The 2023 Golden Horse Film Project Promotion, the project market that accompanies the Golden Horse film festival and awards in Taiwan in November, has laid out a huge 64-title selection for its 2023 edition.
These include 39 film projects at various stages of development and financing; a further seven works in progress; and the 18-previously announced series at project stage.
The event, which runs Nov. 20-22, offers a $31,000 (NT$1 million) first prize and a total prize pool of $250,000 (NT$8 million) from sponsors and industry sources. All selected projects are also eligible to apply to two TAICCA funding initiatives: the Creative Content Development Program and the International Co-funding Program.
Among the Taiwanese filmmakers: Huang Hsin-yao, the 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 unconventional romance “This Is How I Love You”; Chang Jung-chi (“Touch of the Light,” “We Are Champions”) is pitching “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 with “Gaga,” is this time pitching a cross-era love story mixed with mythology in her new project “Sayun’s Dreams.”
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.”
Chinese-language projects from Hong Kong and Macau include: Ng Ka-leung, producer and screenwriter of “Ten Years,” with “Mindgration,” a tale of a young immigrant possessed by a British ghost; “Sisterhood” director Tracy Choi pitching “Be Ordinary,” a tale of female self-growth and discovery; and “It is Just a Summer Thing,” produced by Drifting’s Jun Li and to be directed by Sasha Chuk, exploring the complexities of a young girl’s coming of age.
More Than Blue filmmaker Gavin Lin turns producer for director Lien Chien-hung who is pitching “That Year, 162 Rainfalls,” depicting young love on an archery team.
At the more genre-film end of the spectrum, Chang Yao-sheng, wh previously directed “A Leg,” is pitching psychological thriller “The Haunted Socialite”; Tsai Chia-ying leads the award-winning team behind “The Tag-Along” to revisit another Taiwanese urban legend in “Trapped in Yellow.”
Among the cross-border co-productions the team behind “The Post-Truth World” collaborates with South Korean producers to pitch “Anomalies,” an exploration of human wickedness; while “Geylang” filmmaker Boi Kwong pitches a new take on school bullying in “House of the Beast”; and the established duo Huang Ji and Otsuka Ryuji (“Stonewalling”) re-team for “A Woman Builds.”
The WIP selections include: “Number 2,” a sequel to Ong Kuo Sin’s box office hit; “Transamazonia,” being directed by South African Pia Marais; Leung Kin-pong’s “Semi,” which explores the post-protest movement trauma of Hong Kong’s youth; Nelicia Low’s “Pierce,” a portrayal of a fencer from an extreme family; and “Out of Nowhere,” an absurd workplace comedy from Julian Lee.
