July 5, 2024
The Shanghai International Film Festival (SIFF) continues to place great emphasis on “Asia, Chinese films and new talent”. By: K Dass.
China - The Shanghai International Film
Festival (SIFF), now in its 26th edition, remains committed to nurturing new
talent from Asia. At the heart of this mission lies the Asian New Talent
competition, which celebrates its 20th anniversary this year.
Launched in
2004, the Asian New Talent competition provides a dedicated stage for first or
second directorial feature films. It’s a springboard for up-and-coming talent
across Asia.
This year, 11
titles compete for six awards, including best film and best director. The
lineup features world premieres from China, India, Iran, Japan, and a
Russia-Kazakhstan-Italy co-production.
Celebrating
Past Winners: SIFF Special - Asian New Talent 20 Collection revisits
award-winning films from previous years. Directors like Cao Baoping, Zhu Wen,
and Momoko Ando return to showcase their acclaimed works.
Iranian
director Reza Dormishian and Indian director Raam Reddy engage in discussions,
exploring trends and creative forces shaping Asian cinema. Further forum speakers include
Japanese director Iwai Shunji, the jury head of Asian New Talent in 2011, and
Hong Kong director Derek Yee, the producer of In Broad Daylight and Time Still
Turns The Pages. Both films premiered at last year’s Asian New Talent
competition before going on to earn many accolades and achieve box office
success in China.
The Asian New
Talent competition is part of the 6+1 initiative that SIFF has put in place in
a concerted effort to cultivate new talent over different stages, which also
comprises SIFF Explore, SIFF Next, SIFF Young, SIFF Project and the Short Film
competition. Up-and-coming directors, producers and screenwriters are given the
opportunities to join a variety of programmes most suitable to the status of
their projects, from incubation and development workshops to short film
production and competition showcase.
SIFF
continues to foster international collaboration, ensuring a vibrant future for
Asian filmmaking talent.