2025 Kaohsiung Film Festival Concludes with Record-Breaking NT$3.5 Million in Box Office

The 2025 Kaohsiung Film Festival concluded on October 26, wrapping up a 17-day event that screened 172 feature and short films and drew over 30,000 attendees, with total box office surpassing NT$3.5 million. The festival’s immersive XR DREAMLAND program also broke NT$1 million in ticket sales, showcasing 35 XR works with over 10,000 ticketed seats and nearly 1,000 free experience spots, with nearly 70% of sessions sold out. Its beautifully designed exhibition space, which won the Gold Award in Conceptual Design at the 2025 MUSE Design Awards, attracted over 100,000 visitors in just three weeks—both achievements setting new records for the festival.

The festival this year brought together over 300 filmmakers from Taiwan and abroad. XR DREAMLAND alone featured more than 50 leading XR creators from around the world, attending over 100 festival events. Notable attendees included Kaohsiung Film Festival jurors directors Yang Ya-che and Laha Mebow, acclaimed Japanese filmmakers Nobuhiro Yamashita and Kenichi Ugana, Golden Horse Best Actor Anthony WONG Chau-sang, Japanese stars Riho Yoshioka, Koji Mizukami, and Taisuke Niihara, Thai actor Wanlop Rungkumjad, as well as Taiwanese actors Po-Chieh WANG, Shao Yu-wei, Mason Lee, and Fandy Fan.

At this year’s Kaohsiung Film Festival, Golden Horse Award-winning actor Anthony Wong Chau-sang held a “Master Class,” sharing his acting experiences with humor and attracting a large audience.

Director Nobuhiro Yamashita’s Linda! Linda! 4K Restoration featured a post-screening performance by drag artist UG, who donned a uniform to recreate classic scenes from the film, receiving a warm response from the audience.

The festival’s dual opening films, Kowloon Public Romance and Left-Handed Girl, also drew packed audiences. Riho Yoshioka and Koji Mizukami engaged with viewers in both Taiwanese and Mandarin during a post-screening talk for Kowloon Public Romance. Left-Handed Girl will represent Taiwan in next year’s Oscars, with director TSOU Shih-ching and the main cast attending the post-screening discussion, while nine-year-old child star Nina Ye charmed the audience with her appearance.

Filmmakers from Japan and South Korea joined the Kaohsiung Film Festival to share their creative journeys. Japanese director Akira Ogata and producer Akira Morishige attended the world premiere and post-screening talk of KYOTO HIPPOCRATES(Kyoto University Medical School 150th Anniversary Project). Director Kim Min-ha presented Teaching Practice: Idiot Girls and School Ghost to a nearly full house. Festival favorite Kenichi Ugana returned with the "Kenichi Ugana 3+1" program, featuring three new works and one classic, including The Curse. Ugana and his team engaged warmly with fans during the post-screening talk, receiving an enthusiastic row of flower bouquets. Another closing film, Before the Bright Day, was presented by director TSAO Shih-han, who shared behind-the-scenes stories with the audience.

Kaohsiung Film Festival’s two “Secret Screenings” this year received high praise. Japan’s Oscar submission Kokuho was voted audience favorite, while the premiere of Human Floating in Love: Episodes 1–2 drew producer and writer Hou Wen-yong and stars Shao Yu-wei and Fan Shao-xun to the stage, earning enthusiastic applause. The “Special Screening” of Adrift in Love: Ep. 1-2 quickly topped audience rankings for the week.

Marking the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, the festival presented the "Pacific Theatre: The 80th Anniversary of the End of WWII” program. It featured international premieres of Japanese films The Bird is Calling and Army on the Tree, along with classics Story of Pure Love, Twenty-Four Eyes, and A Hen in the Wind (4K Restoration) through collaborations with the Japan-Taiwan Exchange Association Kaohsiung Office and the Japan Foundation. Oscar-winning The Bridge on the River Kwai 4K Restoration also returned to the big screen.

Short Film Competition Jury included Sung MOON, Programmer of the Jeonju International Film Festival; XR International Competition Juror Barry Gene MURPHY; XR producer MACHIBA Katsutoshi; and Vice President of Operations, Digital Domain Holdings Limited Jimmy CHENG.

The festival’s XR Spark International Competition Observer invited podcast CEO Nana, bestselling author Ayri Chang and popular Wing Stars cheerleader Yi-li to select standout XR works. ILI also produced a “Food Trail” video, offering festival-goers culinary tips and boosting nearby businesses.

The 15th KFF International Short Competition and the 8th XR Competition showcased the best of global short films and immersive works. From 2,380 submissions across 100 countries, 40 international and 20 Taiwanese short films were selected for the competition. The XR Competition featured 23 immersive works from 15 countries, with over 100 filmmakers participating, making it Taiwan’s largest international short film competition and its only XR international competition.

The awards ceremony was hosted by Kaohsiung-native actress Alexia Kao, a Best Actress nominee at the 62nd Golden Horse Awards, with festival ambassador Patrick Shin and short film guest Shao Yu-wei presenting awards alongside the filmmakers. The top honors—the “Golden Fireball Awards”—went to God is Shy, Little Mirage, and The Clouds Are Two Thousand Meters Up.

Kaohsiung Film Festival also presented Asia’s largest XR immersive showcase, XR DREAMLAND, held at Pier-2 Art Center’s Pinway. The two-day XR Industry Program featured eight panels, bringing together 25 international and Taiwanese creators and experts to explore the future of XR storytelling, technology, and industry trends.

The “Kaohsiung Focus” program featured 13 original short films, showcasing the city’s diverse and vibrant filmmaking scene. The lineup included three sub-programs: Kaohsiung Shorts, Liminal South II, and Landscape of Kaohsiung, presenting the latest documentaries by Huang Bang-chuan and Chunni LIN.

Highlights included Force Times Displacement, which won top awards at the Locarno Film Festival; Southern Dreams II, which pushed formal boundaries with its experimental shorts; and in the Landscape of Kaohsiung program, the documentary Amateurs on the Moon, shot on 9.5mm film, paid tribute to passionate amateur filmmakers.

The 2025 Kaohsiung Film Festival set new records in ticket sales, audience attendance, events, and filmmaker participation, continuing to tell stories at the intersection of cinema, culture, and technology. For more information and updates on the 2025 Kaohsiung Film Festival, audiences can visit the official website at www.kff.tw, or follow the festival on Instagram and Facebook.