How did the organizers of this year’s Sundance Film Festival: Asia celebrate their return to Taiwan? By growing the festival in every way possible.
For the second year in a row, the Sundance Film Festival: Asia returned to Taipei. The festival’s expanded program was a reflection of Taiwan’s efforts to promote filmmaking in the region. The festival was extended from three to five days. Last year, only three feature films were screened. This time, 15 films, including “Didi,” “Soju,” “Little Death,” and “Your Monster,” were among the films showcasing the best American independent stories. Last year, only two filmmakers attended; this time, there were eight. The festival also doubled the size of its panels and master classes.
Not only do they screen films and host seminars, the organizers also help raise the country's profile as a hub for local and international filmmakers.
“This was a great way for us to grow the festival in Taiwan,” said Kim Yutani, Sundance Film Festival Programming Director. “This is the core of what we do: connecting filmmakers with audiences.” “It was a pleasure to be able to do this on this level,” Yutani continued.
The sub-event is held alongside London and Mexico. Sundance Film Festival: Asia began in 2014 as Sundance Hong Kong, and remained there until the coronavirus outbreak. The festival moved to Jakarta in 2022, and finally to Taipei in 2023.
There was no shortage of Hollywood star power at the festival to engage and educate aspiring storytellers. “Game of Thrones” director Alan Taylor, “Fallout” showrunner Lisa Joy, producer Nina Yang Bongiovi and “Joker 2” director of photography Lawrence Sher were among some of the attendees who led panels on how talent and the casting process play a crucial role in getting a production greenlit, or lessons learned on set. Caroline Linde (“Monster”) joined Diddy’s Shawn Wang to share their experiences casting and working with actors. Additionally, Sundance organizers held an intensive workshop for the inaugural Asian Satellite screenwriters.
Thanks to the program's success in the U.S. market, Yutani noticed that local filmmakers wanted to use the program as a way to discover emerging filmmakers: “It was great to look at these films, to see which ones were emerging, and to be able to meet the judges and local jury members and hear their feedback, what they responded to. We were very understanding.”
Taiwanese filmmakers were given an exclusive opportunity to submit their short films for the competition. In the end, the Jury Prize for Best Short Film, presented by Gold House, was awarded to “Suo Jiang” by director and production designer Lin Chin-yu.
Yutani, who joined Sundance in 2006 as a shorts programmer, said the genre is near and dear to her heart. “It’s a very exciting genre because there are no rules. You can do whatever you want.” She highlighted the fact that the genre has always been “a place of discovery.” Yutani said: “Being able to identify a filmmaker with a vision through their short film is a huge gift to programmers and curators.”
The programming gave local filmmakers a chance to hear and see the connective tissue of the festival’s work in action. Wang was one of those who got her start in the labs. “Knowing that a filmmaker had been through our arts programs and labs, and had a feature film that had been a hit, and being able to premiere it was the best possible scenario,” Yutani said. “It was great to have a filmmaker of Taiwanese descent come in with a perfect film to open our festival. But to have someone talk about what our labs do, and how they can be a resource for filmmakers, was just amazing.”
Caroline Linde and Shawn Wang
Mary Sadeghi, head of partnerships and events at the Sundance Institute, attributes the festival’s success and growth to many partnerships, starting with the festival’s Asia partners, Jonathan Liao and Kevin Lin. She calls them “the heartbeat of the festival.” Support from TAICCA, a Ministry of Culture-funded intermediary between the public and private sectors that produces and promotes content in film, television, music, comics, and games, has helped the organization achieve its mission.
“We’re really happy that we were able to bring something to the artist community and the audience, and that we were able to have this symbiotic relationship,” Sadeghi said. “Mission is everything, and when you can find a partnership that really helps sustain and advance your mission, it’s a special and unique opportunity.”
Mary Sadeghi and Kim Yutani
Last year, Taiwanese productions rose from 10% to 16%, with increased funding for filmmakers, as the government works to boost the profile of Taiwan’s film industry. “There are big organizations pushing for a more robust funding system so that anyone from amateur filmmakers to students can start to see and understand, ‘Well, how am I going to get funding to make increasingly higher-quality independent films?’” Lin said.
As Taiwan seeks to establish itself firmly in the Asian film market, a festival like Sundance can help storytellers create and develop their work.
“By bringing in the best, having meaningful conversations, and providing resources, the best thing we can do when we go somewhere is to make ourselves available to people on the ground, to emerging storytellers, and to understand that Sundance is a place for them,” Yutani said.
