The promise heading into this year’s Shanghai International Film Festival was a focus on emerging talent and the rising generation of filmmakers across China and the region. On the evidence so far, the festival is staying true to its word — and it has enlisted a collection of global industry heavyweights to deliver both inspiration and a healthy dose of reality.
On the inspiration front: festival directors Tricia Tuttle (Berlin), Cameron Bailey (Toronto) and Albert Lee (Hong Kong) joined SIFF’s own Chen Guo and former Academy president Janet Yang for a series of rallying cries aimed as much at the global industry as at the young filmmakers gathered in Shanghai this week.
Tuttle pointed to local hero Diao Yinan as a prime example of what international festivals can do for emerging talent. The Chinese filmmaker’s early work appeared at SIFF before he took his gritty thriller Black Coal, Thin Ice to Berlin in 2014 and walked away with the Golden Bear. What programmers everywhere are looking for, she said, hasn’t changed.
“We want to be touched; we want to discover something non-obvious — a voice in the plot,” said Tuttle. “I think the most exciting thing is when we see something new, when a creator gives us a new perspective.”
