The Taipei Golden Horse Film Project Promotion (FPP) celebrates its 10th anniversary with another prolific year, receiving 141 submissions worldwide from Taiwan, China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, Japan, France, United States, Canada, and United Kingdom. Vietnam, Poland, and Serbia also make their first appearances, bearing witness to FPP’s ever-expanding horizon and draw as an international investment platform. The cash and post-production prizes amount to 5 million NTD. (approx. $ 160,000 USD)

This surge of submissions, striking in both their quality and quantity, push 29 projects past the final cut, including twelve selections from Taiwan, five from China, three from Malaysia, two from Hong Kong and one from France, along with six international coproductions including Japan and Singapore. Ranging broadly in scale and subject, these projects reveal the eclectic and electric vitality of the current crop of filmmakers. The plentiful creative energy of the Chinese-language film scene can be seen everywhere, from suspenseful edge-of-your-seat thrillers to ambitious otherworldly adventures, from frank and incisive historical presentations to titillating fantasies and awakenings.

Having taken a lap or two at the box office, these directors from Taiwan are lined up and ready to go to bat on social issues: LOU Yi-An’s Exposé, CHENG Wei-Hao and YEH Nai-Ching’s Last Memory, CHENG Hsiao-Tse’s Cycle of Life and Death, HSIAO Ya-Chuan’s Van Dy Ke, HOU Chi-Jan’s Tropical Blue, HO Wi-Ding’s Cities of Last Things, and HSIEH Chun-Yi’s Dog Mama have each found a unique angle from which to inquire into the habits and psyche of contemporary society.

Following a parade of impressive short works, these unstoppable up-and-coming talents take their first step toward feature films: LAI Meng-Jie’s MU and Kerry YANG’s TAROKO each explores a new world of action-adventure while CHEN Yung-Chi’s The Painting of Evil, LAU Kek-Huat’s A Love of Boluomi, and CJ Xi-Jie WANG’s Half a Good Woman offer fresh perspectives on the age-old subjects of art, war, and gender – the latter upon which HUANG Dan-Chi, ZHAN Kai-Ti, TSAI Tsung-Han, LEE Yi-Shan, and Tanyo WANG will rhapsodize in their collaborative effort, Erotic, Trigger of Human Nature.

Selected projects from China include ZHOU Quan’s Searching for the Silent Maiden, ZHAI Yi-Xiang’s Mosaic Portrait, QIU Sheng’s The Suburban Birds, Lina YANG’s Spring Tide, YANG Ming-Ming’s Tender Histories, Yuke QIN’s The God of Small Things, and Tony WANG’s Time to Die. These projects make up a tantalizing sampler of contemporary China’s rich and diverse body of works, journeying from narrow alleyways to deserts and mountains, depicting magnificent legends, social outrages, and all that life and reality can fit in between.

Master of cinematography Christopher DOYLE and co-director Jenny SUEN capture echoes of present-day Hong Kong in The White Girl while in XXL or XS, directing team WU Bo-Ping and YANG Yu-Fei tackle the teenage dilemmas of aspiration, friendship, and love. The French projects switch gears with Olivier MARCENY’s Arterial, a story about the domination of technology and profit, told in the future tense, and Phillipe MUYL’s The Kite Master, a parable plumbing the annals of ancient China. From Singapore, YONG Mun-Chee’s Badass dramatizes the legendary gangs of the Adaman Sea as HANAWA Yukinari chronicles a coming-of-age against an island backdrop in the colorful and folksy Uchinanchu in the Neighborhood.

After catching the attention of the international film circle with its recent creative groundswell, Malaysia is represented at this year’s FPP by Charlotte LIM’s The Way Home, YEO Joon-Han’s Don’t Wake Up, and Ryon LEE’s The Angels, again demonstrating a mastery of sympathetic and insightful views on the human condition.

The Taipei Golden Horse FPP is held this year from November 22^nd through November 24^th in Taipei along with workshop of scriptwriting and pitching to prepare the participants for the extensive meetings.

Full List of 2016 FPP Projects