Arvin Chen, Chen Hwa-yue and Jennifer Jao, Director of Taipei Film Commission
Berlin – Taiwan Cinema Party was launched in Ritz Carlton on Feb. 11. Organized by Taipei Film Commission and Bureau of Audiovisual and Music Industry Development, a branch of Ministry of Culture in Taiwan, this event celebrated Taiwanese films’ presence in the 64th Berlin International Film Festival. Meet Wieland Speck, Alberto Barbera, Isabelle Glachant and Kim Young Bin among the 300 distinguished guests.
CHEN Hwa-yue, Taiwan’s representative to Germany, congratulated these filmmakers in the opening speech and was proud that Taiwanese films has got remarkable box office performance in recent years and films made by a younger gen of directors are becoming much more visible in major film festivals.
In 2014, a line-up of 4 films and 1 film proposal made into Berlinale: TSAI Ming-liang’s Journey to the West, CHO Li’s The Rice Bomber and Midi Z’s Ice Poison in the Panorama section and CHEN Yu-hsun’s Zone Pro Site in Culinary Cinema. Arvin CHEN’s film project Grooms was selected into the Berlinale Co-Production Market.
One of the most important reasons why Taiwanese films have a growing exposure at top-notch film festivals, Taipei Film Commission, with creative leaders like Jennifer Jao and Yalun Wang, also plays a key role in attracting global filmmakers to shoot films in Taipei.
The above 4 films continue to get good reviews in Berlin. Dana Linssen wrote: “Tsai Ming-liang’s Journey to the West is sublime. I cried. It reinvents movement. And the way moving pictures move. And in all its slowness it was still too fast to fully grasp its spiritual wit and visual joy. It contains some of the best ideas on framing, mise-en-scène and performance in modern cinema. And it is so unpretentious it’s humbling.”
Director Midi Z and Cho Li, executive producer Yeh Jufeng, Lee Lieh, actress Patty Wu and Nikki Hsin-Ying Hsieh, etc.
It is reported that Bureau of Audiovisual and Music Industry Development will support filmmakers to American Film Market in 2014 to attract international awareness of Taiwanese Cinema, besides the usual four major film festivals. A total of 13 film companies from Taiwan attended this year’s European Film Market.
The Chinese Film Market, Berlin reports.
Photo credits: Taipei Film Commission
Seize the last chance to watch these films during Berlinale 2014:
- Journey to the West Feb 15, 19:30 (Zoo Palast 2), Feb 16, 17:45 (CineStar 3)
- The Rice Bomber Feb 13, 22:30 (Colosseum 1), Feb 15, 22:30 (CinemaxX 7)
- Ice Poison Feb 14, 20:00 (CineStar 7), Feb 15, 14:30 (CineStar 7)
- Zone Pro Site: The Moveable Feast Feb 14, 17:00 (MGB-Kino)
