PRESS RELEASE
The 8th Taiwan Film Festival in Australia will take place from 24 July to 6 September, spanning six cities: Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, Brisbane, Adelaide, and—for the first time—Perth. With over 40 sessions and 15 Australian premieres, this year’s edition places women at the forefront. Not only does the festival welcome new director Dale Wu, but the program also highlights female perspectives through stories centred on family relationships, pregnancy, IVF, and nuanced explorations of sexuality and desire, as seen in standout titles like Daughter’s Daughter and The Chronicles of Libidoists — both part of the 2024 Golden Horse Goes to Cannes showcase.
The festival will close in grand style at Sydney’s most iconic venue, the Sydney Opera House, with the New South Wales premiere of the restored 4K version of Flowers of Shanghai (1998), directed by acclaimed Taiwanese auteur Hou Hsiao-Hsien.
“I’ve been working with Benson since the very first edition of the Taiwan Film Festival in 2018, and have remained involved over the years through programming and serving on short film competition juries. It’s truly an honour to return as Festival Director and lead the team,” said Dale Wu.
“Delivering this year’s festival and program is incredibly exciting—especially as we spotlight so many female directors and stories that centre on Taiwanese women’s identities, which have often been overlooked. I believe audiences will find this new chapter in Taiwanese cinema both refreshing and deeply resonant.”
Opening Night Film: Daughter's Daughter (2024)
Winner of Best Original Screenplay at the 2024 Golden Horse Awards, Daughter’s Daughter—directed by HUANG Xi and produced by HOU Hsiao-Hsien, with legendary editor LIAO Ching-Sung (Flowers of Shanghai, 1998) and evocative cinematography by YAO Hung-I (Long Day’s Journey into Night, 2018) —recently premiered at the Sydney Film Festival to critical acclaim.
A retired woman’s quiet life is disrupted by an unexpected turn of events, forcing her to confront long-buried choices and a strained relationship with her daughter. Starring the legendary Sylvia CHANG, Daughter’s Daughter is a delicately restrained exploration of generational trauma, maternal regret, and the quiet yearning for reconciliation.
Closing Night Film: Flower of Shanghai (1998, 4K Restoration)
For the first time, the Taiwan Film Festival in Australia proudly hosts its Closing Night at the iconic Sydney Opera House, presenting the NSW Premiere of the restored 4K version of Flowers of Shanghai—a cinematic masterpiece by legendary auteur HOU Hsiao-Hsien.
Featuring a luminous cast at the height of their powers—including Tony LEUNG Chiu-wai, Michiko HADA, Michelle REIS, and Carina LAU — Flowers of Shanghai is a hypnotic, time-bending immersion into a vanished world.
Adapted from The Sing-song Girls of Shanghai, a 19th-century Wu-language novel by Han Bangqing, later translated into Mandarin by literary icon Eileen Chang, the film is an intoxicating, atmospheric dream bathed in the golden glow of oil lamps and opium haze.
Set within the opulent interiors of a late Qing dynasty brothel, Hou’s masterfully restrained drama captures the rhythms of a cloistered world where courtesans, adorned in splendour, navigate romantic entanglements, rivalries, and the quiet desperation of women seeking to reclaim their freedom.
Centering Female Desire and Maternity:
The Chronicles of Libidoists (2024)
Award-winning director YANG Ya-Che (The Bold, the Corrupt, and the Beautiful, 2017) brings together a remarkable cast—WU Kang-Ren (Abang Adik, 2023), LIU Chu-Ping (Bad Education, 2022), and Alisia LIANG (Who’ll Stop the Rain, 2023)—to craft a sensuous and poetic exploration of lust, eroticism, and forbidden desire, moving from superficial restraint to emotional unravelling.
Four restless souls move through the numb routine of daily life. What binds them is not love or friendship, but a shared craving—for physical release, for emotional escape, for something more. As they draw closer to the fire they’re playing with, what ignites is no longer pleasure, but the raw, inescapable truths they’ve each tried to bury. The Chronicles of Libidoists strips away pretense to confront the primal, unfiltered desires that make us human—with stunning honesty and a daring vulnerability rarely seen on screen.
Unexpected Courage (2025)
Celebrated commercial director YU makes a remarkable leap to narrative debut feature, backed by Mayday frontman Ashin and Golden Horse-winning producer YEH Ju-Feng. Unexpected Courage is a tender exploration of connection, compromise, and the blurred lines between ambition and affection.
In this quietly affecting modern romance, renowned talent manager CHEN Le-Fu (played by acclaimed singer René LIU) and her boyfriend LIN Po-En (HSUEH Shih-Ling), a music video director, lead parallel lives in the same city—yet rarely share the same space. When CHEN is suddenly hospitalised, the two are thrust into an unusual and confined intimacy: 24 hours a day, face to face, in the same hospital room. What begins as a reunion slowly becomes a reckoning, as the couple confronts not only the strain of their careers, but also the emotional distance they’ve learned to live with.
Award-winning director Tom LIN’s Double Feature
Yen and Ai-Lee (2024)
Praised by jurors at the Busan International Film Festival, Yen and Ai-Lee marks the poignant return of director Tom LIN to themes of love, loss, and emotional healing, following Zinnia Flower and The Garden of Evening Mists. This deeply personal project also marks Lin’s first feature-length collaboration with his wife, actress Kimi HSIA.
Told through a mirrored narrative structure, the film interlaces two generations of mother-daughter relationships, unearthing the layered emotions of love, guilt, and redemption. Kimi HSIA and veteran actress YANG Kuei-Mei deliver raw, powerful performances as a pair bound by trauma and resilience. With arresting black-and-white cinematography and simmering dramatic tension, Yen and Ai-Lee is a haunting, unforgettable portrait of survival and transformation.
Worth the Wait (2025)
Set against the vibrant backdrop of Seattle and Kuala Lumpur, this romantic comedy brings together a stellar ensemble of Asian American talent—including Karena LAM (American Girl, 2021), Sung KANG (Fast & Furious), Ross Butler (Shazam! Fury of the Gods, 2023), Andrew Koji (Bullet Train, 2022), Elodie YUNG (Daredevil, 2015) and more.
Infused with LIN’s signature tenderness and restraint, Worth the Wait blends the glossy sensibility of American rom-coms with the emotional depth of East Asian storytelling. At once a love letter to the enduring power of connection and a thoughtful reflection on Asian diasporic identity, this film is both charmingly adorable, romantic and lighthearted.
Gripping Crime Thrillers
Where the River Flows (2025)
Inspired by the infamous 1961 dismemberment case that gripped Taiwan and shook the public conscience, the film plunges audiences into a politically volatile era where truth is suppressed and justice becomes collateral damage. Director LAI Chun-Yu makes a bold genre leap with his first crime thriller—an unflinching portrait of injustice, media sensationalism, and institutional decay.
Where the River Flows began as a graphic novel in 2022, followed by a board game, before evolving into a feature film. By the time cameras rolled in 2025, the characters had already taken on vivid form—casting came naturally, and the actors were able to dive deeply into the emotional layers of the story.
Organ Child (2025)
Box office success director CHIEH Shueh Bin (Do You Love Me as I Love You, 2020) returns with a searing tonal shift in Organ Child—an uncompromising revenge thriller that lays bare the wounds of grief, injustice, and moral ambiguity.
Driven by a taut, emotionally charged script and a riveting performance from CHANG Hsiao-chuan (Girlfriend, Boyfriend, 2012), the film escalates in intensity with each twist, never losing sight of its emotional core. From its opening frames—shrouded in brutality and dread—Organ Child thrusts viewers into a world where vengeance becomes the only path forward. Think Taiwanese John Wick, but with deeper existential stakes.
International Co-Production Projects
Stranger Eyes (2025)
The first Singaporean feature to premiere in Official Competition at the Venice International Film Festival, Stranger Eyes marks a bold return for acclaimed writer-director YEO Siew Hua (A Land Imagined, 2018) assembles a top-tier creative team for this haunting urban mystery, including cinematographer Hideho URATA (Plan 75, 2022), editor Jean-Christophe Bouzy (Titane, 2021), and legendary sound designer TU Duu-Chih (Yi Yi, 2000). Echoing the tension and psychological weight of Michael Haneke’s Hidden (2005) and LEE Chang-dong’s Burning (2018).
Set in contemporary Singapore, the film follows Junyang (WU Chien-Ho) and Peiying (Anicca Panna), whose lives are upended when their daughter mysteriously vanishes from a playground after a brief moment of inattention. As police launch an investigation, the couple receives an anonymous package—containing clandestine footage of their daily lives, including intimate moments before and after the child’s disappearance.
Also included in the program’s International Co-Production category are Worth the Wait (2025) and Daughter’s Daughter (2024).
First Nations Selection
Dancing Home (2024)
A poignant and soul-stirring ode to cultural reclamation and artistic resilience, Dancing Home charts the remarkable journey of legendary Paiwan choreographer Bulareyaung Pagarlava. At the height of his global career—with credits that include the Martha Graham Dance Company (USA) and Cloud Gate 2 (Taiwan).
Filmed over eight years, director WANG Cheng-Yi’s camera is a quiet companion, capturing the raw intimacy of rehearsals, daily life, and emotional reckoning. Bulareyaung’s work with untrained young Indigenous dancers becomes an act of resistance, of healing, and of rediscovery—breathing new life into forgotten rhythms and stories.
Short Film: Panana (2020)
KAO Chu-Hua, a Taiwanese First Nations woman from the Tsou tribe, was the daughter of a political prisoner. To survive during Taiwan’s White Terror era, she adopted the stage name “Panana” and began performing in elite clubs, using her voice and presence to navigate a world shadowed by surveillance and fear.
Short Film: Prey and Prayers (2024)
First Nations young man Bali follows his father, a veteran hunter, into the mountains to hunt food for their family. His father calls it a day upon sensing something is off, while Bali expresses reluctance and refuses to leave until he gets something in the bag. The mountain grows darker and louder. Will Bali remain the predator... or become the prey of the night?
Short Films Competition Finalists
The Fishbowl Girl (2024) Directed by WU Hung-yi
Side A: A Summer Day (2024) Directed by WAN Kin-fai
Repulsion (2024) Directed by CHEN Yan-hong
Mrs. Catfish (2025) Directed by HUANG Chi-yung
Inspired by Lip Balm (2025) Directed by CHIEN Li-ying
Separation Season (2024) Directed by LIN I-ju
Moment of Choice (2025) Directed by CHANG Huai-yu & CHANG Yung-han
Prey and Prayers (2024) Directed by Langui Madiklaan
Suo Jiang (2024) Directed by LIN Chien-yu
Taiwan Film Festival in Australia 2025 Dates:
Sydney 24 Jul - 6 Sep Event Cinemas George St
Melbourne 31 Jul - 3 Aug Village Cinemas Crown
Perth 15 Aug - 17 Aug Palace Cinemas Raine Square
Adelaide 23 Aug- 24 Aug The Piccadilly
Canberra 30 - 31 Aug Dendy Cinemas Canberra
Brisbane 30 - 31 Aug Event Cinemas Brisbane City
The festival is presented by the Taiwan Film Festival in Australia, and the Taiwanese Chambers of Commerce in Australia, with Principal Partners AZABU and Hunter’s Dream, supported by Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Sydney, and Spotlight Taiwan as the touring supporter.
Taiwan Film Festival in Australia would like to earnestly thank the following partners and sponsors: the City of Sydney, Multicultural NSW, Screen Queensland, China Airlines, Australia Taiwan Friendship Association, Bluechip, Jadberg Group, Gift Pay, the Sydney branches of various Taiwanese banks, associations, and individuals.
To book:
Please visit the festival website: https://www.taiwanfilmfestival.org.au/
Ticket Prices:
Adult Single Ticket $20 | Concession Ticket $18 | Seniors Card $16
Sydney and Melbourne Passes
Flexi 3 Pass $50
Hardcore Pass $145
Sydney Flexi 3 and Hardcore Passes are not valid for the Closing Night session redemption.
Hobart, Canberra, Adelaide and Brisbane Passes
Flexi 3 Pass $50
Hardcore Pass $80
Sydney Closing Night
Standard ：$30
Concession：$26
An $8.95 booking fee applies to each transaction made through the Sydney Opera House website.
Closing Night tickets will be sold exclusively via the Sydney Opera House website.