The 2018 Taipei Golden Horse Film Project Promotion (FPP) has announced an impressive Final-stage Jury featuring Golden Horse Best Leading Actress SHU Qi, acclaimed writer and Golden Horse Best Screenplay winner LI Yuan, and veteran industry executive Albert LEE. The jury will be responsible for selecting the winner of the TWD 1,000,000 Grand Prize from this year’s FPP selections. On the other hand, the well-received FPP Workshop, customized for the producers and directors of the FPP projects, will be headed by leading Taiwanese producers LEE Lieh and YEH Jufeng as “Pitching Trainer”, and Golden Horse Best Screenplay winners CHANG Chia-lu and Tom LIN Shu-yu as “Scriptwriting Trainer”. This year’s FPP will present 11 awards totaling a new record-high of TWD 6,500,000, to actually provide substantial assistance and recognition to promising Chinese-language film projects.

Final-stage Jury member SHU Qi is an international actress armed with acting chops and star qualities. At the Golden Horse Awards, she has been nominated for Best Leading Actress seven times, winning for Three Times (2005), with another win for Best Supporting Actress by Portland Street Blues (1998). LI Yuan is a famed author, screenwriter and two-time Golden Horse Awards winner. In 1986, he was nominated for Best Original Screenplay at the Golden Horse Awards for both Terrorizers (1986) and Reunion (1986), winning for the latter. Former Emperor Motion Pictures CEO Albert LEE has more than 40 years of experience in the film industry, and was appointed Executive Director of the Hong Kong Film Festival earlier this year. They will select this year’s Grand Prize winner.

LEE Lieh and YEH Jufeng are heavyweight film producers whose films have dominated the market and earned recognition from the Golden Horse Awards. Both are former winners of the Golden Horse Awards for Outstanding Taiwanese Filmmaker of the Year. CHANG Chia-lu and Tom LIN Shu-yu are both Golden Horse Awards winners for screenplay.

The FPP’s ardent support for the development of Sinophone cinema would not be possible without the ongoing support of its many corporate partners. This year’s FPP will present awards totaling of TWD 6,500,000. Apart from the TWD 1,000,000 Grand Prize supported by the Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival Executive Committee, there is also the Taipei New Horizon Screenplay Award from Taipei New Horizon, the CNC Cash Award from Centre National du Cinéma et de L'image Animée, the MAN-JIA Memorial Award provided by the Chung Chung Culture and Arts Foundation, and the MirrorFiction Screenplay Award provided by MirrorFiction. The awards that provide a cash prize as well as follow-up collaboration include J.Q. Pictures Award sponsored by Renaissance Films Limited, the MandarinVision Award sponsored by MandarinVision, the FPP MM2 Creative Award offered by mm2 Entertainment, and the Central Pictures Corporation Award from Central Motion Picture Corporation. Furthermore, Content Digital Film Co., Ltd. offers the Content Digital Film Award for post-production, and Golden Horse Lifetime Achievement Award winner HSU Feng brings about the WIP Tomson Creative Award sponsored by Tomson International Entertainment Co., Ltd.

The FPP continues to develop steadily entering its 12th year as former projects deliver brilliant results. There are Long Day’s Journey into Night (2018) and The Pluto Moment (2018) at Cannes Film Festival selection; Girls Always Happy (2018) a Berlinale selection; On Happiness Road (2017), the Grand Prize winner of the Tokyo Anime Awards; Cities of Last Things (2018), the Platform Prize winner of the Toronto International Film Festival; Father to Son (2018), a selection of the International Film Festival Rotterdam. Tracey (2018) and Long Time No Sea (2018) both selected by the Tokyo International Film Festival; Suburban Birds (2018) went to Locarno Festival and won the Best Picture at First International Film Festival; G Affairs (2018) shown in Hong Kong Asian Film Festival; and Secrets in the Hot Spring (2018) and The Blue Choker (2018) selected by Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival; High Flash (2018) and A Dog’s Life (2018) are closing films for Taipei Film Festival and Taichung International Animation Festival, respectively.

The 2018 Taipei Golden Horse FPP will be held from November 13th to November 15th in Taipei. Just how many future stars and potential masterpieces will launch at this year’s event? We will have to wait and see.