A Taiwanese-American animated short film titled Soar was awarded the gold medal in the animation category at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ 2015 Student Academy Awards in Beverly Hills, California, on Thursday last week.
Directed by Alyce Tzue (祖小雲) — a Taiwanese-American student at the Academy of Arts University — and produced by her Taiwanese classmate Anson Yu (尤偉正), Soar is the second Taiwanese-made film to win gold at the Student Academy Awards after Hung Shih-ting’s (洪詩婷) 2008 short Viola: The Traveling Rooms of a Little Giant.
Yu said Soar is about dogged perseverance that yields surprising rewards.
He said the film starts with a girl who discovers a tiny alien pilot who has crashed on Earth. Through trial and error, the girl helps the pilot make a new miniature flying machine. The girl discovers that the tiny pilot belongs to a race that ferries stars into the sky and she goes on to experience the wonders of the universe.
Yu was an undergraduate at Ming Chuan University before moving to California to attend the Academy of Arts, from which he received a Master of Arts degree.
He said the Student Academy Awards are a highly prestigious competition for film students, adding that the academy first informed him that Soar was a finalist in June and then told him in August that it would win gold.
“I am extremely excited and pleased” about the award, Yu said, adding that he tried hard to “keep a normal mindset” because “it is more important to do your job right.”
The 42nd Student Academy Awards received submissions from 282 US and 93 non-US universities in five categories: Alternative, Animation, Documentary, Narrative and Foreign Film. Gold, silver and bronze medals were given to the best entries.
Costa Rica sent a group of intelligence officials to Taiwan for a short-term training program, the first time the Central American country has done so since the countries ended official diplomatic relations in 2007, a Costa Rican media outlet reported last week. Five officials from the Costa Rican Directorate of Intelligence and Security last month spent 23 days in Taipei undergoing a series of training sessions focused on national security, La Nacion reported on Friday, quoting unnamed sources. The Costa Rican government has not confirmed the report. The Chinese embassy in Costa Rica protested the news, saying in a statement issued the same
Taiwan is to extend its visa-waiver program for Philippine passport holders for another year, starting on Aug. 1, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said on Friday. Lin made the announcement during a reception in Taipei marking the 127th anniversary of Philippine independence and the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the Manila Economic and Cultural Office (MECO) in Taiwan, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. The decision reflected Taiwan’s commitment to deepening exchanges with the Philippines, the statement cited Lin as saying, adding that it was a key partner under the New Southbound Policy launched in 2016. Lin also expressed hope
Temperatures in New Taipei City’s Sindian District (新店) climbed past 37°C yesterday, as the Central Weather Administration (CWA) issued heat alerts for 16 municipalities, warning the public of intense heat expected across Taiwan. The hottest location in Taiwan was in Sindian, where the mercury reached 37.5°C at about 2pm, according to CWA data. Taipei’s Shilin District (士林) recorded a temperature of 37.4°C at noon, Taitung County’s Jinfeng Township (金峰) at 12:50 pm logged a temperature of 37.4°C and Miaoli County’s Toufen Township (頭份) reached 36.7°C at 11:40am, the CWA said. The weather agency yesterday issued a yellow level information notice for Taipei, New
CASE: Prosecutors have requested heavy sentences, citing a lack of remorse and the defendants’ role in ‘undermining the country’s democratic foundations’ Five people affiliated with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), including senior staff from the party’s Taipei branch, were indicted yesterday for allegedly forging thousands of signatures to recall two Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers. Those indicted include KMT Taipei chapter director Huang Lu Chin-ru (黃呂錦茹), secretary-general Chu Wen-ching (初文卿) and secretary Yao Fu-wen (姚富文), the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said in a news release. Prosecutors said the three were responsible for fabricating 5,211 signature forms — 2,537 related to the recall of DPP Legislator Wu Pei-yi (吳沛憶) and 2,674 for DPP Legislator Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) — with forged entries accounting for
RSS