Local screenwriter and director, Oliver Fa Tin Leong’s screenplay, Gusto de Amor (Taste of Love), has received first prize in the inaugural TV Drama Screenplay and Production Contest, organised by public broadcaster TDM.
Hong Kong director, Teddy Chen Tak-Sum (The Accidental Spy, Bodyguards and Assassins), who served as the chairman of the competition’s jury and a mentor for contestants, announced the results via videolink yesterday.
As the winners, Fa and his team will be given 790,000 patacas, which they can use to turn his screenplay into a three-episode TV drama.
Filming of the 25-minute episodes is expected to begin on 27 December and will be done with the local broadcaster, with a completion date set in mid-January 2024. The first screening is expected after February.
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During the event, TDM Chairman Lo Song Man stated that “We hope more people will be able to appreciate local Macao productions and we also hope to promote these works outside of Macao to areas such as the Pearl River Delta and beyond.”
According to the production team, the screenplay focuses on a long-distance love story with a culinary twist, with its main focus being on introducing Chinese and Portuguese culture, as well as local Macanese cuisine.
Speaking after the ceremony, Oliver Fa said that he noticed that many overseas productions in Macao only film at the city’s World Heritage sites, but do not capture how Chinese and Western cultures are fused in everyday Macao.
