Taiwanese films at Cannes Film Festival

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Taiwanese cinema is coming to Cannes with a slew of productions showcasing local talent and stories, from Mongrel in Directors' Fortnight and Locust in Critics' Week to The Shameless in Un Certain Regard and Meeting With Pol Pot in Cannes Premiere.

Locust producer Anita Gou, known as the producer of Lulu Wang's award-winning The Farewell, is enthusiastic about this new generation of emerging Taiwanese talent that is eager to engage with the global industry.

"There's more international attention paid to Taiwan these days, and we're seeing more Taiwanese projects at international festivals and pitch forums," says Gou, who splits her time between Los Angeles and Taiwan. "There is more awareness in Taiwan's filmmaking community, especially the younger generation, that they should seek out resources that are available abroad along with what can be found at home."

Taiwan's Ministry of Culture is one of the first organisations to offer subsidies to the local film industry. The inducements are not restricted to production and can be used to cover travel expenses to film festivals, marketing, distribution and special effects. More funding resources have been made available in recent years through Taiwan's International Co-funding Programme (TICP), a flagship incentive scheme launched by Taiwan Creative Content Agency (TAICCA) in January 2021 to facilitate international productions and create collaboration opportunities for Taiwanese creatives.

MONGREL

Like Locust, Mongrel is a three-�country co-production backed by the Ministry of Culture and TAICCA, and was shot in Taiwan. This Taiwan-Singapore-France co-�production also secured the support of Taipei Film Fund, Kaohsiung Film Fund and funds from the Taichung city government.

"Such subsidies are a big help for films like ours that are without backing from large corporate enterprises," says rising Taiwanese producer Lynn Chen of Mongrel. "Government funding is also more credible and stable compared to funding from the private sector as the winning projects would have been assessed by a professional jury and the funding, once granted, is unlikely to be withdrawn unless there are major violations. These give us the upper hand during international negotiations."

Mongrel marks the feature directing debut of Singapore-born Chiang Wei Liang, who has been based in Taiwan for a decade, and Taiwan's You Qiao Yin. It is also the first feature Chen produced through her Taiwan-based Le Petit Jardin. Chen got to know Chiang when they attended the same post-graduate school at Taipei National University of the Arts and ended up producing his short film Anchorage Prohibited, which picked up a prize at the Berlinale in 2016.

Chen believes that funding remains the biggest hurdle for Taiwanese cinema. "The funding size has a direct impact on the dreams that we want to make," she says. "We know that any investment entails risk, but it will dampen investors' interest when it's more like a gamble. There are times when investors back out because they don't see the return on investment."

View the Official Trailer for MONGREL