Taiwan is making a robust assertion on the 2025 Toronto Intl. Movie Competition with a sturdy lineup led by feminine filmmakers, highlighting the nation’s rising affect in worldwide cinema by numerous storytelling approaches.
Shu Qi‘s directorial debut “Woman” anchors Taiwan’s TIFF presence with its North American premiere within the prestigious Centrepiece program. The emotionally nuanced coming-of-age story is gaining important pageant consideration, positioning the actor-turned-filmmaker as a significant new directorial voice in Taiwanese cinema.
“Not solely Taiwanese movies however movies everywhere in the world face the identical challenges available in the market,” Shu Qi tells Selection. “So don’t overthink it. When you have the chance to make a movie, seize it, inform your story and inform it proper.”
Becoming a member of “Woman” within the Centrepiece lineup is Shih-Ching Tsou’s “Left-Handed Woman,” an intimate household drama set towards the colourful backdrop of a Taipei night time market. The movie, which debuted at Cannes, represents a world co-production involving Taiwan, France, the U.S. and the U.Ok., with Tsou additionally serving as author alongside Sean Baker who additionally produces.
The Centrepiece program additionally options “Palimpsest: The Story of a Identify,” a deeply private documentary co-produced with Taiwan exploring the filmmaker’s household historical past and the colonial origins of their Western surname.
Taiwan Artistic Content material Company (TAICCA) chair Sue Wang highlights the importance of this female-led wave in Taiwanese cinema: “We worth range and spend money on initiatives that embody a variety of genres, themes and views. We’re happy to see extra Taiwan narratives led by girls gaining worldwide recognition. This not solely displays the rise of gender consciousness and ladies’s empowerment in Taiwan, but additionally reveals how works exploring numerous gender views are thriving right here.”
Taiwan’s TIFF footprint extends past the Centrepiece program into specialised sections. In Wavelengths, TIFF’s part for worldwide, avant-garde and experimental cinema, Taiwan seems as a manufacturing companion on Lav Diaz’s myth-busting historic epic “Magellan,” highlighting the nation’s engagement with international auteur-driven narratives.
Wang emphasizes Taiwan’s strategic strategy to worldwide collaboration: “TAICCA welcomes worldwide co-production initiatives and presents a co-investment program to assist collaborations between Taiwanese and international companions, with Southeast Asia and Europe amongst our key areas of focus. In Southeast Asia, we stay up for extra collaborations that construct on shared cultural ties, historic connections, and even the experiences of a brand new technology of immigrants.”
The pageant’s Brief Cuts program options Joe Hsieh and Yonfan’s animated brief “Praying Mantis,” a Taiwan-Hong Kong co-production that continues the filmmakers’ profitable pageant circuit run. The inclusion highlights Taiwan’s rising fame in short-form and animated cinema.
Wang notes Taiwan’s distinctive positioning within the international market: “Taiwan is a crossroads of numerous cultures, formed not solely by influences from the US, Japan, Korea and past, but additionally enriched by a big Southeast Asian immigrant group. Together with this cultural range, Taiwan additionally advantages from sturdy linguistic familiarity inside the huge international Chinese language-speaking inhabitants, giving it entry to a broad potential viewers.”
The sturdy TIFF 2025 exhibiting displays Taiwan’s broader strategic shift towards worldwide prominence. Wang describes her strategy for the business: “My imaginative and prescient is to construct a forward-looking, agile and results-driven assist platform for Taiwan’s inventive content material business, enabling creators to thrive in a quickly altering international market.”
Wanting forward, Wang expresses formidable targets for Taiwan’s international notion: “5 years from now, I hope worldwide audiences will see Taiwan as a supply of unique, numerous and deeply resonant tales, with content material that’s daring, open in spirit, and in a position to cross cultures to the touch hearts, shaping an inspiring ‘Taiwan Wave’ within the international market.”
With its numerous TIFF 2025 lineup spanning a number of sections and genres, Taiwan is positioning itself as a inventive pressure able to producing each intimate private tales and expansive worldwide co-productions — all whereas championing rising feminine voices in cinema.
