Taiwanese film The Sadness (哭悲) has won Best Film and Best Special Effects at this year’s International Fantastic Film Festival in Porto Alegre, Brazil.
The feature film was written and directed by Canadian filmmaker Rob Jabbaz as his directorial debut. Jabbaz lives in Taiwan, and the funding, crew members and actors were from Taiwan.
The film, which was last year released as a horror film in Taiwan, premiered internationally at the Locarno International Film Festival in Switzerland in August that year.
Photo: Screen grab from the recorded speech
The movie was also screened at the Fantasia International Film Festival in Montreal and the Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas.
The organizers of the International Fantastic Film Festival invited Representative to Brazil Chang Tsung-che (張崇哲), head of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in Brazil, to prerecord a message of congratulations for the cast and crew of The Sadness and three other Taiwanese films entered in the festival.
In his message, Chang encouraged all industry professionals to allow their love of film to bring forth movies with breakthrough creativity so that the world can see what Taiwan has to bring to the table.
Chang said he looked forward to more Taiwanese films being distributed in Brazil.
The year’s festival, held from April 14 to May 1, screened 188 fantasy and sci-fi films.
The three other Taiwanese films competing in the festival were Bird (鳥), Part Forever (永別) and Life in a Box (恐怖娃娃機).
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