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Exclusive: Lea Salonga is set to star in The Vale – Origins, a hybrid live-action and animated short film that will precede the forthcoming middle grade novel of the same name by Abigail Hing Wen.

Wen’s novel will release Sept. 16, 2025 through Aapi publishing house Third State Books, founded by Stephanie Lim and Charles Kim. The short film is in post production and slated for completion this summer. Wen wrote and directed the short film, which also has an animation team of John Aoshima attached as director and Neil Blevins Incredibles I, II, Wall-e, Up) as animation designer.

The short film follows the Lees, a grieving inventor family in Silicon Valley who find healing and connection through their young son’s creativity in The Vale, a virtual reality fantasy world they made. The family-friendly short film shifts between the real, live action world and the animated world,...

Festival Short Film Juror Ke-Xi Wu Participated in the Master Panels Throughout, Gaining Valuable Insights and Connecting with the International Community

The five-day 2024 Sundance Film Festival: Asia concluded yesterday in Taipei with great fanfare, attracting tens of thousands of movie enthusiasts and industry professionals, adding immense brilliance to Taiwan’s film scene. This year’s festival featured 15 award-winning films from the Sundance Film Festival, premiering in Taiwan, and hosted 14 panels and workshops. Over 40 international filmmakers from oversea participated, including director Macoto Tezka; Lisa Joy, producer of the global hit Westworld; Nina Yang Bongiovi, producer of Passing, which won the BAFTA Award for Outstanding British Film; Christina Oh, producer of the Oscar-nominated Minari, which won the Best Supporting Actress award; and Anthony Francisco, former Senior Visual Development Artist at Marvel. They engaged in various panels and discussions, fostering deep exchanges with local Taiwanese filmmakers. Renowned actors including Ke-Xi Wu, Janet Hsieh,...

In Constance Tsang’s feature-length directorial debut, Blue Sun Palace, silence speaks volumes. The film traces the bonds forged by a trio of Chinese immigrants who work and live in Flushing, Queens. When tragedy strikes, those bonds are reconfigured and become even more important. Blue Sun Palace’s tale is filled with quiet spaces, and the way the texture of this quiet changes over the course of the film is a testament to its power.

Tsang’s feature debut begins with Didi (Xu Haipeng) and Cheung (Lee Kang-sheng) having dinner together at a small Chinese restaurant. Cinematographer Norm Li’s camera bobs lazily between them as their conversation flows from trivial matters, like their feelings about fried chicken, to more significant ones, like their feelings about each other. The way Cheung reaches out to dab sauce off Didi’s cheek, the way they let the silence hang between them when...

Thirteen celebrated activists, athletes and actors from around the world have appeared in a video calling to end the age of plastic.

The 90-second video from Greenpeace International aims to set the tone as the Global Plastics Treaty negotiations (INC3) resume today at the United Nations Environment Programme headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya.

Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim, an activist and Indigenous leader, said: “End the age of plastic. Let us protect Indigenous Peoples. Our land in Africa is not a dumping ground.”

Dr. Jane Goodall, Dbe, ethologist and conservationist, said: “We need to end the age of plastic because it’s killing wildlife and because we can’t recycle our way out of the plastic crisis. We need to reduce plastic production.”

Nemonte Nenquimo, Waorani leader and winner of the 2020 Goldman Environmental Prize said: “End the age of plastic. It contaminates our territory, it pollutes our rivers and our lands.”

Emmy Award-winning actor Lee Jung-Jae,...

The 2023 Sundance Film Festival Asia officially opened at the Spot Huashan Cinema in Taipei City on August 18, 2023, and announced the winner of the Sundance Film Festival Asia Short Film Competition. The award went to “Tuo Tuo” directed by An Chu. Many Hollywood and local celebrities walked the red carpet including Justin Lin (Director of the “Fast and Furious” franchise), Todd Makurath (Executive Producer of “Everything Everywhere All At Once”), Joachim Zell (Color Scientist from “Blade Runner 2049”), Dan Lin (Producer of “The Lego Movie”), Tzi Ma (Actor from “Rush Hour” series), Caitlin Fang (Actress from “American Girl”), Patty Lee (Actress from “My Missing Valentine”), Ke-Xi Wu (Actress from “Nina Wu”), Allison Lin (Actress from “Haru”), Teresa Daley (Actress from “Days We Stared at the Sun”), Sonia Yuan (Actress from “Summer Desire”), Angela Yuen (Actress from “The Narrow Road”), James Wen (Actor from “The Fierce Wife”), Janet Hsieh (Host from “Fun...

"You are so much about the life that you 'want'... you never take the time to appreciate the life that you have." Paramount has revealed an official trailer for a cute romantic comedy titled Love in Taipei, a new titled because the book it's based on is originally titled Loveboat, Taipei, about the "loveboat" experience in the story. Based on that bestselling novel, an American teen is sent by her parents to a cultural immersion program in Taipei in which she begins a new journey of self-discovery and romance. It turns out to not be about education, but rather about having fun. "And just like that, Ever Wong's summer takes an unexpected turn. Gone is Chien Tan, the strict educational program in Taiwan that Ever was expecting. In its place, she finds 'Loveboat': a summer-long free-for-all where hookups abound, adults turn a blind eye, snake-blood sake flows abundantly,...

The upcoming Asian American feature film “Chopin,” starring Eddie Liu and Violett Beane, officially wrapped a 25-day shoot on June 4. Announced last year, the film is now in post-production and scheduled for an early 2024 premiere.

The film is the feature directorial debut of Vincent Lin, a successful commercials director and co-founder of Valiant Pictures. The film, written by Lin, also stars Golden Horse Film Award winner Leon Dai and Taiwanese legend Wu Min (“The Queen!”).

It tells the story of Chopin Wu (Liu), who returns home to small-town America where he grew up, to amend an estranged relationship with his workaholic father (Dai). With a sudden appearance from his ailing grandmother (Wu), he is confronted by a past he had left behind. Chopin is forced to re-examine old relationships, embrace a heritage he once denied and discover the importance of family and identity.

Additional cast includes Jake Manley (“The Order...

Los Angeles, Nov. 21, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — The eighth annual Asian World Film Festival (Awff) announced its competition winners at a star-studded event November 18 at Beverly Hill’s Saban Theater. The Last Film Show (India), directed by Pan Nalin, won the Snow Leopard Award for Best Film; Mohsen Tanabandeh garnered the Snow Leopard for Best Actor for World War III (Iran), and Hui Fang Hong was honored with the Snow Leopard for Best Actress for Ajoomma (Singapore).

Asian World Film Festival (Awff)

The Snow Leopard Special Jury Award went to World War III, directed by Houman Seyedi, and the Snow Leopard Audience Award to Aurora’s Sunrise (Armenia), directed by Inna Sahakyan. Kerr (Turkey) director of photography, Andreas Sinanos, received the Panavision Best Cinematography Award along with a 60,000 Panavision Camera Grant of cutting-edge filmmaking equipment.

Short films and the talent behind them were also recognized at the standing-room-only event. The Hollywood Foreign Press...

HBO Asia is to begin screening its first original romantic comedy series “Adventure of the Ring” from mid-December.

Joining other internationally-targeted shows made in Taiwan, “Adventure of the Ring” is directed by Helmed by Nelson Yeh and Kitamura Tayoharu.

The eight-part show is adapted from mathematician and author Lai I-Wei’s romance novel “Ring of the Day,” which tells the stories of different couples who come in contact with an engagement ring. Production is by Kbro Media’s Good Image Co. with the support of Taiwan Ministry of Culture (Bureau of Audiovisual and Music Industry Development) and the Taipei Film Commission.

The first two episodes will be uploaded to HBO and HBO Go from Dec. 13, 2020, with the remaining six instalments premiering one at a time on subsequent Sunday evenings.

The series stars Chris Wang (“Time Traveler,” “Love Family”) as a baseball-loving actuary, and Allison Lin (HBO’s “The World Between Us,...

What | Taiwan Creators Night: Bridging Taiwan and the World

A 2020 Networking Cocktail Party, including 3 panels around creative industry topics

Cannes Cinefondacion nominated director Keff chatting with director John Hsu and actress/ screenwriter Wu Ke Xi

Who | Leehom Wang, Sylvia Chang, Midi Z, Eddie Huang, Janet Hsieh and George Young; and companies including HBO Asia, Line TV, Kakao (Korea), Catchplay, KKBox, and MM2

Hosted By | Kindred Spirit’s Anita Gou

When | August 21st, 2020 from 6pm-10pm

Where | TripMoment VR, Taipei City, Da’an District

Youtube Co-Founder Steve Chen discusses the future of tech and content with international superstar Leehom Wang...

“The kids need a future,” a city council member tells Dorothea (Tyne Daly) half way through the first of Patrick Wang’s two-part A Bread Factory: “they need to learn about the world.” Forty years prior to the exchange, Dorothea and her partner Greta (Elizabeth Henry-Macari) bought a bakery in the fictional upstate New York town of Checkford, and turned it into the Bread Factory, an arts center the married couple has fought hard to keep afloat through the years. Cash and funds have historically been finite and resources volatile—but while stage director Dorothea and actress Greta powered through the decades with indomitable determination and grit, the creation of a bigger arts institute in the opposite side of town, led by a couple of world-renowned Chinese performance artists, May Ray (Janet Hsieh and George Young), is poised to spell the end of the Factory’s illustrious work. The center...

“A Bread Factory,” written and directed by Patrick Wang, is a drama that tickles your spirit in a special, buoyant way. It’s set in the small town of Checkford, N.Y. (it was shot in the picturesque historical village of Hudson), and though Wang has conceived the film as an epic — it’s four hours long, and is being shown in two parts, each of which is presented as a movie unto itself — “A Bread Factory” revolves around something that may sound astonishingly minor: a community arts center, the sort of homespun place that presents plays, chamber-music concerts, and art shows and hosts the occasional visiting luminary and features after-school programs for children.

The center is called the Bread Factory (that’s because it’s situated in an old bread factory), and it’s been run for 40 years by its two founders, crusty WASPy Dorothea (Tyne Daly) and elegant...

Double feature are sequels to In The Family, The Grief Of Others.

Patrick Wang and Vanishing Angle announce don Tuesday that Tyne Daly, Janeane Garofalo, James Marsters, Nana Visitor, and Brian Murray have joined the cast of double feature project A Bread Factory (Parts One and Two).

The two films are currently shooting in Hudson, New York and are sequels to Wang’s In The Family and The Grief Of Others.

Matt Miller and Daryl Freimark are producing A Bread Factory (Parts One and Two).

Wang wrote the screenplays and directs the comedic dramas set in a small-town community arts centre, which he said created a good setting “for thinking about many big themes: art and commerce, globalization, gentrification, changing social institutions, and new technology.”

Additional key cast members include Glynnis O’Connor, Jessica Pimentel, Amy Carlson, and Trevor St. John, and opera star Martina Arroyo and real-life couple Taiwanese television personality Janet Hsieh and Singapore star George Young...

Tyne Daly and Janeane Garofolo are set to topline The Bread Factory (Parts One & Two), the latest feature from writer-director Patrick Wang.

James Marsters, Nana Visitor and Brian Murray are also set to star in the features, which are dramedies set at a community arts center.

The ensemble cast also includes Glynnis O’Connor, Orange Is the New Black's Jessica Pimentel, Blue Bloods' Amy Carlson and Trevor St. John, as well as opera singer Martina Arroyo, Taiwanese television personality Janet Hsieh and Singapore star George Young.

Matt Miller and Daryl Freimark will produce the sequels, which are currently filming in New York.

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