TIDF Grand Opening on Friday, 10th of May! Lineup of Competition Jury members revealed "Special Presentation" section presents works from jury members, honoring late filmmakers

2024/05/09 23:53

The Taiwan International Documentary Festival (TIDF) organized by the Taiwan Film and Audiovisual Institute (TFAI), will kick off this Friday (May 10th) with a vibrant opening ceremony at TFAI. After a long pandemic hiatus, over a hundred international film industry professionals will be present for live exchanges during the ten-day festival, showcasing almost 140 exciting international and domestic productions.

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Asia Vision Competition Jury Members: Fan WU, Joost DAAMEN, Thaiddhi

 

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International Competition Jury Members: WU Ming-yi, Nishtha JAIN, Yuliia KOVALENKO

 

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Taiwan Competition Jury Members: WANG Chun-chi, Christopher ALLEN, Yuki ADITYA

 

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TIDF Visionary Award Jury Members: Jill LI, HU Mu-ching, Christopher SMALL

 

A total of 42 films have been nominated across the three major competition sections: the "Asian Vision Competition," "International Competition," and the "Taiwan Competition," alongside 14 films selected for the "TIDF Visionary Award," which recognizes outstanding documentary filmmaking from Chinese-speaking regions. The winners will be announced at the awards ceremony on the evening of May 16th. TIDF is honored to welcome a distinguished panel of jury members from Taiwan, Asia, Europe, and the US, each bringing their unique perspectives to the challenging task of selecting the standout works from the shortlists.

 

2024 TIDF Jury Members

Asia Vision Competition

  • Fan WU: Programmer, Producer, Documentary short programme Producer, Mirror TV
  • Joost DAAMEN: Head of Programme, International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA)
  • Thaiddhi: Programmer, Filmmaker, Producer, Co-founder of Wathann Film Festival, Co-director of “Ten Years Myanmar”

International Competition

  • WU Ming-yi: Renowned novelist, writer, Professor at the Department of Sinophone Literatures, National Dong Hwa University
  • Nishtha JAIN: Indian filmmaker, known for her documentaries, feature films, VR, and TV programmes, screened and awarded at prestigious film festivals world-wide
  • Yuliia KOVALENKO: Curator, Programme Director of Docudays UA, Ukraine International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival

Taiwan Competition

  • WANG Chun-chi: Film scholar, Associate Professor at the Department of Filmmaking, National Taipei University of the Arts
  • Christopher ALLEN: Founder and Executive Artistic Director of UnionDocs, New York
  • Yuki ADITYA: Programmer, Filmmaker, Director of ARKIPEL International Documentary and Experimental Film Festival

TIDF Visionary Award

  • Jill LI: Hong Kong documentary filmmaker, known for her award-winning work Lost Course
  • HU Mu-ching: Senior journalist, specializing in non-fiction writing, culture team supervisor of Mirror Media
  • Christopher SMALL: Writer, programmer, publisher, Editorial Manager at the Locarno Film Festival

To foster appreciation of documentary film among the younger generation, TIDF has once again invited a youth jury to recommend “Next Generation Award" from six selected films. The 18-member jury of high school students was established in collaboration with the Fubon Cultural and Educational Foundation.

 

Beyond the competition and eight curated sections, TIDF incorporates a "Special Presentation" section, which showcases significant films by jury members and honors the memory of late filmmakers who made meaningful contributions to the TIDF. Thus, audiences will have the chance to watch the new film by jury member and award-winning filmmaker Nishtha JAIN. In The Golden Thread (2023), she portrays the final days of a century-old jute factory near Kolkata, documenting the entire production chain from cutting and drying the reed along the river to weaving in two mills, which were soon closed thereafter.

The Golden Thread (2023)

 

The section also pays homage two late Taiwanese filmmakers who had deep connections with TIDF: Anthropologist HU Tai-li (1950-2022) a pioneer of visual anthropology in Taiwan, and CHANG Chao-tang, recipient of the 2024 TIDF "Outstanding Contribution Award," who sadly passed away in early April this year. HU’s Songs of Pasta'ay (1988), co-directed work with LEE Daw-ming (2022 TIDF Outstanding Contribution Award) and shot by CHANG Chao-tang, records the Pasta’ay festival in 1986, a significant ritual held once every ten years in Wufeng Township, Hsinchu. It explores the Saisiat people's beliefs in legendary beings, their ambivalence toward tourism, and the clash between tradition and modernization.

Songs of Pasta'ay (1988)

 

Finally, tribute is paid to two Dutch documentary directors Heddy HONIGMAN (1951-2022) and Leonard Retel HELMRICH (1959-2023). HONIGMAN was TIDF Filmmaker in Focus in 2010. Audiences will have the opportunity to see her masterpiece Forever (2006) which explores the Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, a serene graveyard where renowned artists such as Chopin and Proust rest. Through conversations with mourners, she probes profound questions about life and our mortality. Do emotions and memories persist into "forever" after the physical body has ceased to exist? The precious 35mm film has been specially acquired from the EYE Film Museum in the Netherlands.

Forever (2006)

 

Leonard Retel HELMRICH is commemorated with the final chapter of his classic trilogy Position Among the Stars (2010). A chronicle over twelve years, the film follows an Indonesian family in Jakarta's slums, revealing societal issues like corruption, religious conflicts, and economic disparity. Employing his innovative "Single Shot Cinema" technique, which emphasizes camera movement and long takes, he freely moves around his subjects, capturing emotional tension and chaotic daily life in an intimate way.

Position Among the Stars (2010)

 

The 14th Taiwan International Documentary Festival will be grandly held from May 10th to May 19th at venues including the Taiwan Film and Audiovisual Institute, SPOT-Huashan, Vie Show Cinemas Taipei QSquare, and the Taiwan Contemporary Culture Lab (C-LAB). Festival Ticket Packages and Individual Tickets are now available for enthusiastic purchase on OPENTIX. Award-winning works will be screened on the last day of the festival, Sunday, May 19th.  Please check the TIDF website on May 16th , the schedule will be released immediately after the award ceremony. For more information, please stay tuned to TIDF official website, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.