📽 Documentary & Short Films Also Shine | Recommended Nominees for the 2025 62nd Golden Horse Awards

Chinese‑language cinema isn’t just about feature films. Some of the most powerful narratives are hidden in the subtle lens of documentaries and short films. For the 62nd Golden Horse Awards, the shorter formats are razor‑sharp, intimate, and deeply resonant. Below are our curated picks across two major categories — each worthy of your viewing, reflection, and conversation. And don’t forget: on Saturday, November 22, tune in to KTSF Channel 26 — we’ll bring you a special spotlight on the Golden Horse Awards and the stories behind these nominations.

I. Documentary Category (Golden Horse nominees – highlights)

Prelude of the Wind

Director uses the wind as a medium to document a group of children in coastal eastern Taiwan whose daily fishing‑village life shifts under climate change. The camera doesn’t show cataclysmic images — instead, it catches how kids laugh, wait, jump in the wind. Wind, waves, play sounds merge into a gentle footnote on environmental change. Intimate and real, it reminds us that transformation is happening quietly.

After My Brother Left

Beginning with a goodbye letter and a family silence, the director returns home to investigate the death of his brother and reflect on family regret and loss. Black‑and‑white excerpts and prolonged silent scenes invite the viewer into an inner dialogue: how do we live with what we’ve lost? The film doesn’t hand you answers — it invites you into your own questions.

Children

Captures weekend tutoring classes of children living on the edge of the city: classrooms, street corners, notes under night lights, tired parents in the background. The camera crouches low, shoots close. Children’s strokes of pencil, erase and rewrite, test and retry — each scene a fragment of a future being honed. This work engages issues of education and class, but its emotion arises from the ordinary.

II. Short Film Category (Golden Horse nominees – highlights)

This Is Not My Cow

Within five minutes, a rural youth faces a stray water‑buffalo in dusk light. With minimal dialogue — just a rope, a call, one tear — the director builds tension between social change and tradition. The cow isn’t his, it isn’t meant to be his, yet he must carry the responsibility. The short becomes a question: what is responsibility? What is belonging?

Two Women Directors

Two female directors meet on the same set — one a rookie on her first shoot, the other reflecting back on a long career. They swap scripts, lenses, failures. In ten short minutes, the film becomes an observation of identity as a filmmaker: how creators step beyond themselves, how voices are seen. Humorous yet introspective, it’s a standout from a female perspective.

Human Tower

Using the metaphor of a human tower game: children climb up, climb down, fall, and rebuild. Fast‑paced editing and rhythmic soundtrack evoke the power of collapse and rise. Behind the tower is trust, coordination, courage. In very little time, we see not just a game — but the fragility and beauty of life.

📺 Want to explore more nominated works, creator interviews, and behind‑the‑scenes festival stories? Remember to tune into KTSF 26 on Nov 22 (Sat night), where we’ll journey through the 62nd Golden Horse Awards together and cheer for Chinese‑language cinema!