Taiwanese Stars Selected For Taipei Film Festival’s Top Talents Showcase
Kai Ko, Gingle Wang, and Chen Bolin - VCG
The Taipei Film Festival aims to highlight Taiwanese actors through a new initiative named Top Talents by showcasing nine actors. Among those selected are international stars Kai Ko and Chen Bolin; Chen Yi-wen, who won a Golden Horse Award for A Sun; Taipei Film Award winners Hsu Wei-ning and Gingle Wang; Caitlin Fang, winner of Best Newcomer awards at both Golden Horse and Taipei Film Awards for American Girl; and Golden Bell Award regulars Hsueh Shih-ling, Esther Liu, and Tseng Pei-yu.
Kai Ko, who won best new performer at the Golden Horse Awards for You’re The Apple Of My Eye in 2011, is a big name across the region and recently made his directing debut with Bad Education. Chen Bolin is also a major star in both Taiwan and mainland China’s film industries, with credits including the anthology Distance, the Chinese adaptation of Miss Granny, and the TV series In Time With You.
The festival assembled a longlist of more than 100 actors from Taiwan's Golden Horse Awards, Golden Bell Awards (which honor TV production), and Taipei Film Awards in collaboration with Taiwan Creative Content Agency (TAICCA). A collective of seven filmmakers, including managing director of Sony Pictures Releasing Taiwan Ken Yu, executive producer Lee Lieh, international co-production experts Michelle Yeh, Aileen Li, and Patrick Mao Huang, and director Tom Shu-yu Lin, chose the final list.
The nine actors will be promoted as part of TAICCA’s international activities: the Busan International Film Festival and Singapore’s Asia TV Forum & Market (ATF). Taipei Film Festival director Li Ya-mei explained that Taiwan’s film and TV industries have recently focused on pitching, co-production, and sales activities to reach international markets. He stressed how Taiwanese actors have the potential to attract attention along similar lines to stars from South Korea and Japan.
The Taipei Film Festival is currently underway (June 22-July 8). While the event was able to take place during the pandemic, this is the first year since 2019 that international guests can attend. The 2022 Taiwan Creative Content Festival and Golden Horse Film Festival were the first major events to welcome international guests to Taiwan since the COVID-19 pandemic.