2024 Taipei Film Festival Announces International New Talent Competition Selection
2024.05.27
Today (May 27), the 26th Taipei Film Festival announces the jury and the selection of the International New Talent Competition. Directed by PENG Tzu-hui and WANG Ping-wen, A Journey in Spring represents Taiwan in the competition. This year, the International New Talent Competition jury president is the director and Berlinale Silver Bear winner WANG Xiaoshuai, and the jury members include Kai KO, who not only won Taipei Film Award Best Actor for Till We Meet Again but had his directorial debut Bad Education selected for the International New Talent Competition last year, Cheng-Sim LIM, who is the San Sebastian Film Festival delegate for USA and Eastern Asia, Laha Mebow, the director who won the 2016 Taipei Film Award Grand Prize for Lokah Laqi and SADAI Yuji, who served as producer on Drive My Car. Together, the jury composed of five experienced filmmakers from Taiwan and abroad will decide the Grand Prize and the Special Jury Prize winners.
Moreover, the Audience Choice Award winner voted by the audiences and the Taiwan Directors Guild Award winner selected by Directors Guild of Taiwan will be unveiled together with the Grand Prize and the Special Jury Prize winners at the International New Talent Competition award ceremony on June 25.
A poem about life, “Beyond the Fog” has Kawase Naomi as its executive producer
A passionate story of a boxer told by an award-winning cinematographer
Among the selected films, A Journey in Spring, which stars award-winning actors King Jieh-wen and Yang Kuei-mei and was shot on super 16mm by directors PENG Tzu-hui and WANG Ping-wen attracts a lot of attention in the media and it is the same for Beyond the Fog. With KAWASE Naomi as its executive producer and a cast, including MIZUKAWA Asami, MIURA Masaki and HOTTA Shinzo, Beyond the Fog is directed and written by the rising director MURASE Daichi and set in the Kawakami village in Nara Prefecture in Japan. A Chinese-French-Danish-Qatari co-production, Brief History of a Family by the Chinese director LIN Jianjie was selected for Berlinale Panorama earlier this year.
Some selected films demonstrate the filmmakers’ purest creative power such as Encounters by the Russian director Dmitry MOISEEV, a Russian version of District 9 inspired by the rumors of the aliens, in which Moiseev creates realistic and yet alien scenes with pseudo-documentary newsreels, creepy creatures and the gloomy rundown cityscape. In the film Scream, through the obscure historical and political tragedy, the Kazakhstani director Kenzhebek SHAIKAKOV tells the longing and disappointment of the people in Semipalatinsk resulting from the almost five hundred nuclear tests from 1949 to 1989 in a realistic and yet surreal style. From the viewpoint of a squeamish vampire girl, the Canadian director Ariane LOUIS-SEIZE shows how that vampire girl looks for and feed on people who have lost their will to live as a compromise in Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person.
Few selected films are made by experienced filmmakers who served as director for the first or second time. The directorial debut feature of Robert KOLODNY, who won an Emmy for the TV drama Frankie Cooks and shot the Venice Golden Lion winner All the Beauty and the Bloodshed, The Featherweight re-writes how the American boxer Willie Pep tries to make a comeback in a pseudo-documentary style. Based on his years’ experience as a San Sebastian Film Festival programmer, the Spanish first-time director Víctor IRIARTE was inspired by the stolen babies and made Foremost by Night, which prompts people to reflect on the issue. Hailed as a genius, the Japanese director OKUYAMA Hiroshi cast the Kinema Junpo award-winning IKEMATSU Sosuke in his second feature My Sunshine made with a low budget after the film Jesus and the TV drama The Makanai: Cooking for the Maiko House.
Directed by the Tunisian-American director Meryam JOOBEUR, Who Do I Belong To, which competed at Berlinale this year, is also selected. An extension of Joobeur’s short film, Brotherhood, which was nominated Best Live Action Short Film at the Academy Awards, the focus shifts from the brothers to their mother; in a narrative like a fairytale and with the practiced concise shots and melancholy echoey music, the film depicts a journey of the breakdown of self-identity and search.
Moreover, the Audience Choice Award winner voted by the audiences and the Taiwan Directors Guild Award winner selected by Directors Guild of Taiwan will be unveiled together with the Grand Prize and the Special Jury Prize winners at the International New Talent Competition award ceremony on June 25.
A poem about life, “Beyond the Fog” has Kawase Naomi as its executive producer
A passionate story of a boxer told by an award-winning cinematographer
Among the selected films, A Journey in Spring, which stars award-winning actors King Jieh-wen and Yang Kuei-mei and was shot on super 16mm by directors PENG Tzu-hui and WANG Ping-wen attracts a lot of attention in the media and it is the same for Beyond the Fog. With KAWASE Naomi as its executive producer and a cast, including MIZUKAWA Asami, MIURA Masaki and HOTTA Shinzo, Beyond the Fog is directed and written by the rising director MURASE Daichi and set in the Kawakami village in Nara Prefecture in Japan. A Chinese-French-Danish-Qatari co-production, Brief History of a Family by the Chinese director LIN Jianjie was selected for Berlinale Panorama earlier this year.
Some selected films demonstrate the filmmakers’ purest creative power such as Encounters by the Russian director Dmitry MOISEEV, a Russian version of District 9 inspired by the rumors of the aliens, in which Moiseev creates realistic and yet alien scenes with pseudo-documentary newsreels, creepy creatures and the gloomy rundown cityscape. In the film Scream, through the obscure historical and political tragedy, the Kazakhstani director Kenzhebek SHAIKAKOV tells the longing and disappointment of the people in Semipalatinsk resulting from the almost five hundred nuclear tests from 1949 to 1989 in a realistic and yet surreal style. From the viewpoint of a squeamish vampire girl, the Canadian director Ariane LOUIS-SEIZE shows how that vampire girl looks for and feed on people who have lost their will to live as a compromise in Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person.
Few selected films are made by experienced filmmakers who served as director for the first or second time. The directorial debut feature of Robert KOLODNY, who won an Emmy for the TV drama Frankie Cooks and shot the Venice Golden Lion winner All the Beauty and the Bloodshed, The Featherweight re-writes how the American boxer Willie Pep tries to make a comeback in a pseudo-documentary style. Based on his years’ experience as a San Sebastian Film Festival programmer, the Spanish first-time director Víctor IRIARTE was inspired by the stolen babies and made Foremost by Night, which prompts people to reflect on the issue. Hailed as a genius, the Japanese director OKUYAMA Hiroshi cast the Kinema Junpo award-winning IKEMATSU Sosuke in his second feature My Sunshine made with a low budget after the film Jesus and the TV drama The Makanai: Cooking for the Maiko House.
Directed by the Tunisian-American director Meryam JOOBEUR, Who Do I Belong To, which competed at Berlinale this year, is also selected. An extension of Joobeur’s short film, Brotherhood, which was nominated Best Live Action Short Film at the Academy Awards, the focus shifts from the brothers to their mother; in a narrative like a fairytale and with the practiced concise shots and melancholy echoey music, the film depicts a journey of the breakdown of self-identity and search.

《春行》(A Journey in Spring)

《霧之淵》(Beyond the Fog)

《家庭簡史》(Brief History of a Family)

《異星感應》(Encounter)

《拳王佩普的第232個發薪日》(The Featherweight)

《夜晚尤其是》(Foremost by Night)(圖片版權@sobretododenoche)

《人道主義吸血鬼徵求自願獻身者》(Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person)©Pavlin_Shawn

《我心裡的太陽》(My Sunshine)© 2024「BOKU NO OHISAMA」Production Committee & COMME DES CINEMAS

《吶喊荒村》(Scream)

《屋簷下沒有煙硝》(Who Do I Belong to)
Hiroshi Okuyama and Lien Chien-hung gather at the 20th Anniversary International New Talent Competition Forum
It is the 20th anniversary of International New Talent Competition this year and therefore, the 20th Anniversary Forum will be held at Taipei Film Festival. A selection of previously selected films such as Holly, Kalak, and Tatami will be screened. Furthermore, with the theme, “the Creative Journey of Emerging Directors”, Okuyama Hiroshi (My Sunshine) and LIEN Chien-hung (Salli) are invited to a highly anticipated talk.
2024 Taipei Film Festival will take place from June 21 to July 6 at Taipei Zhongshan Hall, Vieshow Cinema Xinyi and SPOT-Huashan Cinema. Film Selection Guide will be held on June 8 and the ticket sales will begin on OPENTIX on June 9. The program and events will be unveiled in stages.

《魔女荷莉》(Holly)

《格陵蘭最爛的男人》(Kalak)

《進擊的柔道家》(Tatami)
For more details, please go to Taipei Film Festival official website https://www.taipeiff.taipei/tw/, Instagram https://instagram.com/taipeiff or Facebook Fan Page https://www.facebook.com/TaipeiFilmFestival.