Two features in VIFF's Gateway stream dominate the nominations in this year's Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival and Awards, more familiar over here as the "Chinese Oscars". 

Huang Hsin-Yao's black comedy The Great Buddha+ broke all the 55-year-old insitution's previous records, in fact, with 10 nominations including best film, best new director, best supporting actor, and a nod for the film's luminous black and white photography.  

Director Huang will be in attendance for both Vancouver screenings of the Taiwanese film at International Village today (October 3) and Thursday (October 5).

On a notably grander scale, Xu Haofeng's epic The Hidden Sword garnered nominations for best adapted screenplay, orginal score, and action choreography (natch), along with a best new performer nom for Zhang Aoyue—who will walk the red carpet in Vancouver for Wednesday's (October 4) premiere of the film at the Playhouse.

Zhang will also be in attendance when The Hidden Sword gets the screen-size it really deserves at the Centre, on Saturday (October 7).

Remarkably, both films have yet to open in Asia.