For more than 20 years, Shi-Ching Tsou has been a trusted partner of Anora-director Sean Baker, filling the roles of producer, costume designer, co-writer, and co-director on various films. Here, Baker returns the favour, serving as co-writer, producer, and editor on Tsou’s long-gestating solo feature debut. Like their acclaimed collaboration The Florida Project, Left-Handed Girl is the story of a lopsided family eking out a precarious financial existence, told largely through the eyes of a child — in this case the adorable five-year-old I-Jing (Nina Ye).
Recently arrived in Taipei, single mom Shu-Fen (Janel Tsai) opens a noodle stall in the night market, while her stroppy high school dropout teenager I-Ann (Shi-Yuan Ma) works at a betel nut bar. Both are too stressed and miserable to notice when I-Jing starts shoplifting with her “evil” left hand. Tsou plunges us into the city’s relentless hustle while crafting an open-hearted family drama that hits across multiple generations.
Oscar Submission: Taiwan
Missed it at VIFF? Catch it at the VIFF Centre after the festival.
Supported by
Janel Tsai, Shih-Yuan Ma, Nina Ye, Brando Huang, Akio Chen, Xin-Yan Chao
Taiwan/France/USA/UK
2025
In Mandarin with English subtitles
Book Tickets
Credits & Director
Executive Producer
Alex C. Lo, Neill Barham, Aditya Chand, Jennifer Jao
Producer
Shih-Ching Tsou, Sean Baker, Mike Goodridge, Jean Labadie, Alice Labadie
Screenwriter
Shih-Ching Tsou, Sean Baker
Cinematography
Ko-Chin Chen, Tzu-Hao Kao
Editor
Sean Baker
Shih-Ching Tsou
Shih-Ching Tsou is a Taiwanese-American director based in New York. She co-created Take Out with Sean Baker and produced his films Tangerine, The Florida Project, and Red Rocket. Her solo directorial debut, Left-Handed Girl, premiered at Cannes Critics’ Week 2025.
Filmography: Take Out (2004)
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
Two Strangers Trying Not to Kill Each Other
This intimate and candid film by a younger husband and wife artist team is a delicate and immensely moving dual portrait of two artists, husband and wife, together and apart, at that point in life when the end casts a shadow over even the sunniest day.
Image: © Manon et Jacob and Final Cut For Real
Blue Road - The Edna O'Brien Story
Judging by this candid, funny, passionate biographical documentary, it would have been a wild ride to have been Irish novelist Edna O'Brien, or even to have been in her circle of friends and lovers. Well, for an hour and a half we can pretend we were.
Erupcja
Charli xcx headlines this indie gem about a young English couple coming unmoored over a few days in Warsaw. Will means to propose. Beth has cold feet -- and an escape hatch she has barely admitted to herself... Think Before Sunrise 2025.
Tony Wilson's The Homeless Project
Combining music, text, still photography, and film to shine a sympathetic light on Canada's urban dispossessed, The Homeless Project is the third in composer, guitarist Tony Wilson's series of multimedia projects addressing pressing social issues.