The 2023 Golden Horse Film Project Promotion today (9/25) announced its list of selected film projects. This year, 46 film projects stood out from the pack, including 39 brand new projects in development and 7 projects already in production but still seeking funding or other collaboration opportunities. Many of the Selected Projects feature Golden Horse Awards winners, and there are also quite a few international co-productions and directors in the mix. Combined with the previously announced 18 Series projects, this year’s eagerly anticipated Golden Horse Film Project Promotion will showcase a total of 64 projects.

This year’s impressive lineup of selected film projects feature multiple filmmakers who have either won or been nominated for Golden Horse Awards. HUANG Hsin-yao, the acclaimed director of The Great Buddha+ and Classmates Minus, takes on the legend of Taiwanese treasure hunters in Super-reasoning Treasure Hunt; Tom LIN Shu-yu, director of Winds of September and The Garden of Evening Mists, teams up with Kimi HSIA for This is How I Love You, a suspenseful and unconventional romance; CHANG Jung-chi, best known for Touch of the Light and We Are Champions, presents Dangling, a survival adventure in which a window cleaner becomes trapped on a high-rise building; Laha Mebow, who won the Golden Horse Award for Best Director for GAGA, weaves a cross-era love story through Tayal mythology in her new film, Sayun’s Dreams; and LEE Yi-shan, winner of Best Live Action Short Film at the Golden Horse Awards, makes her feature debut with the female boxing film Chewing Gum. Several directors previously nominated for Best New Director at the Golden Horse Awards are also back with new projects: TSENG Ying-ting, director of The Abandoned, presents When Wander Boy Meets Wonder Girl, a poignant illegal immigrant love story; Little Big Women director Joseph HSU Chen-chieh portrays a frantic groom simultaneously organizing two weddings in Double Happiness; HSU Chih-yen, who rose to fame with Dear Ex, tells the story of a washed-up singer who uses rap to sell fish in Straight Outta Fishtown; and KANO director Umin Boya invites us to witness the beauty of the Rukai people through the eyes of children in Lezeme.

The vibrant creativity of filmmakers from Hong Kong and Macau is on full display this year. LAM Sum, director of The Narrow Road, follows a female soccer player as she chases her dreams in a foreign land in Off the Ball; Hibernal Solstice, featuring Far Far Away director Amos WHY in collaboration with talents from four regions, and The Playwright’s Stories, written and directed by Hong Kong Family screenwriter YEUNG Leung-chuen, are both stories about the Hong Kong diaspora; NG Ka-leung, producer and screenwriter of Ten Years, presents Mindgration, the tale of a young immigrant possessed by a British ghost; Sisterhood director Tracy CHOI’s new film Be Ordinary focuses on female self-growth and discovery; The Sunny Side of the Street producer Peter YAM and Decameron filmmaker Rita HUI Nga-shu jointly explore the depths of crime in Endless Tenderness; and It is Just a Summer Thing, produced by Drifting’s Jun LI and to be directed by Sasha CHUK, highlights the complexities of a young girl’s coming of age.

Among the selections are also many new projects attempting to depict complex and diverse emotional landscapes through innovative techniques. LIN Chun-yang, director of Eye of the Storm, seeks to unravel the buried trauma of split personality in You Are Not Alone; Be with YOU, produced by Austin LIN and to be directed by Terry FU Tien-yu, Shaun SU’s Live Like Cat & Man, and LAN Yi-tzu’s The Horse all explore moving emotions through the lens of animals; produced by More Than Blue filmmaker Gavin LIN and to be directed by LIEN Chien-hung, That Year, 162 Rainfalls depicts young love on an archery team; director FAN Chung-chi teams up with executive producer Ning CHANG and producer TSAI Jia-yin to deliver Grandma Loves You, in which a naïve grandmother sets up an adult website for her beloved grandson; and My Phoenix Sister, produced by CHEN Yu-hsun and to be directed by KAO Huai-ju, and TSAI Yi-fen’s Little Lover both touch upon the struggles of relatives or loved ones in the face of serious illness.

The selections in the crime and thriller genres draw from societal issues to craft sharp and riveting film projects. CHANG Yao-sheng, director of the acclaimed A Leg, ventures into psychological thriller territory with The Haunted Socialite; Tears on Fire director TSAI Yin-chuan adapts literary journalism into That Burning House; The Painting of Evil director CHEN Yung-chi explores the violent power of fake news in The Seaside Town; TSAI Chia-ying leads the award-winning team behind The Tag-Along to revisit another scary Taiwanese urban legend in Trapped in Yellow; the terrifying and twisted The Faceless Girl is an adaptation of his own work by WONG King-fai, a former winner of the Golden Horse Award for Best Original Screenplay; CHANG Kai-xiang investigates the supernatural in Malevolent Realm; SHEN Chi portrays a heart-pounding mountain disaster in Rescue; and Haven’t Stopped Lamenting director CHANG Ming-yu again delves into wrongful conviction in the documentary Under the Same Boat.

This year’s international co-productions and directors offer a rich variety of themes. MATSUNAGA Daishi, director of Egoist, presents a beautiful Taiwanese-Japanese love story spanning 13 years in Until That Day; the team behind The Post-Truth World collaborates with South Korean producers to deliver Anomalies, an exploration of human wickedness; Geylang filmmaker Boi KWONG’s House of the Beast is a thrilling take on school bullying; A Woman Builds, to be co-directed by HUANG Ji and OTSUKA Ryuji, and Malaysian director KANG Sze-wen’s Take Me Home both provide intricate adaptations drawn from personal experiences; written and directed by GAO Yuan, the Hong Kong-France co-production Cloud of the Unknown is being developed from the animated fantasy short of the same name; and the Singapore-Hong Kong co-production Z Town, to be directed by Sam LOH, is an interactive film in which audiences must navigate challenges to escape.

The WIP section of the Golden Horse Film Project Promotion, which matches work-in-progress productions with potential collaborators, has always delivered fruitful results. This year has already seen the release of former WIP selections such as Everyphone Everywhere, A Cantopop Lyricist to-be, See You At the Rally, Who’ll Stop the Rain, Franklin, Free Beats: The Musical Journey of CHEN Ming Chang, Another Home, and Future Shock. This year’s equally promising WIP selections include Number 2, the sequel to ONG Kuo Sin’s box office hit; Transamazonia, to be helmed by South African director and Berlinale International Jury Special Mention winner Pia MARAIS; LEUNG Kin-pong’s Semi, which explores the post-pandemic trauma of Hong Kong’s youth; Nelicia LOW’s Pierce, a portrayal of a fencer from an extreme family; and Out of Nowhere, Julian LEE’s absurd workplace comedy. In terms of documentary films, there is Hearing from the Dolphin by ZHANG Hong-jie, winner of the Golden Harvest Award for Best Documentary, and Fate with God by LEE Kang-ling, which documents a female medium and possession by the deity Ji Gong.

In addition to the TWD 1 million Grand Prize, the Golden Horse Film Project Promotion has received strong support from the industry this year to offer a total prize pool of TWD 8 million. Furthermore, in collaboration with the Taiwan Creative Content Agency (TAICCA), all projects selected to the 2023 Golden Horse Film Project Promotion are eligible to apply to two TAICCA funding initiatives: the Creative Content Development Program (CCDP) and the International Co-funding Program (TICP). The aim of these initiatives is to provide opportunities for outstanding projects with international market potential to complete their development and production.

The 2023 Golden Horse Film Project Promotion will be held in Taipei from November 20 to November 22. The list of award winners will be announced at the awards ceremony on November 22.