Taipei Film Festival has announced the ten films selected for its International New Talent Competition, as well as the members of the jury, which will be headed by Berlin Silver Bear winning director Wang Xiaoshuai (Beijing Bicycle, In Love We Trust).
Also serving on the jury for this year’s edition of the festival, scheduled for June 21-July 6, are Taiwanese actor and director Kai Ko (Till We Meet Again, Bad Education); San Sebastian Film Festival programmer Cheng-Sim Lim; Taiwanese director Laha Mebow (Lokah Laqi), and Japanese producer Yuji Sadai (Drive My Car).
Titles selected for the International New Talent Competition include two from Japanese filmmakers: Hiroshi Okuyama’s My Sunshine, fresh from its world premiere in the Un Certain Regard section of Cannes film festival, as well as Daichi Murase’s Beyond The Fog, executive produced by Naomi Kawase and starring Asami Mizukawa, Masaki Miura and Shinzo Hotta.
Taiwan is represented by A Journey In Spring, co-directed by Peng Tzu-hui and Wand Ping-wen, which stars award-winning actors King Jieh-wen and Yang Kuei-mei and was shot on super 16mm. Chinese director Lin Jianjie’s Brief History Of A Family was selected for this year’s Berlin film festival, as was Who Do I Belong To from Tunisian-American director Meryam Joobeur.
A few of the selected films are from first and second time directors who previously worked in other roles in the industry, including The Featherweight, which is the feature debut of TV series director Robert Kolodny; and Foremost By Night, from San Sebastian Film Festival programmer Víctor Iriarte.
The competition line-up also includes Russian director Dmitry Moiseev’s Encounters; Kazakhstani director Kenzhebek Shaikakov’s Scream; and Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person, from Canada’s Ariane Louis-Seize.
This year marks the 20th anniversary of Taipei Film Festival’s International New Talent Competition, which will be celebrated with screenings of previously selected films such as Holly, Kalak and Tatami. Hiroshi Okuyama and Taiwan’s Lien Chien-hung (Salli) will also be hosting a special talk.
Taipei Film Festival International New Talent Competition 2024:
A Journey In Spring, dirs: Peng Tzu-hui & Wang Ping-wen (Taiwan)
Beyond The Fog, dir: Murase Daichi (Japan)
Brief History Of A Family, dir: Lin Jianjie (China)
Encounters, dir: Dmitry Moiseev (Russia)
The Featherweight, dir: Robert Kolodny (US)
Foremost By Night, dir: Víctor Iriarte
Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person, dir: Ariane Louis-Seize
My Sunshine, dir: Hiroshi Okuyama (Japan)
Scream, dir: Kenzhebek Shaikakov (Kazakhstan)
Who Do I Belong To, dir: Meryam Joobeur (Tunisia-US)