Calling all movie fans: The 2008 Golden Horse Film Festival is coming to Taichung!

Words by Golden Horse Film Festival
Executive Committee
Translated by Ann Lee

Aiming to attract people of all ages, the 2008 Golden Horse Film Festival will be screening some of the best and most talked-about films of 2007 and 2008. The festival committee hopes to unite multi-generational audiences with a common love of quality cinema.

Some of this year's festival films include "The Class", which received the 2008 Golden Palm Awards at the Cannes Film Festival and "Idiots & Angels", the winner of Best Animated Short Film at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival. Silver screen lovers will also be able to appreciate other films that won the Grand Jury Prize Awards at the Berlin, Cannes, and Venice film festivals. One talked-about series to get excited about is the "Made in the U.S.A." group, which will showcase 10 American movies, including "Lars and the Real Girl".

This year's Golden Horse Film Festival will not only highlight the work of film masters and blockbusters, but also include categories like "Animated Films", "Documentaries", "Gender-Specific Films", and "After-Midnight Films". Taiwanese audiences will also have the opportunity to watch "Were the World Mine", winner of Best Film of the Year at the Outfest: The Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Film Festival. In order to attract a larger audience, the festival committee has also added other film categories like "Educational Issues", "Women & Secrets", "Southeast Asia-themed Films".

This year's Golden Horse Film Festival will pay tribute to three masters in the film industry: Taiwan's national treasure Director Lee Hsing, Japanese Director Kon Ichikawa, and French Director Jean-Pierre Melville. The festival has invested huge amounts of money to screen more than 10 films created by these three globally-known directors, in what will be the cherry on top of a beautiful collection of films. Melville has been a great inspiration for other directors like Martin Scorsese, John Woo, and Johnnie To and to honor the director his work will be shown on 35-mm film. An exhibition of the famous Taiwanese Director Lee Hsing will also take place at Chung Yo Department Store; this collection will take movie fans back to the glamorous era of Taiwanese cinema.

If you'd like to attend this year's festival, get your tickets fast because they go quickly! For tickets, contact Era Ticketing System (Taichung Era Tickets Service Center: 337, DaYa Rd, 17F; 04-2292-5321)
Important Ticket Dates:
11/1: Ticket sales begin at Taichung Central Mall; Special Promotion of six for NT$1,000.
11/8: All Special Promotion ticket holders can begin choosing seats.
11/13: Individual film ticket sales begin.
Ticket prices for single screening: Adults NT$180, Students NT$160
Film Festival at a Glance:
When: 11/22 (Sat)-12/4 (Thu)
Where: Vieshow Cinema, Taichung Central Mall

Special Events:
* 12/1 (Mon)-12/4 (Thu): Golden Horse Award Chinese film
screening/competition, Vieshow Cinema, Taichung Central Mall
* 11/21 (Fri)-12/7 (Sun): Lee Hsing's Film Exhibition, Chung Yo Department Store,
Building C, 13F
* 11/23 (Sun): Lee Hsing's Seminar, Chung Yo Department Store, Building C, 13F
* 12/6 (Sat): Golden Horse Awards Ceremony, Chungshan Hall, Taichung

All God's Children Can Dance
Robert Logevall
USA│2007│35mm│Color│85min
Received Grand Jury Prize at the 2007 Las Vegas International Film Festival/2007 Deauville Film Festival

A young man, Kengo, believes he's the son of God－that's what his mother told him since he was a young boy. He spends his days working his dead-end job and figuring out his complex feelings for his girlfriend until, one day, he sees a one-eared man and decides to follow him.

Lars and the Real Girl
Craig Gillespie
USA│2007│35mm│Color│106min
Received Best Original Screenplay at the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures Awards/ Oscar-nominated film under Best Original Screenplay in 2007/ Nominated for Best Leading Actor in the 2007 Golden Globe Awards

Lars Lindstrom is an awkwardly shy young man in a small northern town who finally brings home the girl of his dreams to his brother and sister-in-law's home. The only problem is that she's not real - she's a sex doll Lars ordered off the Internet.

Finishing the Game
Justin Lin
USA│2007│35mm│Color│84min
2007 Sundance Film Festival/ Opening film at the 2007 San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival

Bruce Lee's shocking death left legions of stunned fans and a legacy of 12 minutes from his unfinished "Game Of Death" film. Undeterred, studio executives launched a search for his replacement, chronicled here through the eyes of five aspiring thespians who find out what the real game is.

No End in Sight
Charles Ferguson
USA│2008│35mm│Color│102min
Received Best Documentary Film at the 2008 National Society of Film Critics Awards, the 2007 New York Film Critics Circle & the Los Angeles Film Critics Association.

This film examines the manner in which the principal errors of U.S. policy - the use of insufficient troop levels, allowing the looting of Baghdad, the purging of professionals from the Iraqi government and the disbanding of the Iraqi military - largely created the chaos that engulf Iraq.

The Class
Laurent Cantet
France│2008│35mm│Colour│128min
Received the Golden Palm Award at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival

Chronicling a year in the life of a junior high school class in a rougher section of Paris, and the mix of cultures and races in the classroom, this film's kids and their teacher go through a series of challenges and opportunities that will be familiar to anyone who's ever gone to school.

Taare Zaneen Par
Aamir Khan
India│2007│35mm│Colour│165min
Received Best Film, Best Director & Best Screenplay at the 2008 Filmfare Film Awards (India)

Ishaan Awasthi, 8, lives in a world filled with wonders that no one else seems to appreciate; colours, fish and kites are not important in the world of adults, who are much more interested in things like homework and marks. And Ishaan just cannot seem to get anything right in class.

Klass
Ilmar Raag
Estonia│2007│35mm│Colour│99min
Received the Fipresci Award & the Grand Jury Prize Award at the 2007 Warsaw International Film Festival

Brutal bullying catalyzes a high school massacre in this harrowing teen drama. Like "Elephant", it's inspired by the Columbine tragedy, but unlike Gus Van Sant's film, "The Class" posits a rationale for the violence.

The Wave
Dennis Gansel
Germany│2008│35mm│Colour│110min
Nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival/ Received the Best Supporting Actor Award at the 2008 German Film Awards

A high school teacher's unusual experiment to show his students what life is like under a dictatorship spins horribly out of control when the movement takes on a life of its own.

Charlie Bartlett
Jon Poll
USA│2007│35mm│Colour│97min
2007 New York Tribeca Film Festival

About a teenager who gets kicked out of prep school, joins the hoi polloi, makes a name for himself as the student body's resident therapist, and wins over the girl and the school by the end. Bullies are swayed by his analysis; a hottie buys his eccentric shtick.

Stardust: The Bette Davis Story
Peter Jones
USA│2008│35mm│Colour│116min
Received Best Screenplay in the non-drama category at the 2008 Emmy Awards

Combining unprecedented access to Davis' vast personal archives with original interviews, this documentary reveals a startling portrait of one of Hollywood's most gifted and enigmatic stars.

Encounters at the End of the World
Werner Herzog
USA│2008│Digibeta│Colour│99min
Received Best Documentary Award at the 2008 Edingurgh International Film Festival/2007 Toronto International Film Festival

There is a hidden society at the end of the world. One thousand people live together under unbelievably close quarters in Antarctica, risking their lives and sanity in search of cutting-edge science. Herzog traveled to with rare access to the raw beauty of the ultimate Down Under.

Man on Wire
James Marsh
UK / USA│2008│35mm│Colour│90min
Received the Grand Jury Prize for Best Documentary Film at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival/Audience Award at the 2008 Los Angeles Film Festival/Audience Award at the 2008 Edinburgh International Film Festival

In 1974, a young Frenchman named Philippe Petit stepped out on a wire illegally rigged between New York's twin towers. This documentary brings Petit's extraordinary adventure to life through the testimony of Philippe himself, and some of the co-conspirators who helped him.

Of Time and the City
Terence Davies
UK│2008│Digibeta│Colour│72min
2008 Cannes International Film Festival Special Screening Film/2008 Edinburgh International Film Festival

This idiosyncratic and personal paean to the director's Liverpool hometown brilliantly blends a poetic verbal account of early life in Liverpool with contemporary and archive footage of the city. Narrated by Davies himself with impassioned grace and humour.