The Taipei City Government plans to promote the domestic film industry with preferential treatment for moviemakers and encouragement for filming in Taipei.
Taipei City’s Cultural Affairs Department (CAD), which established a film commission in January to encourage cooperation with the film industry, in July started offering discounted rates at 96 municipal hotels for local filmmakers who film in the city.
The city government has stepped up efforts to encourage the local film industry following the phenomenal success of Cape No. 7 (海角七號).
PHOTO: GEORGE TSORNG, TAIPEI TIMES
The locally made film, which was set in southern Taiwan, was a box office smash selling NT$200 million (US$6 million) in tickets after its Aug. 22 opening and attracted a wave of fans to Kenting (墾丁) and Hengchun (恆春), where the film was shot.
The movie opened the 2008 Taipei Film Festival in June, and won best picture.
CAD Commissioner Lee Yong-ping (李永萍) said the department would establish regulations on renting public space in order to make it easier for filmmakers to set action scenes in locations such as MRT stations. The city government will earmark NT$12 million in subsidies for filmmakers and TV producers who shoot in Taipei.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taipei City Councilor Wu Shih-cheng (吳世正), however, challenged the department over the poor box office results of this year’s Taipei Film Festival. He urged the department to improve the festival next year by finding a better location for screening films than Taipei Zhongshan Hall (中山堂), which is not a theater.
Lee acknowledged that ticket sales at this year’s festival were NT$1 million less than last year, and the number of participants dropped to about 50,000.
Lee said in the past the department had failed to persuade major theaters to provide space for 1,000 festival viewers, but promised to propose potential locations for next year’s festival in a month.
Democratic Progressive Party Taipei City Councilor Lee Wen-ying (李文英) said the city government should follow the Kaohsiung City Government’s example in regulating subsidies given to local filmmakers and offering discounted ticket for movies shot in the city.
TRAFFIC SAFETY RULES: A positive result in a drug test would result in a two-year license suspension for the driver and vehicle, and a fine of up to NT$180,000 The Ministry of Transportation and Communications is to authorize police to conduct roadside saliva tests by the end of the year to deter people from driving while under the influence of narcotics, it said yesterday. The ministry last month unveiled a draft of amended regulations governing traffic safety rules and penalties, which included provisions empowering police to conduct mandatory saliva tests on drivers. While currently rules authorize police to use oral fluid testing kits for signs of drug use, they do not establish penalties for noncompliance or operating procedures for officers to follow, the ministry said. The proposed changes to the regulations require
The Executive Yuan yesterday announced that registration for a one-time universal NT$10,000 cash handout to help people in Taiwan survive US tariffs and inflation would start on Nov. 5, with payouts available as early as Nov. 12. Who is eligible for the handout? Registered Taiwanese nationals are eligible, including those born in Taiwan before April 30 next year with a birth certificate. Non-registered nationals with residence permits, foreign permanent residents and foreign spouses of Taiwanese citizens with residence permits also qualify for the handouts. For people who meet the eligibility requirements, but passed away between yesterday and April 30 next year, surviving family members
Taiwanese officials are courting podcasters and influencers aligned with US President Donald Trump as they grow more worried the US leader could undermine Taiwanese interests in talks with China, people familiar with the matter said. Trump has said Taiwan would likely be on the agenda when he is expected to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) next week in a bid to resolve persistent trade tensions. China has asked the White House to officially declare it “opposes” Taiwanese independence, Bloomberg reported last month, a concession that would mark a major diplomatic win for Beijing. President William Lai (賴清德) and his top officials
The German city of Hamburg on Oct. 14 named a bridge “Kaohsiung-Brucke” after the Taiwanese city of Kaohsiung. The footbridge, formerly known as F566, is to the east of the Speicherstadt, the world’s largest warehouse district, and connects the Dar-es-Salaam-Platz to the Brooktorpromenade near the Port of Hamburg on the Elbe River. Timo Fischer, a Free Democratic Party member of the Hamburg-Mitte District Assembly, in May last year proposed the name change with support from members of the Social Democratic Party and the Christian Democratic Union. Kaohsiung and Hamburg in 1999 inked a sister city agreement, but despite more than a quarter-century of
RSS