Malaysian film takes home $35,000 prize at Taipei industry event

Industry events in Asia often serve as a marketplace where producers seek partners and funding for projects that have not yet been made. At the 2026 Taiwan Creative Content Fest in Taipei, one Malaysian feature film secured the largest monetary prize of the competition.

The project, titled Somewhere in the South, won the $35,000 TAICCA and CNC Feature Film Grand Award. The film is written and directed by Tan Ce Ding. Anthony Chen, a Singaporean filmmaker known for the Cannes Caméra d’Or winner Ilo Ilo, is producing the movie. His company, Giraffe Pictures, is partnering with Evil Genius Studio on the production. The award is supported by the Taiwan Creative Content Agency and France’s National Center for Cinema.

The story follows Boon, a 25-year-old man who helps his mother run a struggling temple in a neglected town in southern Malaysia. A local by-election brings his charismatic childhood friend, JC, back to the community to run a political campaign. Boon becomes JC’s driver and reluctantly assumes the role of the party’s tiger mascot. The narrative pivots when that mascot is stolen, disrupting Boon’s already fragile sense of identity.

This victory is part of a multi-year effort by the production team to place the film in the international market. The festival’s pitching program included 92 projects spanning film, series, animation, documentaries, publishing, and comics. Industry attendees from 28 countries participated in the selection process. The broader festival also hosted 107 market exhibitors from seven countries and territories.

Several other projects received multiple honors during the event. Reunion Dinner, produced by Make A Deal International Production, collected three awards, including the Videoland Ingenuity Award. Saving Tuvalu, from Media Stockade and Filmtank, earned two prizes, one of which was the Hakka Public Communication Foundation Confluence Award. The documentary Parachute Kids, from Walking Iris Media and Your Sister Films, also received two honors, including the Mega Bank C&E Foundation Best ESG Award.

The festival ran for four days and included 12 forum sessions with more than 20 speakers. Topics covered international co-production, streaming consolidation, and artificial intelligence. Sue Wang, chair of the Taiwan Creative Content Agency, stated that pitching teams had made progress in connecting with international audiences. She noted that animation pitches showed more clearly defined plans for intellectual property development.

The event concluded with the distribution of awards to the winning projects. The next phase for the top prize winner involves moving forward with production plans. The festival organizers indicated that documentary projects would receive more tailored support, potentially starting with cultural environmental, social, and governance initiatives.