Shanghai Film Festival 2025 Unviels Its Competition Lineup
Twelve new films are vying for the Golden Goblet Award in the Main Competition section, while Asian New Talent strand will host the Asian premieres of Brand New Landscape and Where the Night Stands Still.
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The 27th edition of the Shanghai International Film Festival (SIFF) has unveiled its official competition lineup, which includes fiction, documentary, short films, and animation. Hailed as China’s major festival event, this year’s edition will feature 49 films in competition, including 38 world premieres, 8 international premieres, and 3 Asian premieres.
The Main Competition will feature 12 films—11 world premieres—battling for the coveted Golden Goblet Award for Best Film. The section highlights notable works from acclaimed filmmakers such as Kyrgyzstan’s Aktan Arym Kubat (Black Red Yellow), whose earlier films received recognition at Locarno and Cannes; British-German director Miriam Heard (After the Fog), returning with her first feature since 2016; and Japan’s Shinya Tamada with On Summer Sand. Chinese cinema will be strongly represented with Qiu Sheng’s My Father’s Son, Cao Baoping’s One Wacky Summer, and Wang Tong’s Wild Nights, Tamed Beasts.
The Asian New Talent competition, spotlighting emerging voices from the region, includes 12 titles, ranging from River Stone by Sri Lankan director Lalith Rathnayake and The Daughter by Iran’s Pourya Kakavand to Kanto by Ensar Altay, which stars Ece Bağcı. Bağcı gained worldwide attention for her role in the Cannes competition title About Dry Grasses, which earned her the Silver Hugo for Best Supporting Actress at the Chicago International Film Festival. The Asian New Talent section will also host the Asian premieres of Liryc Dela Cruz’s Where the Night Stands Still, presented earlier this year in Berlinale’s Perspectives section for first-time fiction features, and Brand New Landscape by Yuiga Danzuka, fresh from its world premiere at Cannes’ Quinzaine.
Italian auteur Giuseppe Tornatore will preside over the Main Competition jury, joined by Iván Fund (The Message), Chinese actor Huang Bo (A Man and a Woman), Indian producer-director Kiran Rao (Laapata Ladies), Chinese director Yang Lina (Big World), and actress Mei Yong (Above the Dust). Meanwhile, Japanese filmmaker Sho Miyake (Small, Slow but Steady) will lead the Asian New Talent jury alongside Dong Zijian (My Friend An Delie), Camera d’Or winner Phạm Thiên Ân (Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell), Thai filmmaker Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit (Happy Old Year), and actress Zhang Zifeng (Girl on Edge).
The 27th Shanghai International Film Festival will run from June 13 to 22, 2025.
Check out the Shanghai 2025 competition lineup below:
Main Competition
AFTER THE FOG (world premiere)
Director: Miriam Heard
Chile, United Kingdom, France (world premiere)
BLACK RED YELLOW
Director: Aktan Arym Kubat
Kyrgyzstan (world premiere)
CYCLONE
Director: Flavia Castro
Brazil (world premiere)
MY FATHER'S SON
Director: Qiu Sheng
China, France (world premiere)
LOSS OF BALANCE
Director: Korek Bojanowski
Poland (international premiere)
LUISA
Director: Julia Roesler
Germany (world premiere)
ONE WACKY SUMMER
Director: Cao Baoping
China (world premiere)
ON SUMMER SAND
Director: Shinya Tamada
Japan (world premiere)
THE REBORN
Director: Santiago Esteves
Argentina, Spain, Chile (world premiere)
THE SCENT OF THINGS REMEMBERED
Director: António Ferreira
Portugal, Brazil (world premiere)
WILD NIGHTS, TAMED BEASTS
Director: Wang Tong
China (world premiere)
YOU BELIEVE IN ANGELS, MR. DROWAK?
Director: Nicolas Steiner
Germany, Switzerland (world premiere)
Asian New Talent
AS THE WATER FLOWS
Director: Bian Zhuo
China (world premiere)
BRAND NEW LANDSCAPE
Director: Yuiga Danzuka
Japan (asian premiere)
GRACE FOR SALE
Director: Gözde Yetişkin, Emre Sert
Turkey (world premiere)
KANTO
Director: Ensar Altay
Turkey (world premiere)
ODDS BEATER
Director: Cheng Liang
China (world premiere)
RIVERSTONE
Director: Lalith Rathnayake
Sri Lanka (world premiere)
SEVEN DAYS
Director: Qiu Yujie
China (world premiere)
THE DAUGHTER
Director: Pourya Kakavand
Iran (world premiere)
THE LAST SUMMER
Director: Shi Renfei
China (world premiere)
VICTORIA
Director: Sivaranjini J
India (international premiere)
WATER CAN GO ANYWHERE
Director: Fang Liang
China (world premiere)
WHERE THE NIGHT STANDS STILL
Director: Liryc Dela Cruz
Italy, Philippines (asian premiere)
Documentary
A PART OF THE LAND
Director: Nima Mahdian Asl
Iran (international premiere)
BRIGADE 2045
Director: Olivia Luengas Magana
Mexico (world premiere)
CATCHERS ON THE MOON
Director: Xu Huijing
China (world premiere)
CONSTANZA
Director: Agustín Márquez Gómez
Spain (world premiere)
THE GUARDIAN OF STORIES
Director: Claudia Bellasi, Markus Steiner Ender
Laos (world premiere)
Animation
EDGE OF TIME
Director: Li Wei, Weng Ming, Shinichiro Watanabe, Shuhei Morita
China (world premiere)
MAGIC BEACH
Director: Robert Connolly
Australia (international premiere)
MAKE A GIRL
Director: Gensho Yasuda
Japan (international premiere)
THE SONGBIRDS' SECRET
Director: Antoine Lanciaux
France, Switzerland, Belgium (asian premiere)
TOM AND JERRY: FORBIDDEN COMPASS
Director: Zhang Gang
China, United States of America (world premiere)
Short Film (Live Action)
A STORY ABOUT WINTER
Director: Luo Zhaoguang, Zhou Nanjun
China (world premiere)
CHILDREN OF THE LAND
Director: Xu Rui
China (world premiere)
CROW
Director: Xu Jianming
China (world premiere)
DEAD IN THE WATER
Director: Leila Hekmatnia
Iran (world premiere)
JOANA IS LEAVING
Director: Jonathan Millet
France (international premiere)
JUDITE, OR FIRST REBELLION
Director: Pedro Carneiro
Portugal (world premiere)
NO ONE KNOWS I DISAPPEARED
Director: Bo Hanxiong
China (world premiere)
THE END OF THE WORLD
Director: Alessandro Mosca
Peru (world premiere)
THE FOUNTAIN OF MEMORY
Director: Jordi Sanz Angrill
Spain (world premiere)
VIDEO GAME AUTEUR
Director: Txema Novelo
Mexico (international premiere)
Short Film (Animated)
I AM NOT HERE ANYMORE
Director: Nawojka Wierzbowska
Poland, France (world premiere)
LITTLE STORY
Director: Mirjam Plettinx
Belgium (international premiere)
LOVE MUSIC FRIEND
Director: Xu Zao
China (world premiere)
SON
Director: Zhanna Bekmambetova
Russia, Kazakhstan (world premiere)
TRIASSIC CUDDLE
Director: Iulia Turicianu
Romania (world premiere)
