SIFF PROJECT｜Lineup of SIFF PROJECT Annual Focus Committee Unveiled

The 25th Shanghai International Film Festival - SIFF PROJECT announced today the lineup of the Annual Focus Committee for this year. Well-known director, screenwriter, and producer Wu Ershan serves as the president of the committee, and producer Chen Zhixi and director Xin Yukun are the committee members.

This year’s SIFF PROJECT will be held from June 12 to 15 in Shanghai. The three members of the Annual Focus Committee will participate in the whole process. They will comment on the public presentations of “NEW TALENT PROJECT” and “WORK-IN PROGRESS PROJECT (WIP)”, exchange ideas with the project parties of “PRE-PRODUCTION PROJECT” and “CO-PRODUCTION PROJECT”, and finally determine the winners of the four official honors to be awarded by SIFF EXPLORE.

Committee President Wu Ershan

Director, screenwriter, and producer

Director Wu Ershan is a leading figure in Chinese fantasy films. His works, grounded in local Chinese culture in terms of content, showcase his distinctive personal style in terms of aesthetics and keep him at the forefront of film creation. His films, acclaimed by various awards, have been highly recognized by the market.

In 2011, Wu Ershan directed the martial arts comedy film THE BUTCHER, THE CHEF, AND THE SWORDSMAN, which won the awards for Best New Director and Best Makeup & Costume Design at the 48th Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival. In 2012, he directed the magical romance PAINTED SKIN II, which set a new box office record for Chinese films at the time by grossing RMB 300 million in four days. In 2015, his fantasy adventure film MOJIN - THE LOST LEGEND garnered the honor for Best Director of the 33rd Hundred Flowers Award and the award for Best Visual Effects at the 53rd Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival. Currently, Wu Ershan's pending feature films include the mythological epic CREATION OF THE GODSⅠ:KINGDOM OF STORMS and the comic adaptation Yi Ren Zhi Xia.

Committee Member Chen Zhixi

Producer and supervisor

The executive director of Ruyi Holdings and the president of Ruyi Films. Works produced and supervised by her include: ONE AND ONLY, POST TRUTH, HI, MOM, THE REUNIONS, ANIMAL WORLD, DETECTIVE CHINATOWN, LOST IN THAILAND, etc. As of now, the cumulative box office scooped by films produced by Chen Zhixi has exceeded 10 billion, with HI, MOM, a hit during the Spring Festival of 2021, contributing nearly 5.413 billion. Chen Zhixi is also known as one of the most successful producers in the industry.

Committee Member Xin Yukun

Director and screenwriter

His representative works include THE COFFIN IN THE MOUNTAIN and WRATH OF SILENCE. And the feature film debut THE COFFIN IN THE MOUNTAIN won the awards for Best Feature Film and Best Director at the 8th FIRST International Film Festival, the Warsaw Grand Prix in the International Competition at the 30th Warsaw International Film Festival, the Annual Jury Special Commendation for Debut Feature at the 6th China Film Directors’ Guild, and was shortlisted by the Venice International Film Festival, the Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival, the Hong Kong International Film Festival and other international film festivals, and was invited to screen at festivals in over 16 countries and regions.

Director Xin Yukun's works are mostly genre films with unique styles. The characters in his exquisitely narrated films are often cool and sensitive, trying to examine human nature and invite people's reflections through complex relationships and plot clues.

*In the alphabetical order of the first letter of the surname

Introduced in 2007, SIFF PROJECT has been held for 15 sessions so far, and witnessed 87 projects entering production, of which 44 films were shortlisted for competitive feature film festivals, and 61 films were released in theaters.

Previous jury members and Annual Focus Committee members for SIFF PROJECT include: Bennett Walsh, Cao Baoping, Chen Guofu, Chen Zhengdao, Diao Yinan, Dong Runnian, Gary Kurtz, Guan Hu, He Ping, He Yunming, Huang Jianxin, Kwong Wenwei, Liao Qingsong, Li Lie, Liu Kailuo, Liu Weiran, Li Shaowei, Ma Ke, Shen Yang, Shozo Ichiyama, Shuang Xuetao, Sun Zhou, Tao Kun, Wong Kar-wai, Wang Yibing, Xu Ligong, Xu Xiaoming, Xu Yuezhen, Xu Zheng, Yan Geling, Ye Rufen, Zhang Jialu, Zhang Yibai, Zhao Deyin, Zhao Haicheng, Zheng Bixue, etc.