Sundance Film Festival Asia Announces Short Film Competition Finalists and Panels Line-Up, guest speakers including Justin Lin, Dan Lin and more

With three weeks to go to the first Sundance Film Festival Asia in Taipei, August 18 – 20, the Festival today has announced the finalists for the short film competition, special panels including Justin Lin, Dan Lin, and more. Tickets for the film screenings of Jamojaya (Justin Chon), Shortcomings (Randall Park) and Sometimes I Think About Dying (Rachel Lambert) as well as the Short Film Program and the panels are on sale now at www.SundanceFFAsia.com.

Spotlighting Taiwanese filmmaking talent with the 2023 Sundance Film Festival Asia Short Film Competition, 9 finalists have been chosen from over 250 entries. This year’s judging team saw a first-time collaboration between Sundance Film Festival programmers Kim Yutani, Heidi Zwicker and Mike Plante  with special guest jurors Anita Gou (Producer – The Farewell, Honey Boy) and Wen Tien-Hsiang (CEO, Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival).

The artists and their projects are: 

Afterlife (Sheng-Chun Huang and Lo-Yi Hsueh), Ant Hotel ( Yu-Hsuan Teng), Are We Good? (Annie Hsu), Burning (Hao Tang), Is This Now The Time I Should Let You Go? (Yi-Chin Tsai), The Rubbings of Trajectories (Cheng-Hsu Chung), The Train of Memories (Chih-Ming Chen), Tuo Tuo (An Chu) and Unexpected Passenger (Jui-Chien Hsia).

The Jury Award for Best Short Film presented by Barco will be announced at the Festival’s Opening Reception on 18 August followed by special screenings of the Short Film Competition Finalists in a Short Film Program during the weekend from 19-20 August at the SPOT Huashan Cinema. Previous short film winners have successfully gone on to be shown at the main Sundance Film Festival in Utah and other similar worldwide acclaimed film festivals.

To round up the Festival’s weekend events, exclusive panels will take place within Huashan and nearby SYNTREND – details of all available panels to attend include:

• Meet the Sundance Programmers
  • Get the inside scoop as Sundance Film Festival Director of Programming Kim Yutani and Senior Programmer Heidi Zwicker share how Sundance programmers select films and engage with industry and artists.

Moderated by Mary Sadeghy, Head of Partnerships, Sundance Institute.

• • Date and time: Saturday 19 August, 13:30 PM 
  • Venue: 2/F, SPOT Huashan Cinema, Huashan 1914 Creative Park
  • Ticket: $100 NTD

• Meet the Sundance Film Festival Asia Filmmakers
  • Join us as Sundance Asia feature filmmakers Justin Chon (Jamojaya) and Rachel Lambert (Sometimes I Think About Dying) discuss their creative processes as they brought their films to the screen and share candid advice for aspiring filmmakers.  

Moderated by Heidi Zwicker, Senior Programmer, Sundance Film Festival.

• • Date and time: Sunday 20 August, 13:00 PM
  • Venue: SPOT Huashan Cinema, Huashan 1914 Creative Park
  • Ticket: $100 NTD

 

Master Panels supported by The New Media Entertainment Association (NMEA), each panel contains 2 sessions: 

• Master Panel 1
  • Session 1

Creating the Look of Your Movie – From the Movie Set to the Cinema with special speaker Joachim Zell, Head of HDR Content Workflow at Barco

See some examples on how to create a Hollywood style cinema movie look, using ACES, the Academy Color Encoding System. How to keep that look consistent, looking at the movie on monitors on set and during editing and VFX creation, to the final large screen DI and Cinema screenings in SDR and HDR.

Short break

• • Session 2

Producing in the Time of Chaos: with special guest speaker Dan Lin

Dan is often asked – what does a Hollywood producer actually do? He will discuss the role of a creative producer, including development, production and post-production. In addition, he will discuss the state of the film industry during a time of disruption with two concurrent labor strikes currently happening in Hollywood – a writers strike and an actors strike. What can a producer do when the film business is essentially shut down?

• • Date and time: Saturday 19 August, 14:00 PM
  • Venue: SYNTREND 12/F, No. 2, Section 3, Civic Blvd, Zhongzheng District, Taipei City
  • Ticket: $100 NTD

 

• Master Panel 2
  • Session 1

How to Make It Work? The Relationship between Director and Producer: with special guest speakers Todd Makurath and George Huang, moderated by Tiffany Chen 

The director/producer relationship can easily make and break a film. What is the process of the collaboration? How to manage the unmanageable? This panel will give you an inside look to the director/producer relationship in various settings from indies to tentpoles, from East to West.  

Short break 

• • Session 2

Fireside Chat with Justin Lin, moderated by Janet Hsieh

From Sundance to the top of the box office with The Fast and the Furious, world-renowned Director Justin Lin talks about his journey from indie breakout to blockbuster director.

• • Date and time: Sunday 20 August, 13:30 PM
  • Venue: SYNTREND 12/F, No. 2, Section 3, Civic Blvd, Zhongzheng District, Taipei City
  • Ticket: $100 NTD

 

For full details of the program plus tickets to film screenings and panels please visit www.SundanceFFAsia.com.

For further updates please stay tuned to our Instagram (@sundanceffasia) and Facebook (@sundanceffasiaTW) pages.

The 2023 Sundance Film Festival Asia is co-organized by G2Go Entertainment and the Sundance Institute, in partnership with TAICCA and Taipei City, and supported by Taiwan Women’s Film Association. It is sponsored by Cathay Financial Holdings with special thanks to SPOT Huashan Cinema, Kavalan, Regent Hotel Taipei, Ambassador Hotel Group, Barco, and the State of Utah.

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Media inquiries:

Vincent Wan

Sundance Film Festival Asia Team

[email protected]

+852 6626 3242

 

About Sundance Institute

As a champion and curator of independent stories, the nonprofit Sundance Institute provides and preserves the space for artists across storytelling media to create and thrive. Founded in 1981 by Robert Redford, the Institute’s signature labs, granting, and mentorship programs, dedicated to developing new work, take place throughout the year in the U.S. and internationally. Sundance Collab, a digital community platform, brings a global cohort of working artists together to learn from each other and Sundance advisors and connect in a creative space, developing and sharing works in progress. The Sundance Film Festival and other public programs connect audiences and artists to ignite new ideas, discover original voices, and build a community dedicated to independent storytelling. Through the Sundance Institute artist programs we have supported such projects as Bottle Rocket, Boys Don’t Cry, Call Me By Your Name, The Farewell, Flee, Fruitvale Station, Get Out, Half Nelson, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Hereditary, Requiem for a Dream, Reservoir Dogs, RBG, Swiss Army Man, and Walking and Talking. Through year-round artist programs, the Institute also nurtured the early careers of artists such as Paul Thomas Anderson, Wes Anderson, Gregg Araki, Darren Aronofsky, Lisa Cholodenko, Ryan Coogler, Nia DaCosta, The Daniels, David Gordon Green, Miranda July, James Mangold, John Cameron Mitchell, Kimberly Peirce, Boots Riley, Ira Sachs, Quentin Tarantino, Taika Waititi, Lulu Wang, and Chloé Zhao. Support Sundance Institute in our commitment to uplifting bold artists and powerful storytelling globally by making a donation at sundance.org/donate. Join Sundance Institute on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, and YouTube.

Sundance Film Festival Asia (SFF Asia) is an expansion of Sundance Institute’s programming in the region, further championing and promoting visibility for independent storytelling before a wider global audience. SFF Asia is a traveling event, moving throughout various cities across Asia. In 2022, the event was held in Jakarta, organized by XRM Media, IDN Times, and several other parties. 

About G2Go Entertainment

G2Go stands for ‘雞兔狗’ or ‘Chicken Rabbit Dog’, the zodiac signs of the Taiwanese founding members wanting to bring the best of the tech and entertainment world to Taiwan. Led by Kevin Lin, G2Go produces events, hosts parties, facilitates and introduces key connections to trusted providers, with the simple purpose of helping elevate Taiwan’s presence in the global community.

Through an expansive network of accomplished Asian and American counterparts, G2Go connects international brands, ideas, and people to Taiwan, creating a bridge for future collaboration and the opportunity for more global exposure.  

The 2023 Taiwan edition of Sundance Film Festival Asia is produced with the help of Taiwan Women’s Film Association, organizers of the annual Women Make Waves Film Festival since 1993. Taiwan Women’s Film Association’s goal is to provide a perspective on humanities and the arts through film, gender diversity, and are not only a stage for local filmmakers, but also a platform for their international exposure.