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Chinese director Guan Hu, fresh from winning Cannes' Un Certain Regard competition with his drama 'Black Dog', will compete in Shanghai with another new feature, 'A Man and a Woman.'
By Patrick Brzeski
Asia Bureau Chief
The Shanghai International Film Festival unveiled the competition selection for its upcoming 26th edition Wednesday, featuring a lineup characteristically heavy on Chinese titles. As in recent years, the lineup also includes a bevy of European, Japanese and Central Asian movies, but not a single film from the U.S. or South Korea.
The most anticipated film from the festival’s 14-title main competition in 2024 is undoubtedly Chinese director Guan Hu’s drama A Man and a Woman, featuring a pair of lead performances from the big local stars Huang Bo and Ni Ni. Guan wowed critics at the Cannes Film Festival just a week ago with his darkly comic thriller Black Dog, which took home the French festival’s prestigious Un Certain Regard prize. Guan also is no stranger to the Shanghai festival. His WWII tentpole The Eight Hundred was scheduled to open the 2019 edition of the event, but it was withdrawn at the last minute due to reported censorship issues (changes were later made to the film and it became a massive blockbuster). Little has been revealed to the Western press about Guan’s latest, A Man and a Woman, but his recent critical and commercial hot streak will make it one of the festival’s most in-demand tickets.
Chinese director Wei Shujun’s feature Don’t Worry, Be Happy is another competition standout, as is Zhang Dalei’s Starfall. Wei’s most recent film, Only the River Flows, premiered at Cannes last year, with THR‘s critic summing it up as “a puzzle-like homage to the noir genre.” Zhang’s feature debut, The Summer Is Gone (2016), was awarded best film at Taipei’s Golden Horse Film Festival.
Japanese director Mipo O’s drama Living in Two Worlds makes for another highlight. The film is O’s first feature in nine years and tells the story of a young man raised in rural Japan by deaf parents. One of Japan’s most prominent female filmmakers, O previously saw her 2014 film The Light Shines Only There selected by her country as its official submission to the Oscars.
The 26th Shanghai International Film Festival runs June 14 to 23. Vietnamese-French director Tran Anh Hung (Oscar-nominated in 1994 for Scent of the Green Papaya and Cannes’ best director winner last year with The Taste of Things) has been named the festival’s president of the jury for the main competition section. Joining Tran on the jury are Australian director Rolf de Heer, German filmmaker Matthias Glasner, Hong Kong star Tony Leung Ka-fai, Argentinian director Santiago Mitre, Chinese actress Zhou Xun and Tibetan director Sonthar Gyal.
The full 2024 Shanghai International Film Festival selection is below.
Main Competition
A BATHROOM OF ONE’S OWN
Director: Lucía Casañ Rodríguez
Country/Region: Spain
World Premiere
A MAN AND A WOMAN
Director: GUAN Hu
Country/Region: Mainland, China/Hong Kong
World Premiere
ADULT
Director: Mariano Gonzalez
Country/Region: Argentina
World Premiere
ANOTHER GERMAN TANK STORY
Director: Jannis Alexander Kiefer
Country/Region: Germany
World Premiere
CHASING JOHNNY
Director: Baptiste Debraux
Country/Region: France
International Premiere
DON’T WORRY, BE HAPPY
Director: WEI Shujun
Country/Region: China
World Premiere
THE HEDGEHOG
Director: GU Changwei
Country/Region: China
World Premiere
HER SECOND CHANCE
Director: Vito Palmieri
Country/Region: Italy
International Premiere
LIVING IN TWO WORLDS
Director: Mipo O
Country/Region: Japan
World Premiere
SILENCE OF THE SEASHELL
Director: Kamar Ahmad Simon
Country/Region: Bangladesh/Germany
World Premiere
SNOWFLAKES IN MY YARD
Director: Bakur Bakuradze
Country/Region: Georgia/Russia
World Premiere
STARFALL
Director: ZHANG Dalei
Country/Region: China
World Premiere
THE DIVORCE
Director: Daniyar Salamat
Country/Region: Kazakhstan
World Premiere
THE WASTEMAN
Director: Ahmad Bahrami
Country/Region: Iran
World Premiere
Asian New Talent Competition
3 DAYS, 3 MURDERS
Director: Masoud Amini Tirani
Country/Region: Iran
World Premiere
BIRD OF A DIFFERENT FEATHER
Director: Manohara K
Country/Region: India
World Premiere
DREAMING OF MOTHER AND HOME
Director: WANG Xinrui
Country/Region: China
World Premiere
FISHBONE
Director: ZHANG Xuyu
Country/Region: China
World Premiere
FRIDAY, FUNFAIR
Director: ZENG Zhi
Country/Region: China
World Premiere
HABITAT
Director: ZHANG Luoping
Country/Region: China
World Premiere
IN THE NAME OF FIRE
Director: Abhilash Sharma
Country/Region: India
World Premiere
LONGER THAN A DAY
Director: Malika Mukhamejan
Country/Region: Russia/Kazakhstan/Italy
World Premiere
THE ABSENT
Director: LU Dan
Country/Region: China
World Premiere
THE LOST DAUGHTER
Director: ZANG Lianrong, XU Ruogu
Country/Region: China
World Premiere
VICISSITUDE
Director: Takuro Ijichi
Country/Region: Japan
World Premiere
Animation Film
BUFFALO KIDS
Director: Pedro Solis, Juan Jesús García Galocha ‘Galo’
Country/Region: Spain
Asian Premiere
LIVING LARGE
Director: Kristina Dufková
Country/Region: Czech, Slovakia, France
Asian Premiere
THE GLASSWORKER
Director: Usman Riaz
Country/Region: Pakistan/United States
Asian Premiere
THE ROYAL CAT
Director: CAO Liang
Country/Region: China
World Premiere
THE COLORS WITHIN
Director: Naoko Yamada
Country/Region: Japan
Asian Premiere
Documentary Film
ALL AND NOTHING
Director: Liao I-Ling  Chu Po-Ying
Country/Region: Taiwan, China
International Premiere
GERI’S WISH
Director: Tonislav Hristov
Country/Region: Finland  Bulgaria
World Premiere
MS. HU’S GARDEN
Director: PAN Zhiqi
Country/Region: China
World Premiere
REQUIEM FOR A TRIBE
Director: Marjan Khosravi
Country/Region: Iran/Spain/Qatar
World Premiere
THE LANDSCAPE AND THE FURY
Director: Nicole Vögele
Country/Region: Switzerland/Bosnia and Hercegovina
International Premiere
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