UDINE (Taiwan News) — A film festival in a small city in northern Italy in April will celebrate 25 years of introducing popular Asian cinema to the world and 25 years of championing the cause of Taiwan cinema in particular.
The Far East Film Festival (FEFF) has been staged in Udine, Italy—about an hour’s drive out of Venice—since 1998 and over the years it has both played host to and helped introduce the wider world to the cinema of such famous Taiwanese filmmakers as Wei Te-sheng and Giddens Ko. And this year’s staging of FEFF25—from April 21 to 29—will be celebrating those past collaborations while exploring new ones.
“Our festival has connected with Taiwan since our very beginnings and we have watched Taiwanese cinema continue to grow and produce exciting new talent every year,” FEFF co-founder and president Sabrina Baracetti told Taiwan News.
In recent years, the link between FEFF and Taiwan cinema has been formalized through a partnership with the Taiwan Creative Content Agency (TAICCA). It’s a collaboration that includes the presentation of new and recently released Taiwanese films as part of the main festival program as well as the attendance of Taiwanese filmmakers at FEFF’s film development sidebars, the Focus Asia All Genres Project Market and the Far East in Progress production initiative, as well as The Ties That Bind production workshops.
Just this week, the TAICCA-FEFF collaboration announced a new cash prize of €10,000 (NT$327,027) for the best project from this year’s All Genres Project Market and their callout for submissions from Taiwan has been extended until March 10. Organisers are looking for people with “a film in advanced development phase and find the most suitable co-production and financing partners through a series of individual meetings with over 150 film professionals and decision makers from Asia and Europe.”
These programs are concerned with the business of getting films made, and to that end, FEFF has been helping provide forums where Taiwanese projects can reach international partners, including investors and buyers.
Past Taiwanese success stories to emerge from FEFF and its partners include the Golden Horse-nominated family drama Moneyboys (2021) by director C.B.Yi and Tomorrow Is A Long Time (2023) by director Jow Zhi Wei, which was screened as part of this year’s Generation 14plus program at the Berlin International Film Festival.
And while this year’s FEFF line-up—and news of the Taiwanese films and filmmakers who will be making the trip—will be announced closer to the actual event, another of the festival’s sidebars in the FEFF Campus initiative has been launched and is actively looking for applicants from Taiwan.
The FEFF Campus is a fully hosted program that gives 10 young film industry hopefuls, five from Europe and five from Asia, a chance to embed themselves in daily festival life, and life in Italy. Applicants must be “aged 26 or under, obsessed by Asian cinema, and keen to join a program that includes seminars and workshops that look into the world of Asian film, and how to review and write about it."
Successful applicants will join the campus for 10 days of immersion in the world of FEFF, during which time they will be able to interview some of the biggest names in Asian cinema, while working on both their writing and reviewing skills under the mentorship of seasoned industry professionals. All reviews and articles will be published on international platforms such as Taiwan News.
“Across the years, we have continued to support Asian cinema and to encourage Asian film fans to join the industry that we love. The FEFF Campus does exactly that as we gather Asian film lovers from across the world and we give them the opportunity to learn—and to have a lot of fun,” said Baracetti. “The Campus is a platform through which aspiring film industry professionals can launch their careers— and we are happy to help them on their way. This year, as we celebrate our 25th anniversary, we would especially love to hear from Taiwan’s young generation of film fanatics.”
Applications for the All Genres Project Market are available here: https://vp.eventival.com/fareastff/2023
Applications for the FEFF Campus are available here: https://vp.eventival.com/fareastff/2023
