The 7th TIAF opens Festival Grandly Opens Today

The 7th TIAF opens Festival Grandly Opens Today

The 7th Taichung International Animation Festival (TIAF) opened its grand doors today, October 8th, 2021! This morning, the CEO of Taichung Film Development Foundation LIN Shiau-Chi along with program director Chang Yen-Jung, filmmaker Joe HSIEH, festival ambassador Oscar CHIU and singer Alan Kuo gathered together on this fine occasion to welcome all citizens come to join in on Taiwan’s largest animation celebration.

LIN Shiau-Chi, the CEO of Taichung Film Development Foundation, welcome all the citizen join the event. There will be 156 films screened including 69 short films in competition. Ten winners will be selected out of 69 nominated short films by five award juries, including Director WANG Shih-Wei, Director HUANG Run-Sian, Special Effects Artist Chris Armsden, Animation Scholar Janaka Rajapakse and Artist Kevin Geiger. The winners will be announced at the awarding ceremony on October 13th.

"Night Bus", the Golden Horse winning Best Animated Short Film from last year, won the Grand Competition of short films at Animafest Zagreb and the Public Prize at the Ottawa International Animation Festival (OIAF) this year. Director Joe HSIEH said he is delighted to be invited to the Director in Focus program alongside Canadian filmmaker Ishu Patel and is looking forward to sharing his experience in animation.

Well-known performer Alan Kuo and festival ambassador Oscar Chiu make their appearance surprisingly. Alan Kuo said during his time with his one-year-old girl he found that animation is the best medium to convey different stories and make everything prefect sense and educational. This is why he recommends the program "Baby Universe". On the other hand, Oscar Chiu who voiced the character "sloth" in the Disney film "Zootopia" said that Taichung citizen is very lucky having the opportunity to see these amazing film in the world without traveling.

Information Bureau indicates that besides the films, there will be many talks and event related to animation especially the one with two directors in focus: Ishu Patel and Joe Hsieh. Also, the festival invites all the audience to choose Children’s choice award and audience award. Every screening will follow the Epidemic Prevention Measures form CDC providing a safe interacting environment for the audience and filmmakers.

2021 Taichung International Animation Festival will take place from Friday, October 8th to Wednesday, October 13th at Kbro Cinemas in Taichung, with screenings of all the nominated animations from all across the world. The award winners will be announced on October 13th. For more information and details of the festival and its related events, please visit TIAF official website (http://twtiaf.com) and Facebook Fanpage (http://facebook.com/tiaf.taichung).