China’s Hainan Island International Film Festival (HIIFF) is to take place from December 18-25, after being postponed at short notice, and has revealed the titles in its feature and documentary competitions.
The fourth edition of the festival, held in the city of Sanya, was set to run from December 3-10 but was abruptly put on hold following a rise in Covid cases. Now, following the relaxation of pandemic measure in China over the past week, the festival is back on and has unveiled its line-up of titles.
Scroll down for competition titles
The HIIFF Competition, hosted by organisers China Media Group, includes 11 titles in the feature competition; eight in the documentary competition; and 10 shorts. The competition was formerly known as the Golden Coconut Awards.
HIIFF is overseen and curated by Marco Mueller, former director of Venice, Rome and Locarno film festivals, who was named artistic director last month.
The feature competition includes titles that debuted at Cannes such as Charlotte Wells’ Aftersun, Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s The Beasts, Clément Cogitore’s Sons Of Ramses and Louis Garrel’s The Innocent as well as Venice award-winners Saint Omer by Alice Diop, Vera by Tizza Covi and Rainer Frimmel, World War III by Houman Seyyedi and Trenque Lauquen by Laura Citarella.
Asian filmmakers in the line-up include Tibet’s Chakme Rinpoche with Georgia, China’s Sixue Qiao with The Cord Of Life and Chinese artist-turned-director Ran Huang with UK-Hong Kong-Finland co-production What Remains.
The documentary competition includes Thessaloniki winner A Marble Travelogue by Sean Wang and Blue Bag Life, directed by Alex Fry, Rebecca Lloyd-Evans and Lisa Selby, which won the audience award at this year’s BFI London Film Festival.
HIIFF will open with a premiere screening of Post Truth, directed by and starring Da Peng, which follows a seller of cemetery plots who sets out to revive the reputation of one of his deceased clients. The film is set for release on December 31.
Further strands include Gala, Fest Best, Panorama, New Horizons and Classics as well as new section Asian New Director, which includes Makbul Mubarak’s Autobiography, Darkhan Tulegenov’s Bratya, Ali Behrad’s Imagine, Martika Ramirez Escoba’s Leonor Will Never Die, Jaishankar Aryar’s Shivamma, and Roleless by Masahiko Sato, Yutaro Seki and Kentaro Hirase.
HIIFF Competition 2023
Feature Competition
Aftersun (UK-US)
Dir. Charlotte Wells
The Beasts (Sp)
Dir. Rodrigo Sorogoyen
Georgia (China)
Dir. Chakme Rinpoche
Sons Of Ramses (Fr)
Dir. Clément Cogitore
Saint Omer (Sen)
Dir. Alice Diop
The Cord Of Life (China)
Dir. Sixue Qiao
The Innocent (Fr)
Dir. Louis Garrel
Trenque Lauquen (Arg)
Dir. Laura Citarella
Vera (Austria)
Dirs. Tizza Covi, Rainer Frimmel
What Remains (UK-HK-Fin)
Dir. Huang Ran
World War III (Iran)
Dir. Houman Seyedi
Documentary Competition
A Marble Travelogue (Neth-HK-Greece)
Dir. Sean Wang
A Steady Job (It)
Dirs. Mattia Colombo, Gianluca Matarrese
Blue Bag Life (UK)
Dirs. Alex Fry, Rebecca Lloyd-Evans, Lisa Selby
Dry Ground Burning (Bra)
Dirs. Joana Pimenta, Adirley Queirós
Rookies (Fr)
Dirs. Thierry Demaizière, Alban Teurlai
See You Friday Robinson (Fr-Switz-Iran-Leb)
Dir. Mitra Farahani
The Eclipse (Nor)
Dir. Natasa Urban
We, Students! (CF-DRC-Saudi)
Dir. Rafiki Fariala
No comments yet