategy. His 2017 productions — Who Killed Cock Robin, Didi’s Dream, The Tag-Along 2, and The Bold, the Corrupt, and the Beautiful — ranked among Taiwan’s top box office hits. From 2017 to 2023, his works, including The Bold, the Corrupt, and the Beautiful, Dear Tenant, Coo-Coo 043, and Marry My Dead Body, were nominated for Best Feature Film at the Golden Horse Awards, with the first and third winning the top prize. He was named Outstanding Taiwanese Filmmaker of the Year at the 60th Golden Horse Awards.
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Committee
Chang Chuan-Chen
Head of Donghao Films, he previously wrote film reviews for United Daily News and Film Appreciation magazine, and has worked with SPOT Taipei, Warner Bros., the Kamalan Short Film Festival, and the Taoyuan Film Festival as a curator. He is dedicated to introducing acclaimed art films such as Portrait of a Lady on Fire, Aftersun, and Robot Dreams, while also distributing Taiwanese productions like Daughter’s Daughter and the works of director Ryusuke Hamaguchi.