Taiwanese film director Lien Chien-hung (練建宏) on Sunday won the Most Promising Talent Award at the 19th Osaka Asian Film Festival.
The award is given to the artist who jurors “believe will play an important role in the Asian film world in the future,” information on the festival’s Web site says.
Lien’s film, Salli (莎莉), also won the ABC TV Award, which is bestowed by the Asahi Television Broadcasting Corp for the most entertaining film. The movie is also to be shown by the network.
Photo courtesy of the Osaka Asian Film Festival
The film follows a 38-year-old woman who starts an online romance using the pseudonym “Salli” with a Frenchman. As people around her start to suspect she could be the victim of an online romance scam, she sets out on a trip to Paris in a bid to find love and herself.
The Taiwanese film Trouble Girl (小曉), directed by Chin Chia-hua (靳家驊), was also nominated for the “Grand Prix” award, which is given for best picture.
The Ministry of Culture cooperated with the festival and held “Taiwan: Movies on the Move 2024,” during which four Taiwanese feature films — including Salli and Trouble Girl — two short films and a digitally remastered version of The Winter of 1905 (一九零五的冬天), a Hong Kong movie co-written by Edward Yang (楊德昌), were shown.
All Taiwanese film screenings attracted nearly full houses, the festival’s organizers said.
This year, 63 films from 24 countries and regions were invited to the event that ran from March 1 to Sunday, they said.
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