International New Talent Competition
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SADAI Yuji（Jury President ）
SADAI Yuji began his career in the film industry in 1989. In 1994, he established Bitters End, one of the most active art house distribution and production companies in Japan. He has produced and co-produced films including Linda Linda Linda YAMASHITA Nobuhiro, Tokyo BONG Joon-ho, Michel GONDRY, Leos CARAX, Cut Amir NADERI, Touch Of Sin JIA Zhangke, Daguerrotype KUROSAWA Kiyoshi, Asako I&II HAMAGUCHI Ryusuke and One Second Ahead, One Second Behind Nobuhiro. Bitters End also has released works by critically acclaimed directors including Jean-Pierre and Luc DARDENNE, Otar IOSSELIANI, Fatih AKIN, Bela TARR, Nuri Bilge CEYLAN, and Mikhael HERS.
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CHANG Jung-chi
CHANG Jung-chi is a versatile filmmaker whose work spans advertising, films, and TV series. His dynamic style is rich in diversity, often adeptly extracting material from quotidian slices of life. He excels at finding fresh perspectives within common human experiences, delicately showcasing characters' emotions while maintaining a unique humanistic viewpoint. His debut feature film, Touch of the Light, won him the Golden Horse Award for Best New Director. His documentary My Football Summer received the Golden Horse Award for Best Documentary. In 2020, he won the Taipei Film Award for Best Director with We Are Champions. In 2023, he directed the Netflix series Copycat Killer, which reached No. 2 on the platform’s non-English series rankings.
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Kai KO
Kai KO shot to fame in 2011 by winning the Golden Horse Award for Best New Performer for his debut performance in You Are the Apple of My Eye. In 2016, he earned a Golden Horse Award nomination for Best Leading Actor for The Road to Mandalay, before winning Best Actor at the 2022 Taipei Film Awards for Till We Meet Again. In the same year, he attracted considerable attention for his diverse talents when he transitioned to directing with his debut feature, Bad Education, which earned him a nomination for Best New Director at the Golden Horse Awards and was selected for the International New Talent Competition of the 2023 Taipei Film Festival.
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Cheng-Sim LIM
Cheng-Sim LIM is a Los Angeles-based film curator and delegate for the San Sebastián International Film Festival in Spain. Her curatorial work over 30 years, including as Co-Head of Programming at the UCLA Film & Television Archive and Artistic Director of the China Onscreen Biennial, has built audiences and appreciation for the works of non-Western filmmakers in the US. She has curated film retrospectives, such as Heroic Grace: The Chinese Martial Arts series, that have toured North America and Europe to critical acclaim.
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Laha Mebow
Laha Mebow is Taiwan’s first female indigenous feature film director. Her second feature film, Hang in There, Kids, was selected as Taiwan’s entry for Best Foreign Language Film at the 89th Academy Awards, and won five awards including Best Narrative Feature, Best Director, and the Grand Prize at the 2016 Taipei Film Awards. For her third feature film, Gaga, she won Best Director at the 2022 Golden Horse Awards, Best Director - Asian Feature Film at the 2022 Singapore International Film Festival, and Best Narrative Feature at the 2023 Taipei Film Awards.
