Organizers of the Golden Horse Awards (
Tsai Ming-liang's (蔡明亮) The Wayward Cloud (天邊一朵雲), Hou Hsiao-hsien's (侯孝賢) Three Times (最好的時光), Johnnie To's (杜琪峰) Election (黑社會) and Stephen Chou's (周星馳) Kung Fu Hustle (功夫) are among the nominees for Best Feature Film, while all of the films' creators are nominated for this year's Best Director award.
However, to some people's dismay, the box office hits The Myth (神話), Seven Swords (七劍) and Stanley Kwan's (關錦鵬) Song of Everlasting Sorrow (長恨歌) were left off the list.
PHOTO COURTESY OF THE GOLDEN HORSE FILM FESTIVAL
The awards ceremony is scheduled to be held in Keelung City (基隆市) on Nov. 13.
Meanwhile, the 27th Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival (
The 14-day festival is slated to begin on Nov. 4 in Taipei at the Warner Village Cinema complex in Xinyi district, while a smaller version of the festival will also take place in Keelung.
PHOTO COURTESY OF THE GOLDEN HORSE FILM FESTIVAL
To reach a wider audience and to give more people the opportunity to enjoy non-Hollywood movies, the festival will go on tour, stopping off at Kaohsiung, Zhanghua (彰化), Taichung, Hsinchu and Hualien.
As always, this year's festival is divided into numerous sections including `Master Class' that introduces new works from movie making masters, `A Celebration of Cinema' featuring recent flicks that have met with acclaim on the international festival circle, "Global Vision" that showcases works from Asia, Latin America, Africa, Europe and North America and a section on shorts and animation.
Several new sections have been added to the festival's roster.
PHOTO COURTESY OF THE GOLDEN HORSE FILM FESTIVAL
The "Hungarian New Wave" section focuses on the young generation of Hungarian filmmakers who have come to the attention of international art house movie circles in recent years, while "All That Cinema" traces the lives of important figures in cinema such as Francois Truffaut and James Dean. The "Digital (R)evolution in Its 1st Decade" will screen an array of experimental shorts.
This year's "Filmmakers in Focus" section pays tribute to veteran director Dusan Hanak from Czechoslovakia (now Slovakia) and female Belgian director Chantal Akerman. Banned by the government until 1989, Hanak's documentary and feature films focus on the lives of ordinary people in harsh surroundings. Hailed as a masterpiece of world cinema, Pictures of the Old World is a 70-minute documentary that creates a poetic portrait of rural existence through still photography, archive footage, interviews and live action.
Akerman is a versatile artist who crosses freely between the boundaries of different art genres. Focusing on female existence and the human condition in general, her works are emotionally charged and aesthetically avant-garde.
Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles, considered to be one of Akerman's most important works, is a three-hour long examination of the life of a Belgian housewife/prostitute. Taking the appearance of a real-time documentary, the film deeply probes the surface of humdrum daily life to expose the woman's inner self.
Festival curator Huang Cui-hua(黃翠華), has introduced two new sections with the aim of fostering dialogue between local film industries and the global movie making machine.
The "Producer and Actor in Focus" categories were included to challenge the lack of professional training opportunities for producers in the the local film industry.
Portuguese independent producer Paolo Branco has produced over 200 films and has engaged in successful collaborations with film masters as well as young talent from across the globe. Hailed as the savor of the Japanese film industry, Tadanobu Asano is a professional actor/star with diverse acting styles and who has worked with directors such as Hou Hsiao-hsien and Nagisa Oshima. Both will come to Taiwan for the festival and hold workshops to share their experiences and expertise with local film professionals and audience members.
This year's opening film is Princess Raccoon by Japanese master Suzuki Seijun. Drawing inspiration from Japanese folklore, the movie depicts a budding romance between the exiled Prince Amechiyo and Princess Raccoon (played by Zhang Ziyi (章子怡)), who changes into human form so she can fall in love with the prince.
Time to Leave by French director Francois Ozon, a frequent guest at previous Golden Horse festivals, will close the film bonanza with his latest film about a handsome young photographer who is diagnosed with terminal cancer and has to learn how to embrace life and death.
The international guests confirmed to attend include, Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne (Rosetta and The Child) from Belgium, Dusan Hanak (Director in Focus) from Slovakia, Benedek Fliegauf (Forest and Dealer) from Hungary and Stuart Samuels (Midnight Movies: From the Margin to the Mainstream) from the US.
In order to navigate your way through the hundreds of films on offer a program booklet is available. Tickets can be purchased at ERA ticketing outlets, Eslite bookstores and branches of FNAC. The 3,000 limited-edition ticket packages have already been on sale since last Sunday, while individual ticket sales will begin on Wednesday. Single tickets are priced at NT$220, and NT$190 for students. For information on the films and schedules, visit the festival's bilingual Web site at http://www.goldenhorse.org.tw.
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