ABSTRACT
The 2011 presentation of Wei Te-sheng's Seediq Bale in competition at the Venice Film Festival demonstrated how times have changed since the late 1980s and 1990s. The Golden Lion for Hou Hsiao-hsien's A City of Sadness, as the first major award given in 1989 to a Chinese-language film, paved the way for a successful relationship between the Venice festival and Chinese-language films. Films from mainland China and Taiwan established a prominent position within major festivals whereas Hong Kong cinema had an earlier circulation in Europe, particularly with martial arts films. With the impact of the economic crisis of 2008 on cultural sector and on arthouse distribution system, circulation of Taiwanese films in Italy has stopped, while the distribution of any films other than domestic and Hollywood productions has drastically diminished. Cannes has made no exception to the rule of the masters, as the only other Taiwanese film in competition has been Edward Yang's A One and a Two in 2000.
