The Shanghai International Film Festival has unveiled a selection that is weighted heavily to world premieres and Chinese, local titles.
That gives the festival showcase screenings for the newest works by established Chinese directors Gu Changwei (“Peacock, “Till Death Do Us Part”), Wei Shujun (“only the River Flows,” “Striding Into the Wind”) and Guan Hu (“Old Fish”).
Guan was rewarded in Cannes only last week for his Un Certain Regard-winning picture “Black Dog,” but will unveil his next effort “The Hedgehog in Shanghai’s main competition.
All but two of the 14 competition section films are world premiere screenings – only “Un Homme en Fuite” recently released in France, and “Le Seconda Vita,” recently released in Italy are international premieres – and all 11 films selected in the Asian New Talent Competition are debut screenings.
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That makes 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.
The festival’s main competition winners win Golden Goblet awards that are decided on by a jury headed by Vietnam’s Tran Anh Hung (“The Taste of Things”).
The festival, in its 26th edition, will run June 14-23 and its project incubation market June 16-19. The film events will be followed by the 29th edition of the Shanghai Television Festival, running June 24-28.
Shanghai IFF Golden Goblet Competition (world premiere unless stated)
“A Bathroom of One’s Own” Dir. Lucía Casañ Rodríguez (Spain)
“A Man and a Woman” Dir. Guan Hu (China, Hong Kong)
“Adult” Dir. Mariano Gonzalez (Argentina)
“Another German Tank Story” Dir. Jannis Alexander Kiefer (Germany)
“Chasing Johnny” (aka “Un Homme en Fuite”) Dir. Baptiste Debraux (France, int’l premiere)
“Don’t Worry, Be Happy” Dir. Wei Shujun (China)
“The Hedgehog” Dir. Gu Changwei (China)
“Her Second Chance” (aka “La Seconda Vita”) Dir. Vito Palmieri (Italy, int’l premiere)
“Living in Two Worlds” Dir: Mipo O (Japan)
“Silence of the Seashell” (aka “Shongkhodhoni”) Dir. Kamar Ahmad Simon (Bangladesh, Germany)
“Snowflakes in My Yard” Dir. Bakur Bakuradze (Georgia, Russia)
“Starfall” Dir. Zhang Dalei (China)
“The Divorce” Dir. Daniyar Salamat (Kazakhstan)
“The Wasteman” Dir. Ahmad Bahrami (Iran).
Asian New Talent Competition
“3 Days, 3 Murders” Dir. Masoud Amini Tirani (Iran)
“Bird of a Different Feather” Dir. Manohara K (India)
“Dreaming of Mother and Home” Dir. Wang Xinrui (China)
“Fishbone” Dir. Zhang Xuyu (China)
“Friday, Funfair” Dir. Zeng Zhi (China)
“Habitat” Dir. Zhang Luopig (China)
“In the Name of Fire” Dir. Abhilash Sharma (India)
“Longer Than a Day” Dir. Malika Mukhamejan (Russia, Kazakhstan, Italy)
“The Absent” Dir. Lu Dan (China)
“The Lost Daughter” Dirs. Zang Lianrong, Xu Ruogu (China)
“Vicissitude” Dir. Takuro Ijichi (Japan)
