Taiwan Film Festival Edinburgh returns for its third outing of the year from 15 to 20 October, bringing the best of Taiwanese film to cinemas across the city. Since March, TFFE has worked with local arts and cultural organisations and communities in Edinburgh and Scotland to present a series of screenings in a variety of venues. After the main Film Festival in October, TFFE will tour to other locations across the highlands of Scotland, including Glasgow, Inverness and the Isle of Terry, from November onwards.

The Taipei Representative Office in the UK has once again invited independent curator Liu Kuan-Ping to curate this year's festival. The festival's autumn list of films includes a wide range of genres including feature films, short films, animation, drama and documentaries. The short film strand, the documentary strand, and the ‘Spotlight on Filmmakers’ strand together offer UK audiences a diverse range of perspectives on Taiwanese filmmaking and culture.

The first strand Shorts: Being Alone Together features two shorts from Taiwan selected from the impressive short film line-up of the Kaohsiung Film Festival, namely the beautiful stop-motion animation Where Am I Going and Can You Hear Me?, which examines the aftermath of a death from the perspective of the recently deceased.  The strand also features films from outside Taiwan, including Siren from Japanese director Nobuyuki Miyake and A Taxi of Coldness from South Korean director Joonha Kim. These films were selected from the line-up of Asian works at the Edinburgh International Short Film Festival, which celebrated its 10th anniversary last year. Through this combination of films, we wish to showcase the creative energy of Taiwanese new filmmakers.

The second strand Doc Replay: Portraits presents two documentaries, each charting one person’s life as they navigate the complexities and difficulties of life on the margins. When The Dawn Comes is a critically acclaimed portrait of LGBTQ activist Chi Chia-Wei, while The Catch, which won First Prize at the 2021 Taipei Film Festival, is a fascinating portrait of indigenous eel-catching fishermen living in small communities along Taiwan’s Lanyang River.

The third strand introduces Taiwanese filmmakers to audiences in the UK, and this year features a retrospective on the variegated career of Chen Yi-wen, actor, writer and director. The retrospective features a hand-picked selection of films from Chen’s acting career, including The Man From Island West, Growing Pains, Increasing Echo and Treat or Trick.  Audiences can also look forward to enjoying his seminal 2000 film The Cabbie, which won Chen the Grand Jury Award at the Golden Horse Awards.

Dr. Chen Pin-Chuan, Director of the Cultural Division of the Taipei Representative Office in the UK, praised this year's TFFE for pioneering both a year-round program of events and a tour of venues across Scotland, in contrast to previous incarnations which were held only for a week in one city. TFFE’s ambitions for promoting Taiwanese film cohere well with the strategies and practices of local cultural organisations in Scotland for promoting film and the arts.

Sponsored by Ministry of Culture (R.O.C), the 2022 Edinburgh Taiwanese Film Festival Autumn Screening will take place at Edinburgh's key arts venues Summerhall and Everyman Cinema from 15 October.

For more information:  https://taiwanfilmfestival.org.uk/