Guan Hu’s ‘A Man and A Woman.’

SHANGHAI INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

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 His WWII tentpole The Eight Hundred was scheduled to open the 2019 edition of the event, but it was withdrawn at the last minute due to reported censorship issues (changes were later made to the film and it became a massive blockbuster).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