Taiwanese project “Uncle,” directed by Yen Hao-hsuan, won the Tokyo Project Award on Friday at the seventh Tokyo Gap-Financing Market (TGFM) in Tokyo, topping a field of 24 selected projects.
Image: Tokyo Gap-Financing Market (Credits: Variety)
“Uncle” had already picked up the Asian Gen-Z Award earlier in the same ceremony. Yen’s debut feature is set in rural Taiwan between 1997 and 2000 and follows a boy whose devotion to his uncle, a man with an intellectual disability, turns to shame as he grows up and leaves home. The story draws on Yen’s own 18 years living with his uncle.
The film is produced by Flash Forward Entertainment founder Patrick Mao Huang — whose credits include Cannes Critics’ Week Grand Prize winner “Tiger Stripes” — and Sung Chin-hsuan. The project made its first Asian market outing at the Busan Asian Project Market earlier this month.
Jury Praises an Uncompromising Story
Jury member Nam Jongsuk, a programmer at the Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival, said “this project looks at society and bravely goes against prejudices, without sugarcoating the subject,” adding that the jury hoped Yen would deliver something “uncompromising.”
Yen admitted he hadn’t expected the win. “I’ll take this as the energy to shoot and finish the film,” he said.
The Asian Gen-Z Award, now in its second year, carries a JPY500,000 ($3,300) prize chosen by five film students who pick a project appealing to viewers aged 20 to 28. They said the jury recognized “a story that demands to be told right now,” praising the film for “resisting simplistic emotional appeals.”
Other Winners at the Market
Japanese-Canadian co-production “Wild Zero Overdrive,” directed by Takeuchi Tetsuro as a follow-up to his 1999 cult film “Wild Zero” starring the real-life punk band Guitar Wolf, won the White Light Post-Production Award with $25,000 in post services. Brazilian feature “Nature Boy,” directed by Matias Mariani, won the Mellow Tunes Sound Design Award worth up to $10,000 in in-kind services.
The Tokyo Gap-Financing Market runs as part of TIFFCOM, the content market attached to the Tokyo International Film Festival.
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Source: Variety — read the full story there.
