{"id":3511,"date":"2026-06-15T00:30:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-15T00:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/2026\/06\/15\/shanghai-film-festival-bets-big-on-asias-next-generation\/"},"modified":"2026-06-15T00:30:00","modified_gmt":"2026-06-15T00:30:00","slug":"shanghai-film-festival-bets-big-on-asias-next-generation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/2026\/06\/15\/shanghai-film-festival-bets-big-on-asias-next-generation\/","title":{"rendered":"Shanghai Film Festival Bets Big on Asia\u2019s Next Generation"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\tIf you took a little look offstage, beyond the glamour of the Shanghai International<\/a> Film<\/a> Festival\u2019s gala opening on Saturday night, the very nature of this year\u2019s program revealed itself in the cast and crew members gathered at the Shanghai Grand Theater.<\/p>\n

\tFirst-time director Keane T.K. Wong was on hand, his psychological drama Afterpiece<\/em> having been chosen to open the big event \u2014 which runs across this sprawling metropolis until June 21 \u2014 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\u2019s SIFF. \t<\/p>\n

\t\u201cMy first reaction was surprise,\u201d Wong said of the selection. \u201cFor 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tThere were nods to veteran producer Derek Yee and the film\u2019s stars Stephen Fung, Angela Yuen, Myolie Wu and Chrissie Chau, as well as to the Hong Kong government\u2019s Directors\u2019 Succession Scheme, which paired Wong with Yee. \u201cIt is this trust in newcomers that made this film possible,\u201d said Wong.<\/p>\n

\tSIFF itself can point to a long list of its own initiatives this year as proof that it is also looking to support Chinese cinema\u2019s next generation \u2014 among them the SIFF ING Young Filmmakers Program, the SIFF NEXT Film Project Training Camp and the SIFF YOUNG \u00d7 Shanghai Young Filmmakers Support Program, which counts industry veterans Joan Chen and Wen Muye as mentor and juror, respectively. \t<\/p>\n

\tApart from the main competition, SIFF\u2019s Asian New Talent competition has an impressive strike rate when it comes to discovering the region\u2019s emerging stars \u2014 as jury president Anthony Chen noted before the festival, the expectation is that there are \u201creal gems\u201d to be found \u2014 and there has been buzz around the likes of Zhang Hanyi\u2019s Cassowary<\/em> and Wan Bo\u2019s Strangers in the Mountain<\/em> (both from China).<\/p>\n

\t\u201cTalent development has become one of our defining strengths,\u201d explained Chen Guo, managing director of the Shanghai International Film & TV Events Center, the festival\u2019s organizing body. \u201cThrough 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

\tIn terms of its reach around the region, SIFF points to the diversity of its competition entries \u2014 across five sections \u2014 with films drawn from 34 countries and regions, including the first Moroccan film in the main competition in 27 years (Yassine El Idrissi\u2019s Halima<\/em>) and a first for Jordan and Saudi Arabia in the Asian New Talent section (Zaid Abu Hamdan\u2019s Boomah<\/em>). <\/p>\n

Somewhat conspicuously, the festival\u2019s 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 \u201chave 100 percent world premieres for the first time in the festival\u2019s history.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\tIn terms of pure crowd-pulling attractions, Asia<\/a>, 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 Ren\u00e9 Laloux, Billy Wilder and Marilyn Monroe. And it has star power in Hong Kong\u2019s Tony Leung Chiu-wai, mainland director Guan Hu and actress Xin Zhilei on its main competition jury. \t<\/p>\n

\tThe 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 \u201cWhen AI Learns to Create, What Grounds Cinema?\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\u201cSIFF has always paid close attention to the intersection of art and technology,\u201d said Chen Guo. \u201cToday, 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\u2019s festival places a strong focus on the future of film and audiovisual technology.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you took a little look offstage, beyond the glamour of the Shanghai International Film Festival\u2019s gala opening on Saturday night, the very nature of this year\u2019s 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 \u2014 which runs across this sprawling metropolis until June 21 \u2014 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\u2019s SIFF. \u201cMy first reaction was surprise,\u201d Wong said of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3512,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[115,449,2,116,27,60,242,429],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-asia","category-film","category-hollywood","category-international","category-movie-news","category-movies","category-shanghai-international-film-festival","category-thr-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3511"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3511\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}