International and Taiwan's Original Audiovisual Projects are showing infinite creative vibes!

‍

In 2023, the TCCF Pitching has altogether received over 539 projects from all sections. On Wednesday, September 6th, we released a list of the selected entries to the public. To aid Taiwan’s content industry to intersect with the international audiences and gain more vital market resources, this year’s “Project to Screen” has opened up for international projects for the first time, the categories include: Feature films, Series, Animation feature films and series, and Documentary feature films and series. The selected projects include submissions from taiwan andaround the world, which were selected by 15 international judges who are expertised in international venture capital, film production, and market trends. Besides the teams from Taiwan, there are in total 43 distinguished projects that contain deep potential for the international market, which includes works from 12 countries: Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Indonesia, France, Norway, the United States, Iran, India, Pakistan, Armenia, and more. As we can all see, Taiwan is now playing a significant role for international co-production and content partnering in Asia. For “Story to Screen,” there are a number of outstanding Taiwanese original stories that have been submitted, and five Taiwanese professionals with rich experiences for screening production have selected 10 pitching projects full of deep adaptation potential, hoping to demonstrate Taiwan’s creative insight!

‍

Selected Entries

‍

Project to Screen: Feature Films

We are looking forward to hosting multiple teams whose endeavors were acknowledged by international awards! This year, we’re having a film made by well-known director Kōji Fukada, who had been nominated for the Venice International Film Festival’s main competition. His new film, Nagi Note, pays homage to Éric Rohmer. Moreover, we have The Shadows, a film co-produced by director Lingo Hsieh and Japanese producer Takashige Ichise, who produced Ring and Ju-On, together they brought the first horror film into the international English-speaking market this year; new Director Hsu Chao-Jen, who had been recognized by the Golden Horse Awards for Best New Director, has released Mr. Tiger, a film adapted from author Wu Ming-Yi’s short story with the same title. TIDES recounts a love story across Okinawa and Taiwan, produced by Indian director Anshul Chauhan, who had been acknowledged by the Busan International Film Festival. Peter Ho, who had once been honored by the Golden Bell Awards for Best Director, released his very first movie, Appetite for Desire, one that aligns with the other-worldliness of the Japanese strange and surreal world, which contains unique themes from the Sinophone-speaking market.

‍

Mother Maybe is a combination of fantasy and horror, which was made and supervised by Filipino director Sheron R. Dayo, who had won major awards at the Berlin International Film Festival; Indonesian director EDWIN, who had won the highest honor from the Locarno International Film Festival, the Golden Leopard, has his new work Sleep No More out, criticizing the overworking culture of factory systems; the first feature film from Indonesia’s emerging director Giovanni Rustanto, A Ballad OF Long Hair incorporates the folklorish, magical realist legend, inviting audiences to enter a fascinating, “magical hair” world; Eka (Solo) was produced by India, Taiwan, France, and Norway, being the first feature film from Indian director Suman SEN, who was recognized by the Raindance Film Festival; Hold My Gaze was directed by Carlo Enciso CATU, who was honored by The Philippines Film Critics Society as Best Director, who tells a story threaded by secrets, desire, love, and murder.

‍

Project to Screen: Series

This year’s works include genres such as detective, mystery, action, sci-fi, and more. Maid of Vengeance, a new project directed by David Chuang, who also directed The Victim’s Game, takes the challenge of making a feminist action series, revealing the raw side of technological violence; So May We Start was produced by the team that made Little Big Women, Angel Teng, the director of Fragrance of the First Flower, and actress Yu-Ping Wang, who had done script-writing for the first time––together they convey the cynic, internal voices of the generation; The Last Children of Tokyo was produced by Malaysia’s new director Edmund Yeo, who adapted from Yoko Tawada’s dystopian story into a sci-fi, fictional series, co-produced by Taiwan and NHK; As Taiwan’s first selected project for Cannes’ Shoot the Book, Before We Were Monsters is made into a series by award-winning director Lin Shih-Ken and Lin Yi-Ling; having adapted Taiwanese new aesthetics, director Yin Chen-Hao revealed stories of Taiwan’s show-time legendary figures and heroes through It’s Showtime!

‍

Tzu-Hsuan Hung, the director of The Scoundrels has now pushed out Formosa Heist, a work of adventure on Taiwanese mafia’s robbery crimes; Indonesian new director Theo RUMANSARA’s GRANDMA (YANGTI) is the first work that challenges mystery & horror family series; I Wish You Happiness by Weiling Chen, director of On Children and Zhou Quan, evokes a sense of nostalgia from Taiwan’s 70s’; there is Ruin Guardians, produced by Incantation’s producer Hsu-Fen Yang and Lung-Yin Lim, director of Ohong Village, both of whom adapted the horror novel with the same title; The Right Way to See a Falling Star was adapted from Ming-Rei Chung’s novel with the same title, in which director Ray Jiang reimagined a fresh boys’ love story; screenwriter Ju-Yeong BAEK, who is resident of the Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival, presents You Are It, a story that overturns the conventional tale of living zombies.

‍

Project to Screen: Documentary Features and Series

This year’s documentary features and series are rich in its themes and presents the audiences with diverse and documentary perspectives. Recognized by France’s Cannes Marché du Film Pitching major awards, Island of the Winds documents over twenty years of struggles and time in Lo-Sheng Sanatorium and Hospital; PALIMPSEST: Traces of a name is made by famous film editor & director Mary Stephen, which tells the story of a family history; a new work from Armenia, Flying Cows, considers Azerbaijan’s disorders and displacement brought by the border crises through a unique perspective; the Philippines’ independent documentary director, Demie Dangla presents her first documentary film, Magnetic Letters, which recounts secret stories from the Filipino immigrant families, revealing the emotional impacts from displacement; Taiwanese director, Wu Fan’s first documentary film, XIXI, tells the story of two girls, whose visual diary threads together a narrative about freedom and friendship; American director Daniel Chein’s Time Hunter brings us a rare documentary theme, which focuses on life from a Namibian immigrant living in Germany; Iranian new director, Sajad Imani, who had been nominated for the Venice International Film Festival, released his new work, The Highness & Excellency, which tackles topics of Iranian society’s infertility; After the Snowmelt is Taiwanese director Yi-Shan Lo’s first documentary film, which recounts how teenagers confront their trauma and bring themselves to growth in their future; The White Waters tunes in the narrative through sounds, exploring new immigrant women’s memories in Western Taiwan’s fishing villages, which is Taiwanese director Flora Linghwa Huang’s first documentary film; We Live Underground is presented by director Riley Hsiao, which brings realistic lens documenting struggles from elderly living alone; British-Pakistani director Seemab Gul, through experimental, documentary lens, filmed Climate of Consequences, which depicts the crises caused by climate change in Pakistan.

‍

‍

Project to Screen: Animation Features and Series

Gathering new projects from several outstanding animation artists, this year, we’re presenting you with a number of works co-produced by several countries. Xanthus Animation Studio, who has co-produced Guebo with Japan, is now presenting us with a whole new fantasy, adventure animation film, Favorable Wind Ears; having the vegetable trucks unique to the Taiwanese villages, Fresh Truck tells the story through characters who identify as vegetables and fruits, telling fables that are friendly to children; director Yu-Shu Liu, who had been nominated a few times at the Golden Horse Awards and the Golden Bell Awards, released his new work, Madame: Welcome to Dolly’s House, which narrates a youthful tale about how a doll becomes a human and enters its fantastic adventures; Kevin Geiger, Disney’s previous Creative Director, as well as Nicolas Vallet, who had taken part in producing X-Men: Days of Future Past, had collaborated on ORION DSSR: Deep Space Salvage & Recovery, which explores human living situations under climate change and the rise of AI in the faraway future; the superhero work, Zsazsa Zaturnnnah VS the Amazonistas of Planet X, directed by the Filipino director, Avid Liongoren, presents topics of gender and love through comedy; French director Denis DO, who had once won major awards from the Annecy International Animation Film Festival, portrays the love entanglement of a Cambodian girl who seeks her dream through SORYA; co-produced by Japan’s StealthWorks and Taiwan’s filming team, Rabi-Ribi follows a high-schooler and a pet rabbit who accidentally fall into a whole different world; The doomsday movie, The Dangers, is presented by France’s TCHACK SARL, portrays father and sons setting foot on an adventurous journey that solely belongs to them; Lu Yu-Tse, who had won the Los Angeles Film Awards for Animation through The Jennie Show, is presenting Brian, a story that tackles cultural shocks between the East and the West; The company Dottodot collaborated with Italy’s Gertie srl and France’s Something Big Studio, together made New Bridge of Colors, which narrates a story about a Western painter who lives in an Eastern palace.

‍

Story to Screen: 

After a series of intensive reviewing and judging, there are ten outstanding projects being selected for the Story to Screen venue. The amount of creativity was absolutely impressive! The famous novel, Murderer of us is one that pushes a criminal police, who is in search of a missing roommate, into a “death game”; The Subordinate Leasing Program, which won the Million-Dollar Award for Novels with Screening Potential, depicts the imagination of a wage slave who explores their identity; A TRIP TO ASYLUM : The world is a madhouse has been recognized by the Taipei International Book Exhibition’s Novel Award, which brings a surprising end and infinite horror to its audiences; The Second Woman, which won the Taipei Literary Award’s Top Prize, is a distinguished work by actress Joanne Deng; Loyalty Test was inspired by a Taiwanese true story about a spy incident, which accidentally ignites a spy-war between the Kuomintang and the communist party; A Skeleton in Scarlat was sparked by Taiwan’s very first, terrifying child-poisoning murder, which in the story, through veils of hallucination, and layers of narrative, reveals a tragedy of a serial-killer; another work that was recognized by the Taipei International Book Exhibition Award, Son of Formosa, which reimagines the real-life experiences and precious emotions from people who had lived through Taiwan’s 30s’ to this day; The Gap Year from a popular Chinese-speaking writer, portrays the dark side of humanity from a fuckboy lawyer who lives a glamorous life, however having to confront his work environment and love; well-known comic artist Hsieh Tung-Lin’s I Dare You incorporates elements of life of an exorcist and real-life haunting incidents, which together made a subversive comedy; LINE WEBTOON’s new work Peenky Promise, which portrays a digital world that brings us the conflicts between reality and desire.

‍

The 2023 TCCF Pitching will have its grand opening in Taipei between November 7th and November 10th. We’re looking forward to gathering pitching teams from Taiwan and all over the world, to providing a space for a rich amount of creative energy, and to help generate even more distinguished works with potential for the international film and television market!