Huang Bo, who is nominated for Best Actor again at this year’s Golden Horse Awards, will serve on the Golden Horse Film Project Promotion (FPP) jury with the Golden Horse Award-winning scriptwriter Chang Chia-lu and the veteran producer Terence Chang, who has worked not only in Taiwan, Hong Kong and China but Hollywood. Amid the outstanding projects selected by the FPP, they will decide the winner of the million-dollar Grand Prize. In order to help the FPP participants prepare for their pitching, the Golden Horse FPP hold a workshop and invite two heavy-weight Taiwanese producers Lee Lieh and Yeh Jufeng as well as two Golden Horse Award-winning scriptwriters Yee Chih-yen and Au Kin-yee to be the mentors. The mentors will help the participants improve their pitching skills so they can express themselves better and find the potential collaborators. Moreover, the Golden Horse FPP offer nine prizes with a total value of more than five million Taiwan dollars, including cash prizes worth of 3.8 million Taiwan dollars. Lately, more exciting news of previous FPP projects at the international film festivals and markets come in, and proves the Golden Horse FPP’s great value as a cradle of Chinese-language films.

Huang Bo won Best Actor at the Golden Horse Awards for Cow in 2009 and had served as a Golden Horse Awards jury member, prize presenter and host at the Golden Horse Awards ceremony. This year, Huang joins the FPP as a jury member while having received another Golden Horse Awards nomination for Best Actor for The Conformist; his dual roles at this year’s Golden Horse attract a lot of attention. Veteran producer Terence Chang has worked in film for more than three decades, and his credits include Face/Off, Mission: Impossible II, Red Cliff and The Adventurers. Chang Chia-lu won Best Adapted Screenplay for A World without Thieves and has written the scripts for box-office hits such as The Message, Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame and Mojin-The Lost Legend. The FPP workshop mentors Lee Lieh and Yeh Jufeng are renowned producers and were both awarded the Golden Horse Outstanding Taiwanese Filmmaker of the Year. Yee Chih-yen won Best Original Screenplay for Meeting Dr. Sun at the Golden Horse 2014 while Au Kin-yee won the same award three times for PTU, Throw Down and Life without Principle. With the help from the outstanding veteran filmmakers, the FPP participants are offered a fantastic learning opportunity.

This year there are nine awards at the Golden Horse FPP, including cash prizes worth about 3.8 million Taiwan dollars; the cash prizes are the Grand Prize provided by the Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival Executive Committee, the Taipei New Horizon Screenplay Award sponsored by Taipei New Horizon, the CNC Cash Award offered by Le Centre national du cinéma et de l'image animée (CNC) and the MAN-JIA Memorial Award provided by the Chung Chung Culture and Arts Foundation. In addition, the Mandarin Vision Award sponsored by Mandarin Vision, the FPP MM2 Creative Award and WIP MM2 Creative Award both offered by MM2 Entertainment and the Central Pictures Corporation Award sponsored by the Central Pictures Corporation provide not only cash but subsequent collaboration in production. Moreover, the Content Digital Film Award sponsored by Content Digital Film offers generous support in post-production. 

For years, the Golden Horse FPP have been searching for the Chinese-langue film projects with great potential, and many previously selected projects have been made into films and performed well at the international film festivals. On Happiness Road (2013 FPP Grand Prize winner) is selected as the opening film of the 2017 Golden Horse Film Festival; Shuttle Life (2014 FPP Grand Prize winner) and The Receptionist received several nominations at this year’s Golden Horse Awards; Father and The White Girl are selected for this year’s Golden Horse Film Festival; Pigeon Tango, Tshiong, The Last Painting, Instant Hit of the Elephant Lin Wang and New Turn… have been invited to numerous film festivals around the globe. 

Furthermore, there are projects that are either in shooting or post-production, including Mosaic Portrait (2016 FPP Grand Prize winner), The 800 Warriors, The Blue Collar, High Flash, Pluto Time, Long Day’s Journey into Night, Secret in the Hot Spring, Father to Son, Spring Tide, Tender Histories, Half a Good Woman and The Suburban Birds. 

The Golden Horse FPP is held from 21st to 23rd November in Taipei. Hundreds of meetings will take place between the 40 selected projects and potential investors. One can expect such lively discussion among the participants that it will channel endless creativity and vitality into the Chinese-language cinema.