SIFF NEXT｜SIFF NEXT 2023 Announced the Finalist

SIFF NEXT of the 25th Shanghai International Film Festival (SIFF) announced today the shortlist. 20 trainees stood out among all the applicants, of which 5 were selected for the production group, 5 for the screenwriter group, and 10 for the director group. During the 25th SIFF, all trainees will join each other in the first phase of SIFF NEXT held from June 11 to 18 in Shanghai. While fully experiencing various activities of a competitive feature film festival, they will also meet more like-minded young filmmakers through the platform of SIFF NEXT to prepare for their future projects.

SIFF NEXT is an independent section of SIFF designed to incubate new film talents. Incepted in 2017, it was renewed in 2019. Since then, this section has engaged 60 trainees and 31 projects, of which 5 projects have been filmed and produced, and 4 projects have been shortlisted for international film festivals. The two works honored with the "Best SIFF NEXT Project" title in phase II of SIFF NEXT at the 24th SIFF, STAND OUT and MOMENTS ELUDING have completed the filming of their concept videos, which will be unveiled in the SIFF PROJECT section of the 25th SIFF in June.

The selection for this year's SIFF NEXT started as soon as the applications were received. After the selection by the preliminary and review jury committees, a total of 20 trainees were recommended, each of whom is a professional and committed young filmmaker in his or her field.

Finalist of SIFF NEXT 2023

Trainee Application and Selection Report

This year's SIFF NEXT received a total of more than 830 trainee applications, including 540 in 2022 and more than 290 in 2023, of which 9% are from the producer group, 25% from the screenwriter group, and 66% from the director group. The annual average total has increased compared with the previous session, with the figure of the director group rising by 3%. Hai Xin, the preliminary jury, noted that "the ages of applicants this year vary quite substantially", ranging from applicants of undergraduate students to film workers who have been engaged in this industry for years. Applicants born in 2000-2005 (18-23 years old) accounted for 4.8% of the total, with the youngest applicant being 18 years old. The post-00s are constituting an emerging force. At the same time, applicants born in 1965-1979 (44-58 years old) accounted for 4% of the total, and many of them have experience in feature film making and are seeking after opportunities to shoot their next work.

Also, more than 35% of the applicants this year do not have a filmic background, showing remarkable increase compared with previous year's figure - 21.6%. Perhaps, it is because the readily available hardware and software for filming and production has greatly reduced the technical difficulty of expression via films. The interdisciplinary background, instead of professional background, does bring some different perspectives and professional experience to film creation and production. In this regard, Jing Ran, the preliminary jury, thought that "such background richness is actually quite beneficial". Jiu Yin, the preliminary jury, shared the view that more and more creators now have broken through the disciplinary boundaries, trying to translate their creative enthusiasm into action, "Of course life experience is indispensable, but experience is also coming to the fore."

The selection for the director group paid particular attention to the directorial ability of the applicants as directors, as demonstrated in their past works, including personal expression, story pacing and audio-visual language. The review jury Li Xiaofeng said, "First, we will check whether the work submitted is a short film or feature film, as that is the most direct way to know the director's pursuits." He stressed that he was looking for "a strong vitality", "a desire to speak" and "a talent for revealing the spiritual world through filmic language". Compared with the previous session, the proportion of applicants submitting projects under development has grown from 70% to 78.5%. The preliminary jury Jing Ran mentioned that the majority of projects under development submitted by applicants were positioned as genre films, indicating that they were consciously knitting a stylized expression with the genre shell.

In the screenwriting group, there are not only applicants with professional background, rich working experience, accurate understanding of script creation goals, and mature and clear genre creation skills, but also applicants with few creation experience, but novel angles, strong creativity, and exceptional potentials. The selection for the screenwriting group is mainly based on the past representative works created by the applicants and the scripts of projects under development, to appraise from the aspects of screenwriting theme, screenwriting competence, writing ability, imagination, etc. Jiu Yin, the preliminary jury, believed that professional background and past experiences are important, but it is still necessary to distill experience from past creation, which is vital to script creation. The review jury Sun Yue remarked that skills are essential for professional screenwriters, but screenwriters with a "fresh" and "vigorous" style are more eye-catching.

For the producer group, the review jury Nai An told us that this year's applicants have clear creation ideas and hands-on experience in actual operations. Meanwhile, the preliminary jury Lu Shufan noticed that "there are some common and easily overlooked points among applicants: such as the cost of submitting a project, which can sometimes be challenging for directors creating feature film for the first time." The producer group’s selection focuses on an applicant's overall ability to develop the project, such as whether the theme has development value and whether the production planning is reasonable, clear and detailed. In addition to this, consideration has also been given to the overall quality of a producer as demonstrated by his or her past experience. The review jury Nai An added, "At the same time, I will also take into consideration the directors that projects work with, and make judgements mainly based on years of experience in working with emerging directors."

Similar to the previous session, the themes of family and youth are still the mainstream among the projects under development submitted by applicants. As for that, Li Xiaofeng, the review jury, reminded, "I have seen too many works themed children's growth this year, and I feel that the creation space in this direction is somewhat limited." Sun Yue, the review jury, said, "No matter what kind of theme a work is to address, it must offer us some unique styles and views, as only creators with exclusive highlights can stand out." Also, it is remarkable that there are projects adapted from real events to touch upon realistic themes, which indicates that applicants now tend to set their eyes on the present world and re-examine themselves and everything around them persistently. Moreover, among the projects under development submitted by applicants, elements that are relatively rare in the past, such as martial arts, open road, and ancient costumes, also began to make a splash.