Taiwan

Taiwan was the primary filming site for Redress, the latest from Indochine’s Oscar-winning French director Régis Wargnier. His new France-Taiwan collaboration is a culinary drama starring Julia de Nunez (Bardot) and Taiwanese actor JC Lin (HBO series The World Between Us). More than 75% of the production took place in Taiwan, including at the iconic Grand Hotel, Songshan Cultural and Creative Park, and Ningxia night market. Wargnier brought along only a small crew from Paris — four technicians and two actors. “Everyone else in the movie was from Taiwan,” he says. “I didn’t want to bring 30 people because our point of view would be too much from a foreigner.”

Local crew took up key positions such as producer, casting, costume designer, production designer, first assistant director, focus puller and underwater photo­grapher. They left a strong impression on Wargnier, even more than the food and landscapes. “I’m very happy to work with all these people — actors and technicians,” he says. The film received support from Taipei Film Fund in 2024, through Patrick Mao Huang’s Flash Forward Entertainment. It opened in France and Taiwan in mid-April.

Taipei Film Commission (TFC), the Ministry of Culture and Taiwan Creative Content Agency (Taicca) work closely to attract international productions to Taiwan. Film companies can apply for both local support and central government grants that do not conflict with each other.

Under the Ministry of Culture, the Bureau of Audiovisual and Music Industry Development (Bamid) will provide up to $1m for foreign productions in Taiwan, as long as the total amount of financial support from Bamid and other government agencies such as Taipei, Taichung and Kaohsiung does not exceed 50% of the expenditure in Taiwan.

The most recent recipient of a Bamid grant was Trinity, directed by Singaporean filmmaker Boo Junfeng, which is also backed by Taicca’s International Co-funding Program (TICP). 

Recent co-production projects in which TICP (without Bamid) invested, and which were shot in Taiwan, include Macau-born director Tracy Choi’s female-led drama Girlfriends, with Estela Valdivieso Chen as Taiwanese producer; Taiwanese director Hsu Ya-ting’s documentary Island Of The Winds, a co-production with Japan and France; and Annecy-winning Hong Kong director Toe Yuen’s live action/animation hybrid A Mighty Adventure, which shot its live-action scenes in Taiwan through Zero One Film before adding animation from Malaysia’s FlyStudio.

"While it is not a big place, its natural landscapes span from seaside to mountains, rural villages to modern city, providing very diversified locations,” adds Kam-Engle.

Many productions shoot in the capital city Taipei, which ticks all the boxes for ‘buzzing Asian metropolis’ but is less crowded and easier to navigate than some cities in Asia.

Taiwan has ramped up its virtual production (VP) facilities to meet the demand for the technology in film and TV. Award-winning production house Reno Studios has created the island state’s finest pixel pitch VP facility, located at its longest-running film studio, Central Motion Picture Corporation. 

In addition, Cyans Visual Creative has opened a VP studio inside Formosa Television station in the Linkou district, the first VP facility housed within a broadcaster.

High-speed rail runs along Taiwan’s west coast, covering a total of 345 kilometres in about 1 hour and 45 minutes. Major cities such as Taipei, Taichung and Kaohsiung have their own international airports and local metro lines. Locations that fuse old and new cultures are within a 30 to 45-minute drive from downtown areas. 

First contact: Bamid filmingintaiwan@bamid.gov.tw, Taipei Film Commission service@taipeifilmcommission.org, Taicca intl.investment@taicca.tw