Taiwan is making waves at the 82nd Venice Film Festival with his most important presence to date, titled by the beginnings of director of Shu Qi, “Girl”, becoming the first Taiwanese film to compete for the Golden Lion since “Stray Dogs” by Tsai Ming-Liang in 2013.
“Girl”, a tale of passing to adulthood in the 1980s, represents Taiwan’s return to the best level of Venice after more than a decade.
“Not only of Taiwanese films but films from around the world face the same challenges on the market,” explains Shu Qi Variety. “So don’t think too much. If you have the opportunity to make a film, enter it, tell your story and tell it correctly.”
The Taiwan Venice imprint extends beyond the main competition. The animated short film by Joe Hsieh and Yonfan “Praying Mantis” obtained another first, becoming the first Taiwanese animation work selected for the international competition of the Horizons Short Films. The film is a pencil deketch fable, rooted in Taiwanese mythology and presented in Taiwanese Hokkien.
The presence of Taiwan is still reinforced by the new documentary of the director of Master Tsai Ming-Liang “Back Home” projection of the competition and a restoration of his winner of Lion Golden of 1994 “Long live love” in the Venice classics.
But it is in the immersive media space where the presence of Taiwan is the most pronounced. Six projects led by Taiwan or co -products – “blur”, “The clouds are two thousand meters high”, “Dark Rooms”, “Sense of Nowhere”, “The Shadow (Shadow)” and “The Magic Opera” – have secured spots in the content program of Venice (Taicca).
“Taiwan has developed strong creative and production capacities in animation and immersive [XR] Storytelling, winning more and more visibility at international festivals and professional platforms, ”explains Taicca Sue Wang President Variety. “These works have various themes and styles with a high level of visual sophistication, and through their stories rooted in the local culture, they serve as an important window for the international public to live Taiwan.”
The momentum extends to the commercial side, with three immersive projects – “After being broken in the dust”, “The Amazon Gold” and “Poetics of Soil: The Wood Wide Web” – Pitching for International Co -Funncing on the market for the end of the production of the Venice production bridge.
Wang has focused on the unique technological advantages of Taiwan in the XR space: “Taiwan has a complete chain of the technological industry. Brands such as HTC, MSI, Gigabyte, Asus and Acer are all established here. Taiwan is well positioned and open to the exploration of innovations at the intersection of content and technology. ”
The head of the agency underlined the previous successes, in particular the collaboration of Taiwan Flash Forward Entertainment with Novaya in France on “Colored”, which won the best immersive work in Cannes 2024, and the singing director “The Man Who Who Who Never Lave” by Chen, which won the prize for the best VR experience in Venice 2022.
The Venice showcase is added to the backdrop of the important challenges of industry which make Taiwan’s breakthrough all the more remarkable. “One of the main challenges is that the Taiwan market is still mainly domestic, with a need for more players capable of extending internationally and folding the value chain of intermediate operators to large distributors and downstream platforms to strengthen exports,” Wang explains. “The industry is largely made up of small and medium -sized enterprises, and a large part of Taiwan’s production is based on projects, often without fully developed financial statements, which makes it more difficult to attract large -scale investments.”
To meet these challenges, Taicca has implemented strategic support measures. “As a key industry facilitator, Taicca provides equity and project investments, as well as advisory support throughout the request process, to help industry obtain the funding it needs to develop and also offer production teams a clear path to internationalization,” said Wang. “In addition, co-investment through the National Development Fund reduces the risk of private investors, attracting the sector and allowing greater support for content creation, thus promoting a healthier and more sustainable ecosystem.”
The agency has also forged crucial international partnerships to strengthen the global scope of Taiwan. “Taicca recently established partnerships with international studios, including the South Korea ENM CJ, MBC Plus, Something Special, Asmik Ace from Japan, Singapore Mediacorp and the Cinefrance studios,” said Wang. “These collaborations promote international co -productions, creating various opportunities for Taiwanese creators – improve the quality and scale of production, expanding the exchange of talents and facilitating access to financing and international resources.”
“Overall, Taiwan goes from mainly local development focused on a double -track model that combines both interior growth and active international tour and distribution,” adds Wang, citing successful international windows such as the exhibition “Portals of Solitude” like the New York image museum.
The presence of Venice 2025 of Taiwan signals the evolution of the nation of a regional cinematographic presence with a diversified power of content covering traditional narrative cinema, animation and the immersive media of advanced – positioning itself as a key player in the technological future of cinema while maintaining strong cultural roots.
