The Ministry of Foreign Affairs held the awards ceremony for the Sixth Trending Taiwan Short Film Competition Sep. 9 at the Eslite Xinyi Store in Taipei, presided over by Deputy Minister Harry Ho-Jen Tseng.

Due to the global outbreak of the Wuhan coronavirus, this year's competition incorporated a "pandemic-prevention" category. It featured a separate grouping for local and foreign entrants, in addition to the open category of years past. This was aimed at allowing more people and governments around the world to bear witness to the success of the Taiwan Model of pandemic prevention through a diverse range of perspectives and stories. As a result, this year three first prizes have been awarded, and the total prize pool has been raised to NT$830,000.

In the local grouping of the pandemic-prevention category, the first place was to "Taiwan Pride for the World" by Larry Tung and Hugo Chung. The film portrays how Taiwan was one of the only countries in the world that could celebrate LGBT Pride due to its success in containing COVID-19. First place in the foreign entrant grouping was "No More Fears, Here in Taiwan" by Rio Ananta Perangin-Angin, a student at National Cheng Kung University. The film uses a first-person perspective to portray Taiwan's efforts at pandemic prevention.

French director Florian Payrou scooped the top prize in the Open Category for his film "Taiwan - Where I want to be", the first time a foreign entrant has won the top prize. The film portrays the people and scenery of Taiwan through a foreign eye, combining the sustainable values of local indigenous people with his theme of what makes him want to live in Taiwan.

This year saw over 225 entries, 164 of which met requirements and 31 of which were shortlisted. Although each film was under three minutes, the diversity of subject matter and topic really impressed the judges.

Over 100 guests and contestants were present at the ceremony to see the prizewinning entries broadcast. They will be subtitled in several different languages and featured on the Trending Taiwan Facebook, YouTube and Twitter platforms. (E)