The world premiere of Liu Juan’s A River Without Tears is set to open this year’s Pingyao International Film Festival, which has revealed its full line-up.
The eighth edition of the festival, founded by acclaimed director Jia Zhangke, is scheduled to run from September 24-30 in the picturesque city of Pingyao, in China’s Shanxi province.
Sections include Crouching Tigers, made up of emerging international filmmakers; Hidden Dragons, featuring the first or second films of Chinese directors; gala films by renowned directors; and Made-in-Shanxi, comprising titles by local filmmakers or films shot in in the province.
Opening film A River Without Tears marks the latest feature of director Liu and follows father who pursues a girl who knew his late daughter in a bid to learn the truth behind her death. The cast includes Wang Yanhui, Deng Enxi and Yang Haoyu. Executive producer is Chinese auteur Jia Zhangke.
The festival has also secured a restored version of Chen Kaige’s Yellow Earth, marking the 40th anniversary of the feature, which was part of the Fifth Generation of Chinese filmmakers when it won the Silver Leopard at Locarno in 1985. The cinematography was handled by Zhang Yimou, now one of China’s most acclaimed filmmakers who is still achieving box office success with the likes of Full River Red.
A River Without Tears will play as one of 12 titles in the Hidden Dragon section, which includes six debut features and 10 world premieres.
The Crouching Tigers strand will include the China and Asian premieres of titles that have already made waves at international festivals such as Neo Sora’s Happyend, which recently played at Venice; Magnus Van Horn’s The Girl With The Needle, which screened in Competition at Cannes; and Matthew Rankin’s Universal Language, winner of the first audience award at Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight and Canada’s submission for this year’s Oscars.
Earlier this year, the festival officially named Lin Xudong as artistic director and unveiled its programming team for the upcoming edition.
Pingyao International Film Festival 2024
Hidden Dragons
Hello, Spring (China)
Dir. Ma Lanhua
Village Music (China)
Dir. Wang Lina
A Song River (China)
Dir. Zhu Xin
Karst (China)
Dir. Yang Suiyi
Chinatown Cha-Cha (China)
Dir. Luka Yuanyuan Yang
Floating Clouds Obscure The Sun (China)
Dir. Shen Tao
A River Without Tears (China)
Dir. Liu Juan
True Love, For Once In My Life (HK-China)
Dir. Siu Koon Ho
Reflections In The Lake (China)
Dir. Zhai Yixiang
Betwixt And Between (China)
Dir. Zhou Quan
Stars And The Moon (China)
Dir. Tang Yongkang
Green Wave (China)
Dir. Xu Lei
Crouching Tigers
Savanna And The Mountain (Port-Uru)
Dir. Paulo Carneiro
Universal Language (Can)
Dir. Matthew Rankin
Good One (US)
Dir. India Donaldson
Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed (Arg-Sp-Port)
Dir. Hernán Rosselli
Christmas Eve In Miller’s Point (US)
Dir. Tyler Taormina
The Girl With The Needle (Den)
Dir. Magnus Von Horn
Sujo (US-Mex-Fr)
Dirs: Astrid Rondero, Fernanda Valadez
The Story Of Souleymane (Fr)
Dir. Boris Lojkine
I Saw Three Black Lights (Col-Mex-Fr-Ger)
Dir. Santiago Lozano Álvarez
My Summer With Irène (It-Fr)
Dir. Carlo Sironi
The Sparrow In The Chimney (Switz)
Dir. Ramon Zürcher
Happyend (Japan-US)
Dir. Neo Sora
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