The 18th Osaka Asian Film Festival (OAFF) concluded its ten-day run with a closing and award ceremony on March 19, giving out four awards to Taiwanese films. This marked the highest number of awards ever received by Taiwan in the history of the festival.
“Day Off (本日公休),” a Taiwanese film inspired by director Fu Tien-yu (傅天余)’s mother, won the Audience Award; “Daddy-To-Be (有了？！)” by director Pan Ke-yin (潘客印) received the Special Mention Award in the Housen Short Film category, and it was praised for its skillful blend of coming-of-age drama and comedy. In addition, Kai Ko (柯震東), the director of “Bad Education (黑的教育),” was honored with the Most Promising Talent Award; while Taiwan’s actress Lu Hsiao-fen (陸小芬) was awarded the Yakushi Pearl Award for her performance in "Day Off."
Culture Minister Shih Che congratulated the awardees and expressed his hope for Taiwanese films to continue to be a tool in presenting the nation’s culture while expanding cultural content.
On top of the award winners, other Taiwanese films were selected for the festival including “Natasha (塑膠情人)” by director Galilee Ma (馬慧妍) and “After Spring, the Tamaki Family... (海的彼端：其後)” by director Huang Yin-Yu (黃胤毓).
The OAFF is the most representative international film festival in the Kansai region. The festival focuses on emerging Asian directors and has a reputation for discovering new works that have not yet been released to the public. This is one of the important content industry events that the Osaka City Government actively promotes. The Taiwan Cultural Center in Tokyo has been collaborating with the film festival organizers to showcase a selection of Taiwanese films. Over the years, many new Taiwanese directors have been invited to participate, and the showcase has successfully sold the rights to several films for commercial screenings in Japan. The OAFF has become an important avenue for Taiwanese films to enter the Japanese film market.