Taiwan Creative Content Agency (TAICCA) has formed an official collaboration with Korean’s Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (BIFAN) through which it will present a $10,000 award at the festival’s NAFF Project Market.
The TAICCA Award, which will be presented to a project with the most international co-production potential, aims to encourage the development of genre projects.
TAICCA chairperson Homme Tsai said BIFAN has helped raise awareness internationally for Taiwan genre films and that “the official collaboration between TAICCA and BIFAN aims to push further exchange for genre films, and to encourage more Taiwan filmmakers and their work to go global.”
Taiwanese talent is strongly represented at this year’s edition of BIFAN, which kicked off yesterday (June 29), with Kai Ko’s Bad Education (pictured above) in the Bucheon Choice competition and the star-turned-director in attendance. Other Taiwanese works in the BIFAN line-up include three shorts, three VR works and restored classic Four Moods (1970), while two international co-productions have been selected for NAFF (see full NAFF line-up here).
Two films co-produced with Taiwan – recent Cannes Critics Week winner Tiger Stripes, directed by Malaysia’s Amanda Nell Eu, and Sundance title In My Mother’s Skin, from the Philippines’ Kenneth Dagatan – are also screening in BIFAN, the former title in competition.
As previously announced, TAICCA and BIFAN are also collaborating on the BIFAN Goedam Residency for Asia Talents, though which both parties jointly select a Taiwanese filmmaker to attend the film festival and residency programme prior to pitching in Korea.
The first selected participant is writer-director Yen-Ju Lee, whose feature project, Leftover Women Detective, was selected for 2021 Taipei Golden Horse Film Project Promotion.