Two weeks ago, we attended the Taiwan Creative Content Fest (TCCF) at the Songshan Cultural and Creative Park Taipei New Horizon to familiarize the creative hub initiated by the Taiwan Creative Content Agency (TAICCA).

We first met TAICCA representatives during the Venice International Film Festival and then, afterwards, at the Busan International Film Festival and finally, we now get to experience their major event, gathering the creative content industry delegates from all over the world.

One milestone during the fest was the signing of memorandum of understanding between France’s Centre National du cinéma et de l'image animée (CNC) and TAICCA.

CNC is an agency of the French Ministry of Culture which supports production and promotion of the cinematic and audiovisual arts in France.

The TCCF Pitching provides a place for Taiwan and overseas audiovisual projects such as feature films, documentaries, animation, books, and comics to raise funds, to seek co-production opportunities, and develop cooperation.

At the TCCF closing ceremony, TAICCA and CNC presented the TAICCA X CNC AWARD with a $30,000 cash prize to the Filipino project, Mother Maybe by Sonny Calvento.

We were ecstatic with Sonny’s award as his pitch was close to his heart. Growing up without a biological mother and living with a radio commentator father made him face this missing part of his life.

“I started developing this project in 2021 during the pandemic as my way of coping with losing my regular job in television,” shares the Communication and Media Studies graduate of San Beda College Alabang.

Mother Maybe is about Benjo, who gets reunited with his long-lost mother in a Japanese TV game show. Inspired by the wacky Taskeshi’s Castle where contestants face absurd physical challenges to enter the castle, the son discovers a renewed connection with his mother who leads a double life. A lighthearted family drama turned “horror,” the son wants to help fund his mother’s “illness.” Will he fight to win the game of his life to gain his mother’s “monstrous” love?

The project also received the Taichung Action Award and the MPA Grand Award. The Taichung Action Award gives a cash prize of 300,000 NTD and the potential to shoot in the Central Taiwan Film Studios while MPA Grand Award, sponsored by Motion Picture Association(MPA) will bring the selected project to the Global Film and TV Immersion Program 2024 in Los Angeles, USA.

Sonny grew up in television studios accompanying his father. “This affirmation fuels our enthusiasm to embark on film production,” he says. “The collaboration with Singaporean and Taiwanese partners makes it feel like a shared journey, where fellow Asians are actively contributing to bringing our film to life.”

The 35-year-old filmmaker is on a roll as his short film, Primetime Mother recently won the Best International Short award at the 2023 San Diego Asian Film Festival.

Other Filipino projects include Carlo Enciso Catu's Hold My Gaze for “Project to Screen” Feature Films category while Avid Liongoren pitched his project, ZsaZsa Zaturnnah vs the Amazonistas of Planet X at the Animation and Features and Series.

Wu Fan’s Xixi produced by Venice Atienza and Demie Dangla’s Magnetic Letters were pitched at the Documentary Feature and Series. Finally, Gilb Baldoza and Tanya Bonnevie participated in the TAICCA x PAS Feature Film Projects Pitch.