The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) yesterday unveiled the list of short films picked as Taiwan’s finalists for the 2010 Democracy Video Challenge at an awards ceremony in Taipei.
“We thank these young filmmakers for taking part in the Democracy Video Challenge, and for sharing their talent and perspectives with us. Democracy is but one of many key fundamental values shared by the US and Taiwan,” AIT Director William Stanton said.
Stanton said he was pleased with the level of dialogue generated by the event.
AIT launched the Democracy Video Challenge in the fall, asking budding filmmakers, democracy advocates and the general public to create three-minute videos that complete the phrase “Democracy is …”
The challenge received 17 submissions in Taiwan.
One of the Taiwanese finalists was chosen via a vote among AIT’s Facebook fans.
The other two finalists were chosen by a panel of representatives from democracy and film-related organizations in Taiwan.
The three finalists are now being evaluated by a panel in the US and could be chosen to participate in the East Asia and the Pacific Region finals.
A total of 470 entries from 88 countries were received in the worldwide competition this year.
Stanton and Taiwan Foundation for Democracy president Huang Teh-fu (黃德福), a partner of the project, together presented certificates and awarded prizes of NT$10,000 each to the winners Ho Sen-yi (何森鎰), Lin Yu-sheng (林祐聖) and Lai Yu-yao (賴余曜).
The Challenge will honor seven winning videos worldwide: one each from Sub-Saharan Africa, East Asia and the Pacific, Europe, the Near East and North Africa, South and Central Asia, and the Western Hemisphere, as well as one anonymous video.
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