Ma Shih-yuan

Ma is selected because a first credit carries unusually exposed adult responsibility. The verified fact that I-Ann occupies a central line within a three-generation household supports substantive 2025–2026 contribution: Ma must sustain financial pressure, resistance, desire and responsibility before and after a disclosure that changes how earlier scenes are understood. The thirty-five-day shoot on phones in working night-market locations supports craft or creative execution: close framing and unpredictable surroundings leave limited room to disguise lapses in concentration, making controlled withholding and small behavioural shifts central to the result. Recognition from three juries supports verified impact and distinction: newcomer prizes register the scale of entry, while Stockholm’s unrestricted Best Actress award tested the same performance without an experience-limited category. The significance of those connections is editorial rather than predictive.

Ma does not enter because one acclaimed debut guarantees a durable career. She enters because the completed work already makes her individual choices legible. I-Ann can be angry without becoming a single note, secretive without becoming an empty puzzle, and affectionate without cancelling the harm or frustration inside the household. The late disclosure requires the performance to permit more than one reading from the beginning.

Tsou’s direction, the ensemble, the production method and the film’s international release all remain collective achievements. Within them, Ma carries an adult dramatic line that would not survive as a merely promising cameo. Her route outside established idol and television channels also gives the cohort a credible independent-cinema discovery, but background diversity is not the merit claim. Against comparable first-feature performers, technically exposed work recognised in both newcomer and open competition supports one of 35 places.