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TRENDING
June 3, 2024
Chinese Titles and World Premieres Govern Shanghai Film Festival Selection
The Shanghai International Film Festival unveiled the competition selection for its upcoming 26th edition Wednesday, featuring a lineup characteristically heavy on Chinese titles. As in recent years, the lineup also includes a bevy of European, Japanese and Central Asian movies, but not a single film from the U.S. or South Korea. By: K Dass.
Shanghai, China - The 26th Shanghai International Film Festival has
unveiled its competition lineup for 2024, and it promises an exciting array of
films. The festival is weighted heavily to world premieres and Chinese, local
titles.
The Shanghai lineup
have little in common with other international festivals being held at this
time of year. Most of those, typically, find house room for a sprinkling of
standout titles from Sundance, Berlin or Cannes.
Further adding to the
uniqueness of the Shanghai lineup is the weighting given to Chinese films (four
of the competition titles and a majority, six of the 11, selected for the Asian
competition). That is matched by the non-selection of any English-language or
Korean-produced pictures.
In A Man and a
Woman directed by Chinese filmmaker Guan Hu, this drama features lead
performances from local stars Huang Bo and Ni Ni. Guan Hu recently impressed
critics at the Cannes Film Festival with his darkly comic thriller Black Dog,
which won the prestigious Un Certain Regard prize.
Little has been
revealed about A Man and a Woman, but given Guan’s recent critical and
commercial success, it’s likely to be one of the festival’s most sought-after
tickets.
Don’t Worry, Be
Happy is another standout
in the competition is Chinese director Wei Shujun’s feature. Wei’s previous
film, Only the River Flows, premiered at Cannes last year and was
described as “a puzzle-like homage to the noir genre” by critics.
Starfall directed by Zhang Dalei, this film marks Zhang’s
feature debut. His previous work, The Summer Is Gone (2016), received
acclaim and was awarded Best Film at Taipei’s Golden Horse Film Festival.
Living in Two
Worlds is by Japanese
director Mipo O who returns after nine years with this drama. The film tells
the story of a young man raised in rural Japan by deaf parents. Mipo O’s 2014
film, The Light Shines Only There, was Japan’s official submission to
the Oscars.
Jury president and jury
members, Vietnamese-French director Tran Anh Hung (known for Scent of the
Green Papaya) will preside over the festival’s main competition section.
Other jury members
include Australian director Rolf de Heer, German filmmaker Matthias Glasner,
Hong Kong star Tony Leung Ka-fai, Argentinian director Santiago Mitre, Chinese
actress Zhou Xun, and Tibetan director Sonthar Gyal.
The festival runs
from June 14 to 23, and while there are no U.S. or South Korean films in the
competition lineup this year, the diverse selection promises an exciting
cinematic experience for attendees.
