After the Snowmelt team, Mother Maybe team together with the jury members
The event, organized by the Taiwan Creative Content Agency (TAICCA), secured an impressive number of local and international sponsors for its 30 pitching awards including Chunghwa Telecom, Taiwan Mobile, Far EasTone and France’s Centre National du cinéma et de l’image animée (CNC). The total award prize surpassed the NT$6 million or nearly US$200,000. Homme Tsai, Chairperson of TAICCA, opened the evening saying that the support for this year's TCCF had been unprecedented, "the agency has actively collaborated with South Korea, France, Japan, and the three major telecommunications companies in Taiwan. Our goal is to provide creators with more funding while seeking additional international collaboration opportunities."
The grand prize, the US$30,000 TAICCA X CNC Award, went to the documentary After the Snowmelt. The Taiwanese-Japanese co-production is a heartfelt tribute from director Lo Yi-Shan to her best friend Chu, who passed away while trekking in Nepal. The director highlighted that there are not many opportunities for documentary pitches in Taiwan and was thankful to the organization for featuring a documentary session for the first time, "the fact that TCCF specifically caters to documentary submissions is a significant encouragement." However, the biggest surprise of the night came right at the end of the ceremony when the organization announced that due to the high quality of the projects this year they would grant a second TAICCA X CNC Award. The second winner, the Filipino feature film Mother Maybe, is a fantasy drama that mixes Filipino folklore with a universal message of finding your own family and your place in the world. Producer Arden Rod Condez, visibly overwhelmed, confessed that "we never expected it. It's our first film market and my first time in Taiwan but I'm very glad this story resonated with a lot of people. It's quite personal but, also, a little crazy." The project also received the Taichung Action Award and the MPA Grand Award that evening.
Another highlighted project in this year's TCCF PITCHING is the series Maid of Vengeance. Directed by 2022 Golden Bell Best Director winner David Chuang (Danger Zone), this revenge thriller follows the downfall of a TV anchor after her sex tape is leaked online. Now a vigilante, she swears to take down the platform behind the leaked videos. Maid of Vengeance received the Chunghwa Telecom Award, together with a cash prize NT$600,000, and the Series Mania Award, which means the project will participate in Series Mania 2024. Taiwan-Hong Kong feature Appetite for Desire was one of the other top earners of the night. The supernatural drama, co-produced by Taiwan's Flash Forward Entertainment, received the MIFFEST Award, the Choice of Deep Waters Award and Taipei International Film Award.
This year TCCF PITCHING opened up for the first time to international projects. The 53 selected projects, out of 539 submissions, were presented in 5 different sessions, Project to Screen, divided in feature films, series, animation and documentary, and Story to Screen, for Taiwanese IPs with great adaptability potential. Curator and producer Lorna Tee, one of the awards' decision makers, declared that "I'm just quite overwhelmed with joy with the quality of the pitched projects at this year's TCCF. This platform allows filmmakers to think and have meaningful conversations about their projects, and find co-production partners. The more countries involved in the development of a film the easier it will reach a wider audience."
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