Taiwan submits 'Marry My Dead Body' as official entry for 96th Academy Awards

LOS ANGELES: The Taiwanese supernatural comedy mystery film ‘Marry My Dead Body’ Cheng Wei-hao has been selected as the official entry for the country’s Oscar submission for the Best International Feature category for 96th Academy Awards.

The movie was selected by Taiwan’s Bureau of Audiovisual and Music Industry Development (BAMID) as their Oscar entry. The film was one of Taiwan’s biggest hits, with the supernatural comedy- crime thriller with its intriguing twist doing extremely well in markets of Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Philippines and the US as reported by Deadline.

BAMID, which is under Taiwan’s Ministry of Culture, said that a total of nine films were submitted for consideration. The selection committee said it chose ‘Marry My Dead Body’ because the film “cleverly combines traditional customs with modern perspectives, has both humor and emotion, and showcases the characteristics of Taiwanese culture and life.”

Starring Hsu Kuang-han, Austin Lin and Gingle Wang, the film tells the story of a homophobic cop who is forced into a same sex “ghost” marriage to appease the spirit of a man who has passed away.

Although terrified of both homosexuality and ghosts, he has no choice but to team up with his ghostly spouse to solve a long running drugs case. As such, the two partners need to overcome their differences and cooperate to solve the dead man’s mysterious death.

The film, which is produced by Taiwan’s Calendar Studios and Bole Film, also landed in Netflix’s global top ten (non-English) chart during its first week of release on the platform. In addition, it also won best screenplay at the Taipei Film Awards.

Nominations for the 96th Academy Awards will be announced on January 23, 2024 with the winners to be unveiled on March 10, 2024. However, the SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes present a likelihood that the Oscars too, may very well get delayed.