Taiwan Creative Content Fest (TCCF) got underway this morning with leading Taiwanese officials touting the event as a platform for regional cooperation and pooling finance across borders at a time of growing uncertainty in the content industries.
The event, immediately in its sixth edition, also kicked off with the launch of two funds – the $30M (NTD960M) Entertainment and Cultural Content Fund, launched by CJ ENM Hong Kong, Taiwan’s Far EasTone Telecom, TVBS Media and TCCF organizer Taiwan Creative Content Agency (TAICCA), to invest in Mandarin-language content.
A second $20M (NTD600M) fund is being established by Far EasTone, TAICCA and Fubon Cultural Creative – dubbed the Enjoy Entertainment Fund – with a focus on “promoting Taiwanese IP internationally and introducing world-class works to Taiwan”. Both funds are understood to be partly financed by the Taiwanese government’s National Development Fund.
“Taiwanese stories are being seen and shared around the world and because of Taiwan’s competitive advantages in technology, unique stories and strong creative content we are moving on to the world stage” said Taiwan’s Minister of Culture Li Yuan at the opening ceremony.
Li was also able to flag up a local box office anthem – action thriller 96 Minutes, which has grossed more than $6.5M (NTD200M) at the Taiwanese box office, a welcome respite from a few years of depressed figures for local films.
Speaking specifically about Taiwan Creative Content Agency (TAICCA), Li said: “TAICCA was established six years ago to promote Taiwan’s film and TV industries. We are 20 years behind Korea but looking back at the past six years we’ve seen the evolution of different strategic moves to promote Taiwan’s content industry on the world stage.”
He then talked about TAICCA’s work in building bridges with other international film industries, in particular France – which has brought a delegation of 80 industry professionals to TCCF – as well as Japan and Korea. Gaëtan Bruel, president of France’s National Centre of Cinema (CNC), was also on the stage at the opening.
“Our market with 23 million people is not big enough to sustain growth of our industry by ourselves, so we must reach out to the world,” said Li. “More international funding is coming our way; that’s why we’re here and making friends with the world.”
Sue Wang, TAICCA’s new chair who took over the post in May, said TCCF had seen a big increase this year in the number of submissions for pitching projects and booths. “TAICCA serves as a bridge and platform where creators, investors and partners can meet and we can learn form our international friends,” said Wang, before referring to the huge global impact of French culture, K-pop and Japanese anime, something that Taiwan is keen to immediately emulate.
“We’re in an interesting era because we can see paradigm shifts in culture and content crossing disciplines and boundaries, but we can also see growth and depression of different kinds of contents,” Wang continued. “Films like 96 Minutes show us it works when we have good stories. Every project comes with risks, but all investors are risk takers, and this is an era that belongs to the risk takers.”
TCCF, which is marking its six edition this year, comprises three strands – Pitching, Market and Forum. Pitching has selected 56 projects and 38 published works to be presented to potential investors, co-producers and distributors.
The Market strand is hosting 118 companies and institutions, including pavilions organized by Institut Français and Korea Creative Content Agency (KOCCA), attending for the first time. Booths have been divided into four sections: Copyright Transaction Zone (Taiwan Exhibitors), Copyright Transaction Zone (International Exhibitors), Production Resource Zone, and Animation & Visual Technologies Zone.
Other first-time attendees at the market include Thailand’s Creative Economy Agency (CEA); and the Philippines’ Center for International Trade Expositions and Missions (CITEM), an arm of the Philippine Department of Trade and Industry.
Forum features sessions with speakers including producer and AMPAS president Janet Yang; Jane Wu, director of the Emmy Award-winning animated series Blue Eye Samurai; Sean Saeyoon Shim, CEO of Korean production house Mr. Romance (Moving); Kurasai Ken and Uchida Yuki, producers of NHK’s Anpan; and Taiwanese actresses Ning Chang, Alice Ko and Allison Lin, who are nominated at this year’s Golden Bell Awards.
TCCF is taking place November 4-7 at the Taipei Nangang Exhibition Centre in Taipei.
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