The 25th Shanghai International Film Festival Kicks Off Tonight

Long-waited reunion for film art follows a year of absence. Returning to the limelight with a brand-new look featuring the complete lineup of sections, today (June 9), the 25th Shanghai International Film Festival (SIFF) kicks off at Shanghai Grand Theater with a red-carpet ceremony and the star-studded Gala Night. In the following nine days, Shanghai will witness the spectacular exchange between Chinese cinema and world cinema.

Cinema, a celebration of culture and friendship, and a spectacle of light and shadows

This year marks the 30th anniversary of SIFF.Over the past 30 years, upholding the philosophy centering around “Asia, Chinese Film, and Newcomers”, SIFF has chronicled the historical moments of glory and seen the best part of the era, and is hailed as the international competitive feature film festival that grows the fastest across the world. The shortlist for the Golden Goblet Awards this year is quite impressive. Among the 53 works shortlisted for the Main Competition, Asian New Talent, Documentary, Animation, and Short Film sections, 36 world premieres, 12 international premieres, and 5 Asian premieres will serve to enchant audiences’ eyes. For Chinese-language cinema, ALL EARS, DUST TO DUST, and GOOD AUTUMN, MOMMY are shortlisted for the Main Competition; MAY, GONE WITH THE BOAT, DAY DREAMING, IN BROAD DAYLIGHT, TIMES STILL TURNS THE PAGES, and LOVE, MY WAY are selected for the Asian New Talent unit under the Golden Goblet Awards for the first time; SUMMER KNOWS, THE LONG JOURNEY, COLD SPELL IN LATER SPRING, GIFT, TWENTY, QUESTIONS TO HEAVEN andTHE BEE AND THE FLYare nominated for the Short Film unit; LEAP OF FAITH and MASTER ZHONG are chosen as finalists for the Documentary and Animation units respectively. All of the above works will make their world premieres during the festival and will also compete for the awards in each category of the Golden Goblet Awards.The jury panels for the five sections of the Golden Goblet Awards - Main Competition, Asian New Talent, Documentary, Animation and Short Film - are led by director Jerzy Skolimowski from Poland, director Aktan Arym Kubat from Kyrgyzstan, director Christian Frei from Switzerland, animation producer Taro Maki from Japan, and producer Peggy Chiao from Chinese Taiwan. A total of 21 film professionals from 12 countries and regions comprise the jury panels.

Developed originally around the international, professional and authoritative Golden Goblet Awards,SIFF has deepened the exchange and mutual appreciation of film cultures among countries, nations and regions with film as the bond.This year celebrates the 10th anniversary of the Belt and Road Initiative, the 5th anniversary of the Belt and Road Film Festival Alliance and the Belt and Road Film Week.Over the past five years, SIFF has capitalized on its platform to facilitate exchanges and cooperation among film institutions and filmmakers from countries along the Belt and Road route in all dimensions, with its membership growing day by day.The famous Hungarian female director Ildikó Enyedi, who once served as a jury member for the Main Competition unit of the 21st SIFF in 2018, will join us again this year as a guest of SIFF MASTERCLASS, and the host of this event this time will be Chinese director Zheng Dasheng, who was a jury member of the Miskolc International Film Festival in Hungary in 2019; ABSENCE, a project incubated by SIFF PROJECT in 2019, has been designated as the opening film of the Belt and Road Film Week of the 25th SIFF after being shortlisted in the Short Film Competition at the Cannes Film Festival in 2022 with its short edition and in the Berlinale’s Encounters section,as a feature film. Zhao Tao, who was recommended by SIFF as a jury member for the feature film section of the Durban International Film Festival in South Africa in 2022, has been invited to join actor Lei Jiayin as promotional ambassadors for the Belt and Road Film Week this year.With the vision of harmony in diversity, mutual learning and win-win results, our friends, either new or old, will meet in Shanghai on this occasion to launch the “Films shine along the Beld and Road route” action plan, for deeper fusion of diverse cultures driven by innovation.

The star-studded red carpet of the Gala Night will offer an ideal stage to celebrated filmmakers and crews. Aside from the crews of THE GREAT WAR, CREATION OF THE GODSⅠ: KINGDOM OF STORMS, ADVANCING OF ZQ, WAR CUSTOMISED, MOONSTRUCK, WHO’S THE SUSPECT, HEROES OF DUNHUANG, ROMANCE OF SANGUI, MEG 2: THE TRENCH, MOSCOW MISSION, UNSPOKEN, THE COLDEST CITY, THE EX-FILES 4: MARRIAGE PLAN, RAGE, LOOK AT ME, SALVATION, etc., filmmakers including Chen Kaige, Michelle Yeoh, Christian Rand Phillips, Wai Ying Hung, Jason Statham, Shen Teng, Nicholas Tse, Anita Yuen, Chow Yun Fat, Zhu Yawen, Zhu Yilong, etc. will join each other on the scene to be part of the celebration of cinema; also, the International Jury of the Golden Goblet Awards will appear collectively on the red carpet for the Gala Night.

SIFF, seeking to be the interface for humanistic exchange, cultural interchange and people-to-people contact, will gather excellent filmmakers and cinematic masterpieces from all over the world for a grand fest of light and shadows.At the “2023 China Movie & TV Night” to be held during SIFF, CMG, ingeniously combining the realms of “Ideas + Art + Technology”, will spotlight Chinese filmmakers’ unremitting efforts in creating high-quality cinematic productions, to present the world a trustable, adorable and respectable image of China.

Industry forces pooled to empower the upgrade of the film industry

In 30 years, SIFF, drawing its energy from Shanghai’s city spirit of being “inclusive, aspiring, enlightened, and generous” as well as the city character of being “open, innovative and tolerant”, has built a platform for global filmmakers to develop their careers with consistency, to fulfill its role as an international competitive feature film festival. SIFF has gradually established a “6+1” progressive new talent nurturing scheme spanning SIFF EXPLORE, Short Film of Golden Goblet Awards, SIFF NEXT, SIFF PROJECT, Asian New Talent of Golden Goblet Awards, Golden Goblet Awards and SIFF YOUNG, to pave the way for young people to grow as filmmakers and echo their film aspirations.

During this year’s SIFF, 12 thematic forums of SIFFORUM will touch upon the innovative development of the entire film industry chain and offer insights into building up cinematic strength for China. The opening forum, “Chinese Film Industry in the Global Context”, will feature prominent industry figures at home and abroad, who will offer their views on how to foster a new international cooperation pattern for Chinese films and drive the high-quality development of the film industry in a new era. Several industry forums will be held to address industry concerns from specific angles, such as how could small and medium budgeted films find their niche in the “blockbuster era” and secure a place in the market. “To Retrace the Century-long Saga of a Giant of the Ages”, a special forum to commemorate the centenary of Xie Jin’s birth, is designed to pass on the master’s artistic vision and cinematic spirit that are still alive across generations. In the Golden Goblet MasterClass, Jerzy Skolimowski will share his life stories of cinema as well as his relentless pursuit in the world of cinema; and the Film Education Innovation Forum will provoke thoughts in the film industry on: in the face of renewed iterations of technologies and concepts such as metaverse and artificial intelligence, how could film education keep abreast of the pace?

Major film and television institutions are also seeking networking opportunities during the festival. From June 10 to June 12, during the SIFF Market held at the Longemont Shanghai Hotel, companies of film and television production, investment and financing, technology, post-production, marketing and publicity,distribution, filming service agencies, film and television educational institutions and other exhibitors from home and abroad will gather again offline through a variety of exhibitions, market events, and market screenings among other forms. This year, the official video-based interview programme “Reception Room of Golden Goblet”, jointly initiated by SIFF and China Media Group Mobile, will also provide an arena for filmmakers and film institutions from all sides to offer a glimpse into the practices of the film industry to boost cultural confidence and strength and composite a new chapter of glory for socialist culture.

The engine behind the buzz of SIFF is the commitment of building Shanghai into a global hub for film and television production.This year, SIFF has collaborated with Songjiang District, to launch the first-ever SCI-FILM WEEK, which encompasses thematic screenings of 11 films and three thematic forums. The SCI-FI FILM WEEK Keynote Forum, the Science and Film Fusion Forum and the Film Technology Forum jointly presented by SIFF and China Film Association will assemble film and technology professionals to interpret the international mindset and context behind the development of sci-fi films and explore the development path for Chinese sci-fi films. In the VISION LAB presented by SIFF in cooperation with Putuo District, the general public will have the chance to discover in person the application of cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence, virtual engines, block chain, 5G, VR/AR/XR and human-computer interaction in all links of film production, with panoramic views, three-dimensional interaction, virtual reality (VR) theatre, extended reality (XR) installations and electronic domes coming together to delight the audience with a one-stop experience; the Shanghai International Film & TV Festivals have set up a Metaverse Experience Roadshow Center at “Metafilm”, where digital technology combined with topnotch cultural events brings about more immersive, experiential and interactive scenarios that are all the more innovative, to create new application benchmarks for the metaverse and bring into full play the overflow effect of SIFF as a prestige brand.

The flourish of the Chinese film industry has also sent a positive signal to the global community. During the Cannes Film Festival, which drew to a close last month, Guillaume Esmiol, the new Director of the Cannes Film Market, congratulated the SIFF via video: “Following Cannes comes SIFF, and I wish you all a fabulous festival to celebrate in June.”

SIFF, in the spotlight for long, has also won the favor of top brands from home and abroad.This year, our official partner, MIGU,under China Mobile, will back the Gala Night with network and live streaming technology, and online screenings will also be available on MIGU Video and the designated new media TV partner BesTV. The festival has also received support from other brands such as Dior, Piaget, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Cadillac, aside from MIGU and BesTV, who have injected fresh vitality into the festival as always.

Resonance with the times and fest for cinephiles

In the officially launched promotional video for the 25th SIFF, the leading young filmmaker Jackson Yee navigates his way to Shanghai in June for the grand gathering of film art. And the theme “Shanghai International Film Festival, I’m coming” tells truthfully the expectations of countless filmmakers and fans for it.At noon on June 2, the ticketing for the festival officially started on the platform Taopiaopiao, with a total of 256,000 people logging into the system in the first hour to buy tickets almost the same time, and 479 screenings sold out on that day. Soon, major cinemas also set up offline ticketing channels. The ticketingchannels both online and offline have sparked feverish scooping of tickets across the city, which cloak it in a vibe unique to “a festival for the people”.

This year, SIFFwill screen nearly 450 films from around the world, including nominees for the Golden Goblet Awards in 50 screening halls at 41 cinemas in Shanghai, with 53 world premieres, 41 international premieres, 80 Asian premieres and 76 Chinese premieres. As Shanghai is pushing ahead to polish up the brand of “Shanghai Culture”, the increasing expansion of premieres in terms of ratio mirrors the growing global influence and appeal of SIFF.

At each edition of SIFF, the opening and closing films are certainly the center of attention. This year, the opening film is LOVE NEVER ENDS by director Han Yan, a warmly realistic work casting lens on love in old age that portrays the stories of two elderly couples who are approaching the end of their lives and are still bravely committed to pure love, taking even further the director’s exploration of the topic of love and life. The closing film is Da Peng’s new work ONE AND ONLY, which tells the inspiring story of a street dance veteran and a young man seeking after the dreams who live up to their aspirations with passion, revealing perfectly the director’s long-standing idea of “delving into the inner world of nobody”. And the announcement of the opening and closing films has instantly aroused much anticipation among movie buffs.

For seasoned film lovers, SIFF is a festival where they can get to “meet” the masters in a variety of ways. The TRIBUTE TO MASTERS section, which is well-received among fans, will revisit this year with works by Xie Jin, Jean-Luc Godar, Juzo Itami, Mike Leigh and Pema Tseden. Mike Leigh, who is based in the UK, sent a video greeting to the fans of SIFF specially: “I hope you all enjoy the splendid festival and especially, my films.”

SIFF offers film fans the chance to pay tribute to the masters and also the privilege to interact with them. Each SIFF MASTERCLASS will draw a lot of experienced film fans and young filmmakers to sign up. This year, four Chinese and foreign film masters, Chan Ho-San, Ildikó Enyedi, Zhang Lv and Sho Miyake, will lead the audience on a journey to zip across the realm of film art.

Welcoming fans and filmmakers in June, Shanghai also records its splendors through films. Themed on “To Create for the Future”, SIFF Shooting 48H will take place at Shanghai International Resort this year. And the participants are expected to draw inspirations from the landscapes to capture the beauty of Pudong with filmic language.

In recent years, as its influence grows, SIFF has taken the initiative to share the fruits of Chinese and world cinemas with more people outside Shanghai.This year, the Belt and Road Film Week of SIFF will also feature the Yangtze River Delta Screening, to release latest fine works from countries along the Belt and Road route in 6 cinemas in Nanjing, Suzhou, Hangzhou, Ningbo and Hefei. Curated around the theme of “Conversation”, this year, the Belt and Road Film Week comes with 20 films, eight of which will compete for the Media Choice Award for Film, Media Choice Award for Filmmaker, and the Audience Choice Award.

Over the past 30 years, SIFF has plowed persistent efforts into the thriving of the art of cinema through the connection between China and the rest of the world, and mutual exchange and appreciation. Like the trees flouring in abundance as years fly by, SIFF, now in its thirtieth year, hopes that all filmmakers and film enthusiasts will fulfill their cinematic dreams here in Shanghai towards a promising future.