Taiwan Creative Content Fest: Volos Films Unveils Co-Production Slate as Country Goes Global

By Naman Ramachandran

According To The variety Taiwan-Italy production outfit Volos Films has unveiled a diverse slate of features and documentaries at the Taiwan Creative Content Fest (TCCF).

The feature film lineup includes “Polaris,” directed by Yamanaka Yoko, whose “Desert of Namibia” screened at Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight. Set in a Tokyo bar, the film follows women from different backgrounds whose lives intersect. The project marks Volos’s first Japan co-production, with producers Chang Chuti, Chuma Kusuke, Mao Okuno and Stefano Centini attached.

Stefanos Tsai’s “Sunshower” centers on a Chinese-American man visiting his grandmother with dementia, who mistakes him for her first love. Jonathan Hsu produces, with Centini executive producing.

In the documentary section, Hong Kong director Frankie Sin presents “Nomads of the Island,” exploring his family’s fishing heritage and migration to Taiwan. Sin’s previous documentary “Another Home” won the BIFF Mecenat Award at Busan 2024. Chiu Ping-Yu and Centini produce, with Peter Yam and Huang Hui-Chen are executive producing. Pony Boys,” from “Divine Factory” director Joseph Mangat, follows young horse handlers in the Philippines’ mountain tourism industry. Alember Ang and Stefano Centini produce.

Through the TAICCA x Produire au Sud Workshop, Wang Chun-Hong pitches “Midnight Inn,” his follow-up to “Far Away Eyes.” The project, about a night-shift hotel worker during COVID, recently pitched at Rome’s MIA market. Chiu produces.

The company will also present two projects at the following week’s Taiwan’s Golden Horse FPP Project market: “The Fundamentals,” a Taiwan-set drama series from Venice competition title “Stranger Eyes” director Yeo Siew Hua, which is a co-production with Akanga Film Asia, and “The Songs Within Us,” a documentary from Taipei festival Grand Prize winner Elvis A-Liang Lu, presented at Cannes Docs, Gotham Week and Ji.Hlava.

Since establishing its Italian office in 2022, Volos has built an Asian-Italian co-production slate including Lav Diaz’s “Essential Truths of the Lake” and Dechen Roder’s Tallinn Critics’ Pick competitor “I, The Song.”

The company’s Italian slate features projects in development: Italian-Filipino DoP Andrea Benjamin Manenti’s debut “I Have to Fuck Before the World Ends,” Kenneth Dagatan’s “Molder,” a co-production with the Philippines’ Epicmedia and Felipe Galvez’s “Impunity.” Films in production include Federico Cammarata and Filippo Passarini’s “On the Serbian Border,” Alessio Rigo de Righi and Matteo Zoppis’s “Heads or Tails” (co-produced with Ring Film, Cinema Inutile and RAI), and Jorge Thielen Armand’s “Death Has No Master,” which recently presented at Venice’s Gap-Financing Market and TIFFCOM.

As we are starting to build a stronger slate for the Italian company with more European centered themes, we feel it’s important to keep our roots in Asian independent cinema and support new upcoming voices, encouraging them to tell their stories with a fresh and critical perspective in these challenging times,” said Centini.

“As the Taiwanese film industry continues to globalize, we believe now is the ideal time to showcase projects by local filmmakers with a distinctive vision and worldwide appeal. Midnight INN by Wang Chun Hong is one such film,” added Chiu.

“‘Polaris’ is our first collaboration with Japan and we are very excited to work with Yoko and the team at 21 First Century to bring a true Taiwanese-Japanese coproduction to life,” said Chang. “The story is adapted from the book of Li Kotomi, who is a Taiwanese and lives in Japan. I believe this book and film offer the perfect opportunity for collaboration between Taiwan and Japan.”