Pingyao International Film Festival 10th Anniversary Film List Announced

The Pingyao International Film Festival has announced the complete film list for its 10th edition.This event will be held in Pingyao, Shanxi from September 24th to 30th. The 4K restored version of Fei Mu's 1948 "Spring in a Small Town" was selected as the opening film.Reports indicate that this version will complete its Asian premiere.The closing session will include a Hong Kong drama comedy feature film, which will also premiere in Pingyao in mainland China.

The Pingyao International Film Festival, initiated by Jia Zhangke, is in its tenth year this year. The film list includes new film competitions, author screenings, restoration screenings and retrospective units in the same week.The opening film selection - Spring in a Small Town -, the tenth anniversary review also puts this restored work at the core, and together with a new documentary about Fei Mu, form a tribute to early Chinese cinema.

This year's “Hidden Dragon” competition section has three films having their world premieres, namely from Malaysian director Kevin Chia, Chinese directors Cai Chengjie and Niu Niu.There is also a documentary co-produced by the Netherlands, Sweden, South Korea and Hong Kong, as well as a Sino-French co-production.Several films from different production environments are still included in the same competition framework as an important part of discovering new authors this year.

The geographical span of the “Crouching Tiger” unit is larger.They include Colombian and Portuguese co-productions, new films from Russian directors, multinational co-productions from the Philippines, Singapore, France, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, as well as films from Rwanda, Gabon, France and Norway.The slate also includes a multinational co-production directed by Lacon Mayasi.Pingyao will screen these new films in the same section, continuing the section's arrangement of focusing on cutting-edge feature films.

A short film co-produced by Jia Zhangke will have its Asian premiere at a special screening of Fenjiu Night.The “Movie Fans” section includes a work from Hong Kong, China.The film list does not separate short films and feature films, but puts them into different thematic units respectively, which also allows the tenth anniversary program to retain a relatively wide range of film types.

The “Premiere” section brings together new works by many mature directors, including works by Christian Mongiu, James Gray and Marie Kreutzer.Luo Hongzhen's new film and Rodrigo Sorogoyan's new film will have their mainland premieres in Pingyao, and two other works are scheduled to premiere in China.For the audience, the highlight of this section is the director's new work and its premiere status, and the film list also marks this information one by one.

The special screening section will screen the world premiere of Liu Wenpu's new film, and also arrange a 4K restored version of Fang Yuping's 1986 work.The East and West Contributions section will screen a restored version of Xu Anhua’s 1981 work.There are also commemorative screenings on the slate, including screenings dedicated to film critic Tony Rains and producers Nansheng Shi and Simon Field, paying tribute to them in the form of restored films and existing works.

The 10th anniversary review also has a “Start from Pingyao” unit to look back at directors who have been noticed in the short film projects of the film festival.The program will screen their early shorts alongside their later features, including Wei Shujun's The Mistake by the River and Kong Dashan's Space Exploration Editorial.This arrangement places early works and later creations in a viewing path and is part of this anniversary unit.

The 10th Pingyao International Film Festival will open on September 24 and end on September 30.The opening - Small Town Spring - 4K restored version, Hong Kong closing film, as well as competition, screening and review sections have been announced together with the full film list.