Shanghai Film Festival Bets Big on Asia’s Next Generation

If you took a little look offstage, beyond the glamour of the Shanghai International Film Festival’s gala opening on Saturday night, the very nature of this year’s program revealed itself in the cast and crew members gathered at the Shanghai Grand Theater.

First-time director Keane T.K. Wong was on hand, his psychological drama Afterpiece having been chosen to open the big event — which runs across this sprawling metropolis until June 21 — and in the lead-up the Hong Kong filmmaker was quick to praise the support for emerging Chinese-language filmmaking talent, much of it on display at this year’s SIFF.

“My first reaction was surprise,” Wong said of the selection. “For a feature film debut to be selected as the opening film of SIFF is a high recognition of the film and a great honor for me personally. I am very grateful to everyone in front of and behind the camera.”

There were nods to veteran producer Derek Yee and the film’s stars Stephen Fung, Angela Yuen, Myolie Wu and Chrissie Chau, as well as to the Hong Kong government’s Directors’ Succession Scheme, which paired Wong with Yee. “It is this trust in newcomers that made this film possible,” said Wong.

SIFF itself can point to a long list of its own initiatives this year as proof that it is also looking to support Chinese cinema’s next generation — among them the SIFF ING Young Filmmakers Program, the SIFF NEXT Film Project Training Camp and the SIFF YOUNG × Shanghai Young Filmmakers Support Program, which counts industry veterans Joan Chen and Wen Muye as mentor and juror, respectively.

Apart from the main competition, SIFF’s Asian New Talent competition has an impressive strike rate when it comes to discovering the region’s emerging stars — as jury president Anthony Chen noted before the festival, the expectation is that there are “real gems” to be found — and there has been buzz around the likes of Zhang Hanyi’s Cassowary and Wan Bo’s Strangers in the Mountain (both from China).

“Talent development has become one of our defining strengths,” explained Chen Guo, managing director of the Shanghai International Film & TV Events Center, the festival’s organizing body. “Through a comprehensive support system encompassing industry programs, professional awards and overseas screening opportunities, SIFF has helped cultivate a significant number of outstanding Chinese-language filmmakers and films.”

In terms of its reach around the region, SIFF points to the diversity of its competition entries — across five sections — with films drawn from 34 countries and regions, including the first Moroccan film in the main competition in 27 years (Yassine El Idrissi’s Halima) and a first for Jordan and Saudi Arabia in the Asian New Talent section (Zaid Abu Hamdan’s Boomah).

Somewhat conspicuously, the festival’s main competition section features no titles from filmmaking powerhouses like the U.S., Japan or South Korea this year. But Chen Guo notes that the main competition and documentary sections “have 100 percent world premieres for the first time in the festival’s history.”

In terms of pure crowd-pulling attractions, Asia, of course, is the main focus, with the Refreshing Chinese Cinema slate looking at the contemporary scene in the country. But the SIFF program casts its net wide with a collection of Cannes favorites and tributes to Ken Loach, the sci-fi of Steven Spielberg, acclaimed French animator René Laloux, Billy Wilder and Marilyn Monroe. And it has star power in Hong Kong’s Tony Leung Chiu-wai, mainland director Guan Hu and actress Xin Zhilei on its main competition jury.

The festival is also tapping into the rise of artificial intelligence and its impact both here and beyond, with any number of seminars designed to dig into topics, such as “When AI Learns to Create, What Grounds Cinema?”

“SIFF has always paid close attention to the intersection of art and technology,” said Chen Guo. “Today, the rapid development of digital technologies and artificial intelligence is opening entirely new possibilities for cinematic expression and creative practice. Reflecting this trend, this year’s festival places a strong focus on the future of film and audiovisual technology.”