How did the organizers of this year’s Sundance Movie Competition: Asia mark their return to Taiwan? By elevating the competition in every way possible.
For the second year in a row, the Sundance Movie Competition: Asia returned to Taipei. The expanded lineup reflected Taiwan’s efforts to spice up filmmaking in the region. The competition’s length was extended from three to five days. Last year, only three feature-length films were screened. This time, 15 films, including “Didi,” “Sujo,” “Little Loss of Life” and “Your Monster,” were among the films showcasing the best of U.S. independent storytelling. Last year, only two filmmakers attended; this time, there were eight. The competition also doubled the scale of its panels and masterclasses.
In addition to screening films and hosting panels, organizers are also helping to raise the country’s profile as a hub for local and international filmmakers.
“It was a great way for us to grow the competition in Taiwan,” said Kim Yutani, director of programming for the Sundance Movie Competition. “That’s the core of what we do; connecting these filmmakers with audiences.” Yutani continued, “To be able to do that at this level was incredibly rewarding.”
The PC satellite TV occasion is next to London and Mexico. The Sundance Movie Competition: Asia started again in 2014 as Sundance Hong Kong, remaining there until COVID. The competition moved to Jakarta in 2022 and eventually to Taipei in 2023.
There was no shortage of Hollywood stars on hand to share and help educate aspiring storytellers. “Game of Thrones” director Alan Taylor, “Fallout” showrunner Lisa Pleasure, producer Nina Yang Bongiovi and “Joker 2” cinematographer Lawrence Sher were among those on hand to speak about how casting experience and experience play a role in getting a production greenlit, or lessons learned on set. “Didi”’s Sean Wang was joined by Caroline Lindy (“Your Monster”) in sharing their experiences casting and working with artists. Additionally, Sundance organizers held their inaugural Intensive Screenwriting Workshop for the Asian satellite.
With its success in the American market, Yutani saw how Native filmmakers needed to use this system as a method of recognizing up-and-coming filmmakers: “For us to have our curatorial eye on these films, determine which ones are trending, and to be able to have Native judges and jury members and hear their thoughts and what they responded to was interesting. We were pretty accurate with each other.”
Taiwanese filmmakers had a unique alternative to submit their short films for competition. The jury prize for best short film, offered by Gold Home, was ultimately awarded to “Suo Jiang” by production designer-turned-director Lin Chien-yu.
Yutani, who joined Sundance in 2006 as a short film programmer, said the format was near and dear to her heart. “It’s such an exciting format because there are no rules. You can do whatever you want.” She highlighted the fact that the format has always been “a place of discovery.” Yutani stated, “ Having the ability to identify a filmmaker with vision in their short film is a gift for programmers and curators.”
The program provided local filmmakers with a chance to hear and see the connective tissue of the competition’s work at the grassroots level. Wang was someone who had started out in the labs. Yutani explained, “Finding out that a filmmaker had gone through our artist applications and our labs, and had a feature film that was really profitable, and being able to premiere that was the absolute best situation.” She continued, “Having a filmmaker of Taiwanese origin come in with such an ideal film to open our competition was nice. But having someone talk about what our labs do, and how they can be a useful resource for filmmakers was nice.”
Mary Sadeghy, head of partnerships and events at the Sundance Institute, equates the competition’s success and progress to its many partnerships, starting with fellow Asia competition winners Jonathan Liao and Kevin Lin. She calls them the “heartbeat” of the competition. The help of TAICCA, a ministry of culture-funded intermediary between the private and non-private sectors that produces and sells content across film, TV, music, comics and video games, has helped the group’s mission.
Sadeghy said, “We’re really excited to be able to deliver something to the artist community and to the audience, and to be able to have that symbiotic relationship.” She continued, “Mission is everything, and when you find a partnership that really helps to sustain your mission and push your mission forward, that can be a special and unique opportunity.”
Last year, Taiwanese productions increased from 10 percent to 16 percent, with extra funding going to filmmakers, as the federal government made efforts to spice up Taiwan’s film scene. Lin said: “You’ve got big organizations that are pushing for a stronger funding system so that anyone, from a budding filmmaker to a student, can start to see and realize, ‘Okay, how am I going to get access to funding to make more and more impartial, high-quality films?’”
As Taiwan seeks to establish itself in the Asian film market, a competition like Sundance will help storytellers create and promote their work.
By bringing the perfect, and by having meaningful conversations and offering sources, Yutani stated, “The best thing we can do after going to a place is to make ourselves available to the people at the grassroots, the emerging storytellers, and to let them know that Sundance is a place for them.”
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