Left-Handed Girl

CLOSING NIGHT FILM

Official Selection, 2025 Cannes Critics’ Week
Taiwan’s Best International Film Submission, 2026 Academy Awards

Single-mom Shu-fen is on the cusp of breaking free. With her ex-husband languishing on his deathbed, she sets up a noodle stand in a busy Taipei night market, her two daughters in tow. Five-year-old I-Jing is especially enamored by the nightlife, skipping past stalls, helping serve customers, and befriending the neighboring hawker who has a crush on her mom. I-Jing’s 20-year-old sister I-Ann has extracurricular interests of her own, playing footsie (and more) with her boss at a betelnut stand. All three have much to prove against a society hell-bent on punishing women who work, who lust, and even who are left-handed.

In her first film as solo director, Shih-Ching Tsou hits the pavement running with a whip-fast feature full of laughs, gasps, and heart. It’s a Taipei seen through the eyes of a galloping kid and guerrilla cinematographers with the instincts of a shoplifter. The pace befits a story of girls growing up fast, and young grandmas still in the hustle. The camera is in perpetual motion, I-Jing can’t help but dance, and I-Ann rockets through the city on her scooter. There’s even a meerkat on the loose! The raw energy, grounded in ordinary spaces and the plight of city-dwellers elbowing their way to self-sufficiency, isn’t surprising coming from Tsou, a long-time collaborator of Sean Baker on contemporary classics like TAKE OUT, Tangerine, and The Florida Project. And as in those films, LEFT-HANDED GIRL brings to life a community in the pressure cooker and the sisters and mothers who refuse to back down.

– Brian Hu

FREE reception and after-party for All-Fest Pass and Closing Night ticketholders.

Pre-Screening Reception: 5:30PM – 6:45 PM
Post-Screening After-Party: 9:30-11:00 PM