Author Cat Thomas
Editor Julien Huang
Photo Credits The Golden Horse Fantastic Film Festival
When the Golden Horse Film Festival is brought up in conversation, most people will instantly think of the annual awards ceremony and the accompanying screenings, which has been running since 1962 and initially was intended to promote Taiwanese filmmakers and films. Since then, the festival has expanded in scope and grown to arguably the most important and recognizable film awards event in Asia. However, alongside the main festival in 2009 another iteration arose: The Golden Horse Fantastic Film Festival (GHFFF).
The Fantastic Film Festival was a response to the cyclical nature of annual film festivals, where the organizing team is only needed for a few months of the year, the staff — ranging from 15 fulltime to around 50 in the festival month — lacked job stability with the seasonal staff disbanded post-festival. In order to address this and improve career growth prospects for these passionate film professionals — and retain their talent within the organization — a second festival was founded.
Taiwan has a thriving film festival scene, with Women Makes Waves (founded in 1993), Taipei Film Festival (1998), Taiwan International Documentary Festival (1998), Taiwan International Ethnographic Film Festival (2001), South Taiwan Film Festival (2001), Kaohsiung Film Festival (2001), and the Youth Film Festival (2004) all established by the time the team were tasked with creating the new festival.
The Fantastic Film Festival, which is held in April each year, differs from the original in the choice of program. Rather than promoting local and regional original filmmaking or the topical themes of other established Taiwanese film festivals, the GHFFF is a celebration of what some might regard as less intellectual pursuits, focusing on general release films, like B-movies, Japanese Manga, and Classic Horror and Comedies.
“We tried to figure out a way, something Taiwan has never experienced before, so that’s when we decided to hold a general release film festival,” said Therese Yang, deputy director for GHFFF, in an interview with Taiwan Scene.
The festival cornerstone is The Rocky Horror Picture Show, which is shown every festival, with other ‘party’ or interactive screenings arranged each year. This year’s is Pitch Perfect.
“Taiwan didn’t really have this kind of culture before,” explained Yang, discussing the interactive traditions surrounding Rocky Horror “So [we thought] why don’t we take this kind of an idea… and make it one of the highlights?”
Of course, this decision came with its own set of challenges: How could the organizers get an audience used to staid screenings to get up out of their seats and embrace the organized chaos found in the UK and the US?
To overcome this, the organizers added in on-screen instructional subtitles, prompting viewers with cues like ‘Get ready to sing out loud’ or ‘Prepare to throw tissue paper in five seconds.’ Geed up by a team beforehand, who encourage the audience to the engage with the film, the screening was a raging success. It’s now screened twice each festival in a 350-seat theater and sells out within minutes of the tickets being released.
The lighter, more ebullient nature of The Fantastic Film Festival lends itself to other party screenings too — think karaoke screenings and dress-up events. “We try to find many silly excuses to celebrate,” said Yang. This might include, for example, the screening that sold the least tickets will see attendees given free ice creams. Another popular feature is the Surprise Film where only minimal details such as genre are released, and the attendees have no idea until the film starts to roll what they’ve signed up for.
“I think this is the kind of atmosphere that we create for our audience, you know, let’s make them very loyal to our festival,” said Yang.
The organizers are also keen to build a continual relationship with attendees, incorporating a Wish Board where fans can post notes suggesting films they’d like to see at future events. Originally designed for staff, once fans started adding their own ideas the team embraced it, and they keep all the request notes at the end of each festival for inspiration over the following years. The Wish Board also functions as a ‘Missed Connections’ board further adding to the heady atmosphere.
And the proof of their success is in the box office. With 140 screenings over 10 days, ticket sales hover at around 80% on average. With a keen eye on the appeal to young film fans the prices are kept at NT$230-250 for regular screenings (early bird NT$190-210) with the special party screening priced at NT$380.
Some categories are always popular, such as the Cinephile section, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and the Surprise Film, so it’s best to get these as soon as tickets go on sale at 1 p.m. on March 30th (the program is released).
If you’re a fan of classic horror then this year’s overnight triple bill, the Midnight Marathon — to which the audience are encouraged to being pillows and blankets — is a Stephen King movies retrospective to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the release of Carrie. Pet Sematary, and Misery make up the rest of the bill.
The Shining and The Shawshank Redemption are also back by popular demand, and this year’s Filmmaker in Focus is David Cronenberg.
Other categories include Fantasy of the Year, Ain’t No Cure for Love, Thriller & Crime, and Nippon Cha Cha Cha (Japanese Films). Films are rated 0+, 6+,12+, 15+ and 18+, and all venues are accessible for people with disabilities. All films are shown in the original language with Mandarin subtitles, and non-English language films without English subtitles are denoted by a red triangle on the listings. Screenings with Q&A sessions after are denoted by a star, these sessions are conducted in Mandarin. Concession tickets apply to those aged over 65 or with disabilities, ID must be shown (equally applicable to Taiwanese and non-Taiwanese citizens) and children under 100cm tall.
If you want to buy advance tickets, you should register as a Golden Horse member at the festival website prior to purchase, free registration is open from March 17th.
The festival runs from April 11th– 20th, with Early Bird tickets available until 11.59 pm on April 10th. Festival tickets can be purchased online by card or JKOPay, and full instructions are available here. Tickets for screenings with availability may be purchased on site at the festival ticket booth.
