Taiwan Film and Audiovisual Institute

Overview

The Taiwan Film and Audiovisual Institute (TFAI) is a Taipei-based national institution established in 2014 to support Taiwanese film production, preservation, and international promotion. The organisation manages Taiwan's film heritage archive, supports new Taiwanese productions, and promotes Taiwanese cinema at major international festivals and markets. TFAI represents the Taiwanese government's investment in its film culture as both a cultural heritage asset and an international soft power resource.

Taiwan has one of the most distinguished film traditions in Asia, producing internationally celebrated filmmakers including Hou Hsiao-hsien (A City of Sadness, The Assassin), Edward Yang (Yi Yi, A Brighter Summer Day), Tsai Ming-liang (Goodbye Dragon Inn, Stray Dogs), and more recently Wei Te-sheng and other directors who have continued the tradition of internationally recognised Taiwanese arthouse cinema. These filmmakers and their works have defined much of the world's understanding of East Asian arthouse cinema.

International Promotion

TFAI's international promotion activity takes Taiwanese films to major festivals and markets including Cannes, Berlin, Toronto, and Busan, supporting both distribution deals for new productions and restoration and re-release of Taiwanese film classics. The institute's work ensures that Taiwan's film heritage -- including the films of Hou Hsiao-hsien and Edward Yang that are central to world cinema education -- remains accessible and properly preserved.

Taiwan's Golden Horse Awards -- the Chinese-language equivalent of the Academy Awards, open to filmmakers from Taiwan, Hong Kong, China, and the Chinese diaspora -- are administered with TFAI's involvement, reinforcing the institute's central position in the Taiwanese and broader Chinese-language film ecosystem.

What Filmmakers Should Know

For international filmmakers seeking Taiwanese distribution or co-production partnerships, TFAI's institutional contacts provide access to Taiwan's film funding infrastructure, the Golden Horse Film Festival, and Taiwan's network of international production and distribution relationships.

For Taiwanese filmmakers, TFAI's support for international promotion -- through festival submission, market presence, and international sales agent relationships -- provides essential infrastructure for reaching global audiences.

See Also

For international sales representation that covers Taiwan, see Fortissimo Films in this directory. For the Golden Horse Awards context, see the Film Awards Directory.