The Trending Taiwan Short Film Competition got underway July 16 to raise the country’s profile on the global stage, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Organized by the MOFA’s Department of International Information Services, the 10th edition of the annual event is accepting global submissions until Oct. 10. It is seeking work that showcases the resilience and vibrance of Taiwan and features inspiring stories or moments of beauty in the country.
There are two categories for the competition. The Creative Theme category invites entries in the traditional landscape format of no more than three minutes, while the Reel-style Short Video category encourages vertical submissions of 60 seconds or less. Student Special Award recipients will be selected from all submissions made, the MOFA said.
For the Creative Theme category, the first prize is NT$250,000 (US$7,675) cash. There are two second prizes of NT$120,000 cash each and three third prizes of NT$80,000 cash with five distinction prizes of NT$50,000 cash each.
For the Reel-style category, cash prizes in the amounts of NT$80,000, NT50,000 and NT$40,000 go to the first, second and third places respectively. Two Student Special Award winners will each receive NT$50,000.
The winning works will be subtitled in a variety of foreign languages for broadcast on Trending Taiwan’s social media platforms that include Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X and YouTube, as well as made available for promotional use by Taiwan’s overseas offices.
First launched in 2015, the competition is one of the MOFA’s most successful digital diplomacy initiatives. It has attracted nearly 1,200 submissions to date from nationals of France, India, Malaysia and Switzerland among others. (SFC-E)
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