Taiwan has selected Left-Handed Girl (左撇子女孩), directed by Shih-Ching Tsou, as the country’s submission for the Best International Feature Film category at the upcoming 98th Academy Awards.
The coming-of-age drama had its world premiere in the Critics’ Week section of the 2025 Cannes Film Festival, where it captured both the Gan Foundation Award for Distribution and the Prix du Rail d’Or. Next up, it is slated to screen at both the Toronto and New York Film Festivals in September 2025, and will compete in the 30th Busan International Film Festival.
Following the festival run, it opens in theaters in the US in limited release on November 14, before streaming on Netflix on November 28.
Co-written with Oscar-winning filmmaker Sean Baker (Tangerine, The Florida Project), Left-Handed Girl depicts a single mother and her two daughters who return from rural life to Taipei to run a night-market stall. As the vibrant night market life unfolds, the family uncovers buried generational secrets, seen through the lens of the youngest daughter—a left-handed girl deemed to be using the “devil hand.” Starring in the movie are Janel Tsai, Ma Shih-yuan, Nina Ye, Brando Huang, Akio Chen, and Xin-Yan Chao.
The Ministry of Culture’s Bureau of Audiovisual and Music Industry Development selected Left-Handed Girl from among 11 submissions, citing its vivid nighttime market setting and “coming-of-age journey amid clashes with traditional patriarchal society.”
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