The latest films by acclaimed Chinese directors Guan Hu, Wei Shujun, Gu Changwei and Zhang Dalei are among 14 features selected for the main competition at the upcoming 26th Shanghai International Film Festival (SIFF, June 14-23).
The festival has announced a total of 50 films in contention for the Golden Goblet Awards, which further include 11 titles for the Asian New Talent competition, five each for the animated feature and documentary feature competition, and 15 for the short film competition. Between them are 38 world premieres – a new record for SIFF – as well as six international premieres and six Asian premieres.
The main competition section carries four Chinese titles, the highest in recent years, including A Man And A Woman, starring Huang Bo and Ni Ni and directed by Guan whose Cannes debut Black Dog took the top prize in the Un Certain Regard section last week; and Don’t Worry, Be Happy, starring Huang Xiaoming, Lu Hsiao-fen and Zu Feng and directed by Wei who is known for having three feature films (Only The River Knows, Ripples Of Life and Striding Into The Wind) played in Cannes over the last four years.
Further Chinese titles are The Hedgehog (previously known as Call Me Crazy), with Ge You and Karry Wang from boyband TFIBoys and directed by Berlinale Silver Bear winning director Gu Changwei (Peacock); and Starfall, produced by Wen Muye and Bi Gang, directed by Zhang Dalei, whose short Day Is Done won a Silver Bear at the Berlinale in 2021.
All but two of the main competition titles are world premieres, including Jannis Alexander Kiefer’s Another German Tank Story, which will premiere together with Munich International Film Festival. The two international premieres are Baptiste Debraux’s Chasing Johnny from France and Vito Palmieri’s Her Second Chance from Italy.
Celebrating its 20th anniversary, the Asian New Talent competition will present 11 titles, all world premieres, comrpising six from China, two from India, one each from Iran and Japan and a Russia-Kazakhstan-Italy co-production.
The jury president for the main competition is Vietnamese-French filmmaker Tran Anh Hung, who won best director at Cannes last year with The Taste Of Things, while the Asian New Talent competition will be presided over by Chinese director Cao Baoping, whose Cock And Bull won a Golden Goblet for best actor Liu Ye at SIFF in 2016. The awards ceremony will be held on June 22.
SIFF will open with Red Radio Over Shanghai on June 15, a dance drama film directed by Zheng Dasheng, president of the Shanghai Film Association, and Cui Yi. It is based on a true story of a young man sent to manage a secret radio station in Shanghai in the 1930s and 1940s.
Golden Goblet Awards 2024 nominations
(All world premieres unless otherwise stated)
Main Competition
A Bathroom Of One’s Own (Sp)
Dir. Lucía Casañ Rodríguez
A Man And A Woman (China-HK)
Dir. GUAN Hu
Adult (Arg)
Dir. Mariano Gonzalez
Another German Tank Story (Ger)
Dir. Jannis Alexander Kiefer
Chasing Johnny (Fr) International Premiere
Dir. Baptiste Debraux
Don’t Worry, Be Happy (China)
Dir. WEI Shujun
The Hedgehog (China)
Dir. GU Changwei
Her Second Chance (It) International Premiere
Dir. Vito Palmieri
Living In Two Worlds (Japan)
Dir. Mipo O
Silence Of The Seashell (Bang-Ger)
Dir. Kamar Ahmad Simon
Snowflakes In My Yard (Geo-Rus)
Dir. Bakur Bakuradze
Starfall (China)
Dir. ZHANG Dalei
The Divorce (Kaz)
Dir. Daniyar Salamat
The Wasteman (Iran)
Dir. Ahmad Bahrami
Asian New Talent
3 Days, 3 Murders (Iran)
Dir. Masoud Amini Tirani
Bird Of A Different Feather (India)
Dir. Manohara K
Dreaming Of Mother And Home (China)
Dir. WANG Xinrui
Fishbone (China)
Dir. ZHANG Xuyu
Friday, Funfair (China)
Dir. ZENG Zhi
Habitat (China)
Dir. ZHANG Luoping
In The Name Of Fire (India)
Dir. Abhilash Sharma
Longer Than A Day (Rus-Kaz-It)
Dir. Malika Mukhamejan
The Absent (China)
Dir. LU Dan
The Lost Daughter (China)
Dirs. ZANG Lianrong, XU Ruogu
Vicissitude (Japan)
Dir. Takuro Ijichi
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