Shanghai Film Festival unveils 2024 competition lineup

The Shanghai International Film Festival unveiled the selection for its 26th edition on Wednesday, with a program typically rich in Chinese titles. As in recent years, the lineup also includes a multitude of European, Japanese and Central Asian films, but not a single American or South Korean film.

The most anticipated film of the 14 titles in the festival’s main competition in 2024 is undoubtedly the drama by Chinese director Guan Hu. A man and a woman, with two lead performances from 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 won the prestigious Un Certain Regard prize at the French festival. Guan is also no stranger to the Shanghai festival. His WWII tent pole The eight hundred was scheduled to open the 2019 edition of the event, but it was pulled at the last minute due to reported censorship issues (edits were later made to the film and it became a huge blockbuster). Little has been revealed to the Western press about Guan’s latest news, A man and a womanbut its recent critical and commercial streak will make it one of the most sought-after tickets of the festival.

Feature film by Chinese director Wei Shujun Do not worry Be Happy is another remarkable element of the competition, just like that of Zhang Dalei Starfall. Wei’s most recent film, Only the river flowspremiered in Cannes last year, with THRThe reviewer sums it up as “a puzzle-like homage to the noir genre”. Zhang’s first feature film, Summer is finished (2016), won the Best Film Award at the Golden Horse Film Festival in Taipei.

The drama of Japanese director Mipo O Living in two worlds constitutes another highlight. The film is O’s first feature film in nine years and tells the story of a young man raised in rural Japan by deaf parents. One of Japan’s most prominent filmmakers, O has already seen her 2014 film The light only shines there selected by his country as its official entry for the Oscars.

The 26th Shanghai International Film Festival runs from June 14 to 23. Franco-Vietnamese director Tran Anh Hung (1994 Oscar nominee for Fragrance of Green Papaya and winner of best director at Cannes last year with The taste of things) was appointed president of the festival jury for the main section of the competition. Alongside Tran, the jury includes Australian director Rolf de Heer, German filmmaker Matthias Glasner, Hong Kong star Tony Leung Ka-fai, Argentine director Santiago Mitre, Chinese actress Zhou Xun and Tibetan director Santhar Gyal.

The full selection from the 2024 Shanghai International Film Festival is below.

Main competition