A film festival that has lost its originality
─ An announcement to the Taipei Film Festival from the Documentary Media Workers' Union
The Taipei Film Festival is embarking into its 11th year. The optimal goal has a broader perspective than just inviting foreign films, but most importantly the hosting of the “Taipei Award”.
For local filmmakers, perks from “Taipei Award” are not limited to just the prizes. A variety of different genres (drama, documentary, experimental, animation), format (film, digital), and film lengths are welcomed. Every good film is entitled to a golden opportunity. Therefore, the “Taipei Award” became the annual grand event for all local filmmakers, and a channel for the international film industry to have a comprehensive look at the Taiwanese image creation.
The “Grand Award,” the highest prize given of the “Taipei Award,” was designed for juries to decide on the prize winner solely based on the film quality without restricting the genre, format or length. The award goes to a wide selection of films other than the traditional narrative features. In the past decade, the winners are comprised of different categories such as documentaries《two guys go hunting》, 《Farewell 1999》, 《The Last Rice Farmer》), experimental films (《Stardust 15749001》), animations (《Women》, 《Exit》), and even drama shorts (《Summers》). It is a proof of diversification and fruitfulness of Taiwan image creations. Moreover, it establishes the uniqueness and liberty of the Taipei Film Festival, and influenced the directions of other film awards.
However, starting last year (2008), without any notice, the Taipei Film Festival hastily canceled the entitlement of films other than feature films to compete for the “Grand Award”. Furthermore, it carelessly categorized the “Special Awards,” which dedicated to filmmakers’ personal achievements on films, now only dedicated to narrative feature filmmakers. These decisions have completely eradicated the originality of the competition. We, as the culture citizens and filmmakers, have the right to question the intention of the person in charge, if he/she is just fishing for fame and compliments and overlooking the real content and originality of the festival, which is a fair chance for all Taiwanese filmmakers to compete. The Taipei Film Festival no longer recognizes films from different genres other than narrative features.
This rash decision had created controversy and criticism last year; however, the organizer remains silence. The Documentary Union decided to speak out this year, not only for local filmmakers, but also to express our concerns regarding the festival, which had difficulties in distinguishing itself from the Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival and losing its originality. If this persists, the festival will not only lose even more of the already declining audience, but also the respect from local filmmakers and the vigor that once attracted the international film industry.
Based on the reasons mentioned above, we sincerely plead Taipei Film Festival to redeem the awards and promote reformation to improve the overall quality of the film festival. If there should be any reason that the reformation could not be completed, please immediately offer an explanation to the public. We will never allow the film festival gradually become an event no longer belongs to public. This is the sincere pledge from all filmmakers and culture citizens.
連署聲明@紀錄片工會部落格頁面：
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