Shanghai Film Festival announces competition line-up

Shanghai International Film Festival (SIFF) has revealed the competition line-up for the Golden Goblet and Asian New Talent awards.

The Golden Goblet will see 16 films compete from 16 territories, while the Asian New Talent Awards has ten contenders from seven countries.

The 13^th edition of SIFF, which runs June 12 – 20, will also include a film market with two project sections. China Film Pitch and Catch will select eight Chinese projects and will introduce the film-makers to potential financers. The Co-FPC selects 27 Sino-foreign (partnerships between China and a foreign company from the region) also for financial assistance.

Selected projects include new films from Chinese film-maker Hou Yong and Korean film-maker Lee Myung-se. 

SIFF’s will also host several industry summits including a seminar on 3D development in Asia, which include a talk from Dean Yurke, who served as digital compositor on Avatar.

Director John Woo is heading this year’s Golden Goblet jury, which will also include Israeli film-maker Amos Gitai, US director Bill Guttentag and Japanese film-maker Youjirou Takita. 

There are five world premieres in the line-up: Paola Virzi’s La Prima Cosa Bella, Leo

Leo Pool’s The Last Escape, Masaru Shimomura’s Partners, Liu Jie’s Deep In The Clouds and Xue Xiaolu’s Ocean Heaven. 

Foreign films in competition are Neil Jordan’s Ondine, John and Kieran Carney’s Zonad, The Rowanberry Waltz, by Russian film-makers Alyona Semenova and Aleksandr Smirnov.

Meanwhile, the jury for the New Asian Talent competition, which is now in its fifth year, will be headed by Korean filmmaker Hur Jin-ho.