For local cineastes, the highlight of the year is just around the corner as the 2009 Golden Horse Film Festival (2009台北金馬影展) gets set to show more than 200 feature, documentary, short and animation films from around the world starting Thursday evening.
The lineup includes the festival’s popular LGBT program, films about Joy Division, Patti Smith, Sid Vicious of the Sex Pistols as well as a section featuring digitally restored masterpieces including Jean-Luc Godard’s 1965 Pierrot le Fou and 1948’s The Red Shoes.
This year’s directors in focus are Japan’s Jun Ichikawa, who passed away last year, and American director John Cassavetes, whose films are relatively unknown in Taiwan.
This edition of the Golden Horse turns the spotlight on various film professionals this year, screening films made by cinematographer Mark Ping-bing Lee (李屏賓) and starring French actress Isabelle Huppert. Both will attend the event.
Award-winning works from this year’s Cannes, Venice and Berlin film festivals are on the bill, as are the latest flicks by world renowned directors including Michael Haneke’s The White Ribbon, Jane Campion’s Bright Star, Sweet Rush by Andrzej Wajda and The Dust of Time by Theodoros Angelopoulos.
The three-week long festival runs from Thursday through Nov. 26 at Shin Kong Cineplex (新光影城), 36 Xining S Rd, Taipei City (台北市西寧南路36號) and Vie Show Cinema, Xinyi district (信義威秀影城), 18 Songshou Rd, Taipei City (台北市松壽路18號).
Individual tickets cost NT$230 per screening (NT$200 for students with ID and people with disabilities). A booklet of tickets costs NT$2,900 for 15 screenings, available through ERA ticket outlets or at www.ticket.com.tw.
For more information, visit the festival’s bilingual Web site at www.goldenhorse.org.tw
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