Congratulation to this year's Short Film Competition winner Unnamed directed by Chang Chun-Yu and Gao Hong. The story starts with Zhang Ya-Ting wants to switch to a gender-neutral name. She goes to her best friend Hong Jia-Hao but interrupts him in the middle of hooking up with someone from a dating app. The production of the film took 5 days to shoot, but the script took them one year to complete and another half year in the post-production.
This year's competition juries, Hsiao Ya-Chuan (Father to Son, Taipei Exchange, and Mirror Image), Maya Newell (Gayby Baby, In My Blood It Runs), and Sally Wu (The Good Daughter, Country Boys) to select the winner from the 4 finalists from the competition.
The other 3 finalists are Lipstick, Be Shit or Not to Be, and A-Tien. Festival Director Benson Wu says “I'm really excited to see so many young Taiwanese filmmakers rising. The competition result came close as they were all pretty outstanding. But Unnamed stand out the most to our juries cause the unique storytelling."
2020雪梨台灣影展於7月23日公布短片競賽贏家，本屆短片競賽決選評審榮幸邀請到澳洲知名紀錄片導演Maya Newell、台灣紀錄片導演吳郁瑩、以及本屆焦點影人蕭雅全，經過一番討論後，最終由張均瑜、洪德高共同執導的《未命名》勝出，評審一致認為該片「探索青少年對自我身份的認同，及兩代之間的隔閡與化解，兼顧娛樂性和議題性，展現當代台灣的樣貌。」
“I thought the films were of high calibre, as well as being entertaining, cinematic and politically important stories to tell. It was hard to pick one winner, but ultimately we chose Unnamed for the nuanced complexity of the script, characterisation and direction. I enjoyed the tangled closeness between these two leads, the exploration of the tension between older and younger generations, the unsettled-ness of youth, the examination of identity and murkiness of sexuality. I thought these themes were cleverly woven frictions and liked that they were wisely not wrapped up, instead offering a depiction of humanity in all its uncertainty. For the same reason, I particularly loved the elegant and surprising ending - it simply put the story together without offering a neat resolve." - Maya Newell
Unnamed directed by Chang Chun-Yu 張均瑜 and Hong Gao 洪德高
《未命名》－質樸真摯的青春詩篇
畢業於臺北藝術大學電影創作學系的張均瑜導演和洪德高導演，自編自導自演的畢業製作《未命名》透過想改名字的女孩和想擺脫砲友的男孩之間的連結，勾勒出青春期自我探索的過程。
《未命名》運用輕鬆逗趣的敘事觀點，成功跳脫出LGBTQ+的傳統框架，洪德高表示兩人在創作過程中共同定調這個故事必須為喜劇，並沿著自身經歷反覆思考和探索性別認同，而性格互補的兩人也相互拉扯約一年半的時間，在理性情節編排與感性敘事觀點之間達到平衡。
名字作為《未命名》的一大要素，張均瑜說名字固然重要，替我們省去了生活上許多麻煩，但同樣地也帶來先入為主的標籤化。而片中多次提及「林培萱」，然而只聞其名不見其人，洪德高解釋每個人在自我摸索的道路上，經常會伴隨一名女生角色，共同在青春的未知裡探索些可能，但往往那名女孩最終都會朝著主流方向走去。
提到LGBTQ+類型片，兩位導演都盼望有朝一日不會再有這個分類，不再需要在這個議題上大做文章，社會能同等對待同性戀和異性戀，迎接實質的平權。
“All four of them successfully transcend the filmmakers' thoughtful observation and depiction of a slice of life they are interested in. Each of them propels me to want more than what's in the film, whether it's about a social issue or a character. In the end, Unnamed has the best execution of directing and acting, and its nuanced relationship portraiture stood out the most." - Sally Wu
A-Tien directed by Robby Sun 孫悅慈
《阿添》－大環境下的社會寫照
Robby graduated from New York Film School - Los Angeles Branch, A-Tien is her graduation work. She wanted to embed some Taiwanese cultures in the film and thought Taxi driver would be perfect. When talks about the creative process, Robby always look at social issues for inspiration. “For me, it's not about pleasing the audiences, but be a storyteller to point some of the social issues," said Robby Sun.
畢業於紐約電影學院洛杉磯分校的孫悅慈導演，畢業製作《阿添》藉著計程車產業影射兩岸經貿現況。關於創作源起，導演說希望能在畢業製作裡放入台灣元素，恰好計程車的產業結構能包裝自己一直想說的兩岸議題。
談及創作泉源，孫悅慈表示自己經常從社會議題去想像、去開發，過去的作品《Q&A》道盡Youtuber創作者的心境和網路生態，這次《阿添》成功在議題面和觀眾面之間取得平衡，孫悅慈表示自己沒有刻意迎合觀眾，而是將現實生活套進劇本，觀眾自然會從其中得到不同滿足。
對比在美國和台灣的拍片經驗，孫悅慈認為有一條很深的文化鴻溝，美國劇組傾向接收導演的指令，會議時不會提出太多想法，台灣劇組則此起彼落拋出個人意見，深刻感受到大家的求好心切。
剛進入業界的孫悅慈，也觀察到台灣影視業面臨人才外流和資金短缺等困境，但導演反倒認爲這是個契機，能將火炬傳承給新一代電影工作者。與此同時，台灣最珍貴的民主價值也是一大優勢，自由民主的環境給予內容很大的包容度，讓創作者能關注不同面向，藉著影片替社會發聲。
Lipstick directed by Etsen Chen 陳彥廷, Nuhash Humayun, Kawakibi Muttaqien, Wang Xixi
《口紅》－玫瑰少年的生命歷程
Lipstick was one of the work from the 2019 Busan Asian Film School, talks gender identities and bullied cultures. Director Etsen says “this film is also my tribute to Ye Yong-Zhi who had the exactly the same experience as the character in the film. But the film is made specially in Busan so you will also see at the end the film also pay tribute to Yun Hyon-Seok who was an LGBT activist but ended his life in 2003."
In this film school, there were 4 directors and 4 cinematographers for Lipstick. In pre-production, we came to a pretty quick conclusion that this film will be linear storytelling and require everyone to provide storyboard a day before filming. “I also want to use a certain subject that represents a particular cultural, so I choose fried-chicken especially to break the stereotype of value on what's beauty in the LGBTQ+ culture," said Etsen.
《口紅》為2019年亞洲電影學院的作品，描述青春期的自我性別認同和霸凌，陳彥廷導演表示故事緣起是為了紀念玫瑰少年葉永鋕，考量到釜山影展觀眾，遂將紀念人物替換成南韓性別運動者六友堂。
談到與學院裡來自各國學員的合作經驗，陳彥廷透露《口紅》一共有四位導演與四位攝影師合作完成，製作前期，四位導演間很快就取得共識「不要將故事打散」，為了不讓各組拍攝有落差，要求拍攝前一定要完成分鏡表。身為總導演的他，面對組員諮詢建議時，選擇信任組員，大方讓組員決定拍攝細節。
關於開場的「炸雞」橋段，旅遊經驗豐富的陳彥廷發現每個國家都有屬於自己的指標性炸物，而社會往往對於LGBTQ+族群有更高的審美標準，因此當主角無所顧忌時，他便可以放心享用炸物。同樣身為演員的陳彥廷，分外留意演員表現，更加能換位思考，以演員角度分析導演給的指令，幫助演員們的表現不會淪於塊狀。
談及最喜歡的台灣同志電影為蔡明亮導演的《河流》，過去短片《青親》同樣圍繞著LGBTQ+議題，陳彥廷認為台灣對於這類題材接受度算高。但對於性別議題電影普遍悲觀的現況，他覺得仍有許多發揮空間，LGBTQ+的題材也能有光明、樂觀的結局。
Be Shit or Not To Be directed by Chen Kuan-Chung 陳冠仲
《洛西・布拉西》－不落俗套的類型喜劇
Director Chen has worked on various feature films includes The Tag-Along and Who Killed Cock Robin, his latest work The Victims' Game produced by Netflix was a successful hit in Taiwan.
Before he started the film, he took Woody Allen's Hollywood Ending and François Truffaut's Day for Night as reference for his inspiration. There are also some Japanese influences in the film, it wasn't coming from Shinichirou Ueda's One Cut of the Dead instead, it's Koki Mitani's films.
在電影圈打滾超過十年的陳冠仲導演，曾擔任《紅衣小女孩》《目擊者》等多部賣座國片的副導演，於2018年推出首部短片《洛西・布拉西》，旋即獲得金穗獎最佳劇情片的肯定。談及創作源起，導演打趣地說剛好在2017年遇到工作空檔，有餘力回顧過去拍片經驗，將光怪陸離的片場文化以幽默詼諧的方式呈現。
被問到是否有參考類似題材，陳冠仲表示在創作初期，看了伍迪・艾倫《好萊塢結局》和法國名導楚浮的《日以作夜》，從同樣講述電影製作的後設電影中吸取養份。觀賞《洛西・布拉西》時不難感受到有一股日式誇張風格，導演也提到自己鍾情於日本導演三谷幸喜，欣賞他對喜劇的處理方式。
前陣子在Netflix上播出的話題影集《誰是被害者》，由陳冠仲與莊絢維共同執導，過去副導演的經歷讓陳冠仲更善於場面調度，會在腦海構思如何拍攝才能引起觀眾注意力，進而勾起共鳴，達到兼顧娛樂性與議題性的雙贏局面。比較短片和影集在製作上的差異，陳冠仲說拍攝短片像是一場全力衝刺的百米賽跑，而拍攝影集像馬拉松，有更多時間經營角色。
提到傳統電影院與新興OTT平台的分水嶺，陳冠仲認為許多電影較適合在大銀幕觀賞，因此電影院依舊保有它的價值，而OTT帶來的產業競爭會讓影視水平向上一層樓。
Unnamed streaming on-demand now at Taiwan Film Festival in Australia until 30 July. Watch individually ($2.99) or as a package ($35).
所有入圍短片皆可在線上觀看，購票請至https://www.taiwanfilmfestival.org.au/sfc2020