Taiwanese filmmaker Liu Pin-chun (劉品均), whose short film Contrapelo is on the short list for an award at the Academy Awards, yesterday said she looks forward to hearing her name called by Oscar-winning Taiwan-born director Ang Lee (李安), as Lee is to be among those announcing nominees at the awards tomorrow.
Lee is to join Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences president Cheryl Boone Isaacs, Mexican director Guillermo del Toro and US actor John Krasinski in making the announcement, the academy said in a statement on Monday.
Lee and Del Toro are to reveal the nominees for 11 of the 24 Oscar awards, including Live Action Short Film, at the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills, California.
Contrapelo and The Free Man, directed by Taiwan-based Malaysian filmmaker Boon-Lip Quah, are among 10 live-action short films in contention for final nominations in the category.
“I would love to hear my name called by Lee, and it would be wonderful to attend the Oscars ceremony with another Taiwanese film, The Free Man,” Liu said yesterday.
In 2007, after finishing her studies at National Taiwan University’s Department of Sociology, Liu became a production assistant for commercial films at an ad agency.
Liu later worked as a production assistant on Lee’s box-office hit movie Life of Pi when the film was being shot at various locations around Taiwan in 2011.
She said the experience culminated in her decision to pursue a career as a producer in Hollywood, and she subsequently studied film production at the American Film Institute.
Contrapelo, which took five days to film on a budget of about NT$1 million (US$29,703), had previously been nominated at the New York-based Tribeca Film Festival from a field of more than 3,000 international films in consideration.
The 88th Academy Awards are to take place on Feb. 28.
Additional reporting by CNA
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