Taiwan arrives at the festival with a drama produced by Palme d’Or winner Sean Baker while the market includes animated features and the directorial debut of The Assassin star Shu Qi.
Festival
Left-Handed Girl
Dir. Shih-Ching Tsou
Tsou’s solo directing debut is produced, edited and co-written by Sean Baker, the US filmmaker who won last year’s Palme d’Or with Anora plus six Oscars. The Taipei-set drama follows a single mother and her two daughters who must adapt to a new environment as they open a stand in a bustling night market. The cast includes Janel Tsai, Ma Shi-yuan and Nina Ye. Mike Goodridge from Good Chaos is also a producer on this Taiwan-France-US-UK co-production. Taiwanese American filmmaker Tsou co-directed Take Out (2004) with Baker, and produced his features Tangerine, The Florida Project and Red Rocket.
Contact: Eleonore Rieden, Le Pacte
Market
Afterword
Dir. Lin Yi-chiang
Lin’s directorial feature debut follows a struggling Taiwanese novelist who travels to New York in search of his longlost lover, and a documentary filmmaker who chronicles the hunt. Lin is also the writer, DoP and editor of the film, which is produced by Lin Shih-Ken and Taha Long. The cast is led by Lee Yung-wei, Dafi Cramer and Han Ning. Director Lin is a New York-based Taiwanese filmmaker whose works include 2021 short documentary An Unfinished Film, which was filmed when Afterword’s shoot was put on hold due to the Covid pandemic.
Contact: Outland Films
April
Dir. Freddy Tang
Lawyer-turned-filmmaker Tang’s latest is a family fantasy drama about the titular Filipino family caregiver who travels with an elderly woman who has dementia to her hometown, only to find mysterious connections from Taiwan shadowing them. The cast includes Zhang Xiao-xiong, Angel Aquino and Liu Kuan-ting. Mirror Fiction is the production company. Tang’s previous credits include 2022 debut feature Fantasy World and 2023 legal drama series Port Of Lies, based on his own award-winning novel.
Contact: Shih Yi-lun, Hakka Public Communication Foundation
Bliss: Beyond The Edge Of Time
Dirs. Kevin Geiger, Jade Lien, Liu Yu-Shu, Jo-Jo Hwang, Liao Wei Chih, Chiu Li-Wei
The sci-fi anthology is one of the first animated projects supported by the Animation Black Wave Cultural Plan from Taiwan’s Ministry of Culture. Comprising both a feature-length film and a 13-minute, six-part series, it offers a poignant look into the future when technology collides with humanity. The six stories are inspired by I-Ching, the ancient Chinese divination text, and revolve around an android lover, leopard, ghost bride and the world’s final train. Executive producers are Flash Forward Entertainment’s Patrick Mao Huang and Kevin Geiger, who previously worked at Disney Animation Studio in the US and Disney China.
Contact: Flash Forward Entertainment
Girl
Dir. Shu Qi
The directorial debut of acclaimed actress Shu — best known for Cannes 2015 award winner The Assassin — is a 1980s family drama about a girl whose aspirations are challenged by her mother’s past and finds solace in a girl who embodies her suppressed dreams. Also written by Shu, the film’s cast is led by Roy Chiu, singer/actress 9m88 and Bai Xiao-ying. Executive producer is veteran Yeh Jufeng, with Yu Jing-pin of Oscar-nominated Better Days as cinematographer. Backers include CMC Entertainment, Wow Momentum, J.Q. Pictures and Aranya Pictures.
Contact: Desmond Yang, Mandarin Vision
Lovesick
Dir. Hsu Fu-Hsiang
This campus-set romantic drama is the highest-grossing Taiwanese film of the year to date, taking more than $1.85m (nt$54m) and landing a rare near day-and-date release in mainland China (worldwide box office is approaching $5m). The story follows a high-school troublemaker who finds it convenient to be sick and goes to great lengths to fake it. The cast is led by Zhan Huai-Yun, Chiang Chi, Liu Hsiu-Fu and Huang Guan-Zhi. It marks the first feature backed by Taipei-based Sequoia Entertainment. Director Hsu’s feature debut was 2021 horror comedy Treat Or Trick, a local remake of a Korean film.
Contact: Sunny Chang, Sequoia Entertainment
A Mighty Adventure
Dir. Toe Yuen
Best known for Annecy-winning My Life As McDull, Hong Kong director Toe shot the entire live-action elements of his latest animated feature in Taiwan. At the centre of this action comedy are three tiny insects — a grasshopper, spider and butterfly — who embark on a series of adventures to discover themselves. The shoot was handled by Taipei-based Zero One Film, which won the Golden Horse best animated short award for Gold Fish in 2019 and best VR work at Annecy 2023 for Red Tail. The project was supported by Taiwan’s International Co-funding Program and is also produced by Malaysia’s FlyStudio.
Contact: Zero One Film
The Photo From 1977
Dirs. Frank Cheng, Phil Tang
In this 1970s-set romantic drama, Korean star Jinyoung (Netflix series Sweet Home) plays a taekwondo coach who visits Taiwan during the turmoil of a local election and falls for a photographer of Hakka background, played by rising star Moon Lee (Netflix series The Victims’ Game). Language and cultural barriers bring the relationship to an end until a package of photos reconnects them. The film is backed by GrX Studio, with the support of Hakka Public Communication Foundation, and marks the directorial feature debut of Tang, who is CEO of GrX Studio, while Cheng is an acclaimed commercials director.
Contact: Shih Yi-lun, Hakka Public Communication Foundation
The Rover
Dir. Wang An-Min
The rich hiking culture in Taiwan and the deep relationship between its people and the mountains provides the setting for emerging director Wang’s first feature-length documentary. It follows a seemingly carefree mountain guide in his sixties who, after enduring a tough life, has returned to the peaks that are places of healing for him. Producer is Wang Chi-chieh for Cheesefilm Production. The project received a work-in-progress prize from New Taipei City Documentary Film Awards run by the Department of Information of New Taipei City Government and Chi Po-lin Foundation. Wang has previously worked on documentaries about wildlife conservation and the lives of inmates.
Contact: Swallow Wings
The Waves Will Carry Us
Dir. Lau Kek Huat
This Taiwanese production tells a Malaysian story about three siblings who set out on a darkly comic journey to reclaim the body of their Malaysian Chinese father after the religious police claim he had secretly converted to Islam and must be buried in an Islamic cemetery. The cast includes Vera Chen (Stranger Eyes), Wei Chun-Chan and Fabian Loo. Abang Adikdirector Jin Ong is among the executive producers. Lau is a Malaysia-born, Taiwan-based filmmaker whose 290-minute From Island To Island was named best documentary at last year’s Golden Horse Film Festival, Taipei Film Festival and Taiwan International Documentary Festival.
Contact: MM Square Film
Welcome To Dolly’s House
Dirs. Tree Muta, Rady Fu
Billed as Taiwan’s first rotoscope animated feature, this film was created and written by artist and filmmaker Seven YCH. The story follows a fame-seeking YouTuber who is led to a reclusive doll maker and a creepy mansion after a scandalous proposal stunt goes wrong. It is a modern retelling of a story from the Taiping Guangji, an anthology of tales compiled during the Song dynasty. Production started three years ago and a theatrical release is set for 2026. Tree Muta (aka Liu Yu-shu) previously co-directed 2022 3D animation Shiro — Hero Of Heroes, while Rady Fu co-directed 2016 drama See You Again.
Contact: Mokster Films
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