After a string of strong showings at international film festivals over the past several years, Taiwanese movies are some of the most anticipated entries at this year's Cannes festival.
Both Hou Hsiao-hsien (侯孝賢) and Tsai Ming-liang (蔡明亮) have new works in this year's competition list, as they both did in 1998. This year, the two are accompanied by a youngblood of Taiwanese filmmaking, Hsiao Ya-chuan (蕭雅全), whose film Mirror Image (命帶追逐) will run in the Director's Fortnight portion of the festival, a separate competition intended to honor and encourage young filmmakers and which issues an International Critics Award.
Tsai's film What Time Is It There? (你那邊幾點) will premiere May 15 and Hou's Millennium Mambo (千禧曼波) will run on May 19. Hsiao's film will be shown May 11.
The screenings of Tsai's and Hou's films during the final days of the festival bode well for their chances at winning an award, as the best contenders have traditionally had late slots at Cannes.
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