Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival Executive Committee announced the Lifetime Achievement Award recipients for the 61^st Golden Horse Awards – renowned actress CHENG Pei-pei and cinematographer LIN Wen-chin. CHENG’s children expressed how proud they are for her dedication and accomplishment in film arts, and also honored for the recognition from the Golden Horse Awards. LIN Wen-chin noted, “I appreciate the Golden Horse for the commendation and especially grateful for the support from fellow filmmakers over the decades.”  In November 2024, the Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival will also screen a selection of their noted works. The Committee also announced an amendment of the Golden Horse Awards Guidelines and Rules for next year: submissions to the short film categories will be limited to film works with duration no more than 40 minutes, instead of the 60-minute provision for now.

CHENG Pei-pei started off as the trainee in Southern Experimental Theatre Company of Shaw Brothers Studio, and gradually took off in the mid 60s, especially for her portrayal of the lead Golden Swallow in King HU’s Come Drink With Me, which also established her on-screen persona as a swordswoman. At the height of her early career, she starred in many martial arts films and thus earned herself the title of “queen of martial arts.” But CHENG also delivered impressive performances in romance melodrama Lovers’ Rock and Song of Orchid Island, as well as musical Hong Kong Nocturne. After getting married, she appeared mostly on the small screen for talk shows, dance tutorials and documentaries; her rare appearance on big screen during that time would be All the King’s Men by King HU. In the 90s, CHENG resumed her acting career and drew the attention of the young generation for the character Madam Wah in Flirting Scholar, co-starring the much beloved Stephen CHOW. Later on, she became the Jade Fox in Ang LEE’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, which won her Best Supporting Actress at the Hong Kong Film Awards. CHENG’s acting in Lilting also earned a nomination for Best Actress in British Independent Film Awards. On July the 17^th, 2024, CHENG Pei-pei passed away in the United States.

Not only did she contribute greatly to the genre films, CHENG also committed to the preservation of cinematic assets in Taiwan, by the collective efforts with SHIH Chun (Lifetime Achievement Award recipient of the 49^th Golden Horse Awards) to the compilation of the precious relics of King HU’s.

91-year-old LIN Wen-chin is the first generation of cinema professionals in Taiwan nurtured by C.M.P.C. Studios and a significant figure in cinematography. He has gone through the peak of Taiwanese-language cinema, the Healthy Realism and won the Best Color Cinematography at the 5^th Golden Horse Awards with Orchids and My Love. He collaborated with distinguished directors like LEE Chia, CHANG Tseng-chai, TING Shan-his, CHEN Yao-chi, LIU Li-li, TSAI Yang-ming and Kevin CHU for a diverse body of works. Those war films directed by TING Shan-his, like The Everlasting Glory, Eight Hundred Heroes and The Battle for the Republic of China, have pushed the Taiwanese cinematography to the new heights, and those melodramas adapted from CHIUNG Yao’s novels, like A Love Seed and The Wild Goose on the Wing, have shown a vivid, dreamy color palette. LIN has two more Golden Horse nominations in Best Cinematography with The Diary of Di-Di and The Pioneers.

Devoted to the film industry for nearly five decades, with contributions to nearly two hundred movies, LIN Wen-chin is not only a cinematographer but a director and also served as the head of the cinematic and technical departments at C.M.P.C. Award-winning cinematographers like LIAO Pen-jung and Mark LEE Ping-bing were once his pupils. In 2020, LIN published his autobiography, the first-hand experiences witnessing the development of Taiwan cinema between the 50s and 80s.

In November 2024, the festival will present tributes to the two recipients, including martial arts classics Come Drink With Me and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and the dazzling musical Hong Kong Nocturne featuring CHENG Pei-pei; as for LIN Wen-chin, the festival will screen Orchids and My Love to showcase his delicate and affluent cinematic senses.

Nominees of the 61^st Golden Horse Awards will be announced on October 2^nd; the awards ceremony will be held on November 23^rd at Taipei Music Center. 2024 Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival will open on November 7^th; tickets on sale from October 27^th. For more information, please check the Golden Horse official website, Facebook and Instagram, or download the festival’s official APP.

Reminder: starting from 2025, submissions to short film categories of the Golden Horse Awards must be no more than 40 minutes in its duration.