The Taipei Award for narrative short films has been a major force cultivating short films in Taiwan. Since its inception, the award has established itself as a launching pad for young directors, including Cheng Yu-chieh, who has gone on to direct the Opening Film of this year’s TaipeiFF, Yang Yang, and Dai Li-ren.

Of the 11 short films in the 2009 Narrative Shorts program, we find both veteran directors like Wu Mi-sen, Lee Chi-yuarn and Chiang Hsiu-chiung and a new pool of student directors making their festival debuts.

Thanks in part to increased funding opportunities, student shorts have this year exceeded already growing expectations. Funding opportunities for student films are no longer limited to grants from the Government Information Office, the national agency for overseeing Taiwan’s national media. The Council of Cultural Affairs (another agency of the central government) and the Public Television System also offer funding opportunities. Meanwhile, programs at universities including Taiwan National University of the Arts and Shih Hsin University allow students to collaborate with film industry professionals, from cameramen and technicians to name actors. The overall effect has been a remarkable improvement in student films. Two of the chief beneficiaries in this section are John Hsu’s Intoxicant, a spoof on Internet chat rooms, and Yo Jhi-han’s Nirvana, a post-apocalyptic tale of loss and reconciliation.

Collaboration with actors is especially apparent in this year’s field of short film prize nominees. Several actors who have long become familiar faces from appearances in feature films in Taiwan’s oldest and largest film festival, the Golden Horse Film Festival, and the national television awards, the Golden Bell Awards, take leading roles. The Light in Time features Wan Fang, With or Without You features Wu Peng-feng and Huang Cai-yi, and Mochi featues Mo Ai-fang, all of whom deliver shining performances.

Subjects addressed range from family drama (With or Without You, Mochi and Smoke) to surreal explorations of memory and dreamspace (Nirvana, The Light in Time and Secret Sea) to fantastical genre hybrids (Intoxicant and Diva Diva). Also, make sure to watch out for one scene in Smoke. It will strike you with a kind of filmic purity that will help you remember what movies are all about.