TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A film spotlighting the labor exploitation of foreign students won the top award at the first Taiwan International Human Rights Film Awards.

To raise the event’s visibility, the National Human Rights Museum upgraded it to a full film festival this year, running from Sept. 19 to Oct. 12 in Taipei and Kaohsiung, per Liberty Times. To encourage the public to explore human rights issues through film, two competition categories were included: the Youth Category and the Open Category.

Each category awarded a grand prize, an excellence prize, and an honorable mention, with cash prizes of NT$150,000 (US$4,800), NT$100,000, and NT$50,000. A total of 102 works entered the competition this year, and after preliminary and final judging, the winners were announced Sunday, followed by screenings of six winning films.

The Youth Category grand prize went to “A Better Place” (留學生). The film’s Malaysian director, Ben Oui (黃勇嵻), said Taiwan’s declining birthrate and labor shortages are major contemporary concerns.

Through the story of the Vietnamese students Ching-chun and Mei, who are both “students” and “workers,” Oui sought to portray the struggles of people living on the margins. The two came to Taiwan to study but must work to pay tuition, per PTS News.

They soon find themselves in the same situation as migrant workers laboring in an ironworks. Ching-chun tries to transfer schools to secure better opportunities and a better future but ultimately finds it futile.

The jury praised the film for its insight into Taiwan’s labor conditions and structural challenges, noting its sensitive treatment of human rights issues.

“The Taste of Pork Belly” (五花肉), directed by Sophie Suei (隋淑芬), took the top prize in the Open Category, per CNA. The film depicts Taiwan’s White Terror of the 1960s from the perspective of a young boy who uncovers dark truths about his family.