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Winner of Best Screenplay at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival, “A Touch of Sin” signaled a significant turn for Jia Zhang-ke, who moved into distinct crime film paths, leaving behind the intense art-house tendencies of his previous works. Of course, the film is not a mainstream production, with the intense realism that characterized most of the Chinese’s works being evident here once more. The movie is split into four segments, all based on real life violent incidents.

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The intro of the movie sets the tone, as we see San’er shooting three thugs who try to rob him, while travelling on his motorbike, with the violence and irony that permeate the whole movie being indicative. The first segment, though, focuses on another man, Dahai, the workers’ representative at a privatized coal mine in Shanxi. Increasingly angered by the official’s and particularly one community elder’s corrupt ways,...

Acclaimed director Jia Zhangke is expanding beyond filmmaking, producing and festival organization to launch a new distribution venture focused on international cinema, Variety has confirmed with the filmmaker.

The director of “A Touch of Sin” and “Ash Is the Purest White,” a regular at Cannes and founder of Fabula Entertainment and Xstream Pictures, has partnered with experienced distributor Tian Qi to create Unknown Pleasures Pictures, a new acquisition and distribution company.

The company will focus on bringing international arthouse films to Chinese theaters with the goal of diversifying cinematic offerings available to local audiences. Jia will serve as president of the new venture, while Tian Qi, founder of Hero Films, will take on the role of general manager.

This partnership aims to introduce a wider range of global films to the Chinese market, which currently features a limited selection of international titles alongside domestic productions and Hollywood releases.

In 2017, Jia...

Exclusive: Prolific Chinese director Jia Zhangke, who also produces and spearheaded the Pingyao International Film Festival, is adding another string to his bow.

The A Touch Of Sin and Ash Is The Purest White Cannes regular and founder of X Stream Pictures is partnering with veteran Chinese distributor Tian Qi, founder of Hero Films, to launch new acquisition and distribution company Unknown Pleasures Pictures.

It will focus on the acquisition and distribution of international films with the aim of expanding the diversity of films being shown in cinemas in China. Jia Zhangke will act as president, and co-founder Tian Qi will take the post of general manager.

The new company builds on the work of Pingyao, which was launched in part to showcase international arthouse cinema and encourage Chinese distribution, as well as support emerging filmmakers.

It launches into a difficult market for international arthouse films in China in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic,...

Exclusive: Jia Zhangke’s Cannes Competition entry Caught By The Tides has been set for U.S. release on May 9, 2025 via Sideshow and Janus Films.

The latest from the Chinese auteur, known for movies including A Touch Of Sin and Ash Is The Purest White, is love story told over 23 years and set against the backdrop of explosive growth in China. Made up of old footage shot by the filmmaker over the past century as well as some new, the film traverses personal and national history including all of his films to date. Zhao Tao and Li Zhubin star.

Written by Jia and Wan Jiahuan, pic is produced by Casper Liang Jiayan, Shozo Ichiyama and Zhang Dong. The film is an X Stream Pictures, Momo Pictures, Huanxi Media Group Limited (Beijing) and Wishart Media (Quanzhou) production in association with mk2 Films, Ad Vitam and Bitters End. It played at festivals including Cannes,...

Τoday comes out in France «Caught by the Tides » by Jia Zhang-ke. He will be the president of the international jury at the 31st Vesoul International Film Festival of Asian Cinema (11-18 February 2025), during which an exceptional tribute will be paid to him in the presence of his muse, the actress Zhao Tao:

Two Golden Cyclos of Honor will be awarded to Jia Zhang-ke and Zhao Tao, Retrospective of his full-length films:

1997 : Xiao Wu, artisan pickpocket

2000 : Platform

2002 : Plaisirs inconnus

2004 : The World

2006 : Dong – inédit

2006 : Still Life

2007 : Useless

2008 : 24 City

2010 : I Wish I Knew

2013 : A Touch Of Sin

2015 : Au-delà des montagnes

2018 : Les Éternels

2020 : Swimming Out Til the Sea Turns Blue – inédit

2024 : Caught by the Tides...

After weaving together footage shot over 20 years to create the expansive Caught By The Tides, veteran Chinese filmmaker Jia Zhangke said that he wants to return to his pre-pandemic “routines and rhythms” and make a film every two years.

Jia also told Deadline that he is set to begin production on his next film in October or November this year, which will be a “road, travelogue film” following a “female character who will travel from a place that is extremely cold, to a place that is extremely warm.”

Jia won Venice’s Golden Lion for Still Life in 2006 and Best Screenplay in Cannes for A Touch of Sin in 2013.

Caught By The Tides had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival this year, before having its North American premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival.

The Chinese auteur said that the foundations for Caught By The Tides were laid more than 20 years ago,...

This morning, the Toronto International Film Festival announced their list of speaker engagements for the 49th edition in the In Conversation With… series, TIFF Industry Conference panels, and events designed to inspire and spark future collaborations. TIFF runs Sept. 5–15.

TIFF’s In Conversation With… (Icw) this year counts 2x Oscar winner Cate Blanchett (who is receiving a TIFF award this year), Emilia Perez star Zoe Saldaña, Steven Soderbergh, and Hyun Bin and Lee Dong-wook.

“TIFF 2024’s stellar lineup of speakers for our iconic In Conversation With… series reflects our vision that film and creative culture have the power to open minds, spark new ideas, and impact the world around us,” said Anita Lee, TIFF’s Chief Programming Officer. “We are thrilled to connect our public audiences with a dynamic roster of global trailblazers through these in-depth conversations.”

In TIFF’s Visionaries section, the onstage conversation series counts Alfonso Cuarón, Pete Docter,...

Sideshow and Janus Films have acquired the latest film from China’s great auteur Jia Zhang-ke, “Caught by the Tides.” The film premiered in competition at Cannes in May 2024.

A love story at heart, “Caught by the Tides” stars Jia’s wife, the longtime actress Zhao Tao, in a story set across 23 years. As with his previous masterpieces “Platform,” “The World,” “A Touch of Sin,” and “Mountains May Depart,” the film is a canvas on which to portray the rapid changes in China this century — a period of explosive economic and technological growth. Zhao is romantically entangled with Li Zhubin against this backdrop, some of which Jia actually shot over the past 23 years. Like his “24 City,” it combines non-fiction and fiction elements. In this case, even clips from Jia’s previous films appear.

Jia is unique in being a Mainland filmmaker deeply committed to exploring life in China today and...

What did five of the most critically acclaimed Asian movies that premiered at this year’s Cannes Film Festival have in common? They all were edited by rising Taiwanese studio Cutting Edge Films.

Formally established only in 2022, the company comprises a small group of film professionals who have worked together for over a decade. They are co-led by French editor Matthieu Laclau (Touch of Sin), known for his long-running collaboration with Chinese auteur Jia Zhangke, and Taiwanese producer Justine O. (The Chinese Mayor, Black Dog), whose work has nabbed a succession of festival prizes in recent years. The company says its recent successes point to the maturity and expanding reach of Taipei’s post-production sector, which has been buoyed by steady government support and a growing reputation for high-quality work at globally competitive prices.

“Taipei’s post-production scene is definitely having a moment,” says Laclau. “For VFX, editing or color grading,...

AMC+ is a unique streaming service because it offers great original dramas and access to three smaller streamers: horror hub Shudder, and independent films from IFC Films Unlimited and Sundance Now. Normally, those three smaller streamers would cost nearly $19/month on their own, but they come free with AMC+.

We’ll break down all the ways to watch AMC+, including a brand new option that is a great choice for fans of live TV.

7-Day Free Trial $4.99+ / month amc+ via amazon.com

What Can You Watch on AMC+?

How Much Does AMC+ Cost?

What Are Your AMC+ Subscription Options?

What Can You Watch on AMC+?

AMC+ includes originals like “Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire,” Anne Rice’s “Mayfair Witches,” “Gangs of London,” “Dark Winds,” “The North Water,” “Monsieur Spade,” “Parish,” and “Snowpiercer.”

Subscribers also get classic shows that first aired on AMC: “Mad Men,” “Killing Eve,” “The Killing,...

Matthieu Laclau is a French editor who has been working in China and Taiwan since 2008. His collaboration with director Jia Zhangke in A Touch of Sin won him Best Film Editing at the Golden Horse Awards, Taiwan’s equivalent to the Oscars. This year he edited three films in Cannes: Caught by the Tides in Competition, Black Dog in Un Certain Regard, and Meeting with Pol Pot in Cannes Premiere. We sat down with him during the festival and discussed his work on all three films. This interview is originally commissioned by Directube 导筒. The Chinese version will be published on Directube later.

The Film Stage: First, I want to congratulate you for having three films in the Official Selection at this year’s Cannes. How did you get involved with all three? Obviously, you worked with Jia Zhangke since A Touch of Sin but it’s your first time...

The Cannes Film Festival will crown its Competition winners tomorrow night and the consensus seems to be building around a few titles.

All films have now been seen and it’s fair to say that things really heated up in the back nine. The Competition section took a few days to catch fire sparking rumor that this was unlikely to be a vintage crop of movies but Emilia Perez‘s bow last Saturday finally kicked the contest into another gear and since then multiple films have fared well among critics. There have been some notable highs on trade jury grids. The Palme d’Or winner is often not the movie with the highest final score on such lists but the impressively high numbers reveal a range of critically appreciated movies this edition.

One of the trends to emerge from this year’s lineup is the foregrounded position of women within the most buzzed-about films.

Across his 25-year career, Jia Zhangke has become the de facto face of independent-minded Chinese cinema — and the Cannes Film Festival has arguably been the most important institution to help him hoist that flag on the world stage.

Beginning with his 2002 drama Unknown Pleasures, the 53-year-old auteur has landed in Cannes’ main competition seven times — more than any other Chinese filmmaker in the festival’s history. Although the Palme d’Or has so far proved elusive, Jia won Cannes’ best screenplay prize in 2013 with his acclaimed anthology thriller A Touch of Sin, a searing depiction of China during its breakneck economic boom times. Jia returns to Cannes this year with Caught by the Tides, his first fictional feature since his well-regarded drama Ash Is Purest White debuted at the festival in 2018.

“A lyrical, fluid narrative,” as Cannes artistic director Thierry Frémaux recently described it, Caught by the Tides is composed...

Chinese Xinjiang, Uyghur minority, Islam, forced marriage: sensitive enough keywords to ring the bell of contentious debates or trigger internet chats censorship. But I stop you right here: Nikah is not a political movie. Nikah is a contemporary coming-of-age tale set in a repressive backdrop. This is where fiction can sometimes surpass documentary, as it is not bound by considerations of witness accounts or ruled by “cinéma vérité” dogma. The camera serves a narrative here, not an agenda.

Nikah is screening at CAAMFest

Dilber is a 27-year-old Uyghur woman. It is now high time for her to get married. These two sentences are obviously charged with meaning. But Dilber is also a modern young adult whose life revolves around her mobile phone and social media, a window to the world, like most of young Chinese women of her age. So, when her friend Gulnur, living in Paris, proposes a long-distance...

Both a Venice and Cannes Film Festival veteran, Jia Zhangke is coming to Cannes packing not one but two projects – one being a bit of acting part in Black Dog, and of course, we’re more interested in the competition title Caught By The Tides — a two-decade in the making type film. Having been in competition on five different occasions, Jia Zhangke made his Cannes debut in 2002 with Unknown Pleasures, followed by 24 City in 2008. In 2010, his documentary I Wish I Knew was selected for Un Certain Regard. He captivated the festival in 2013 with A Touch of Sin, which won Best Screenplay.…...

A recurring motif in the films of Jia Zhang-ke is the enchantment of watching his extraordinary muse, Zhao Tao, dance — in the glitzy faux-Vegas spectacles of The World; leading a routine to the Pet Shop Boys’ “Go West” in Mountains May Depart; strutting in formation to the Village People’s “Y.M.C.A” in Ash Is Purest White. In the Chinese master filmmaker’s decades-spanning drama Caught by the Tides (Feng Liu Yi Dai), Zhao shimmies around a dance floor to pulsing Edm, unaware that the man in her life will soon leave town, dropping her into a 20-year romantic limbo.

Eclectic music choices have always played an important part in Jia’s chronicles of social change and shifting values in a contemporary China surging forward, driven by cultural and economic expansion, urbanization and globalization, its traditional insularity increasingly pierced by Western influences.

Songs are more present than ever in his new film.

The Chinese title of Jia Zhangke’s mesmerizing “Caught by the Tides,” a masterfully poetic and pioneering fusion of the old and the new, can be translated in several ways. Jia himself suggests “The Drifting Generation,” but it can also mean “The Romantic Generation” with the etymology of “romantic” lying in the Chinese words for wind and current. The restless motion of the natural world is certainly captured in the English title’s reference to an ocean’s ebb and flow. But what that version cannot adequately convey is the airiness and the yearning that Jia whips in to “Caught by the Tides” — quite miraculously considering he is largely working with repurposed footage from across the last 23 years of his justly celebrated career.

Loosely speaking a love story, “Tides” is also perhaps the most definitive national portrait that Jia, modern China’s foremost cinematic chronicler, has ever delivered. This is...

A searching and scattershot portrait of displacement that’s as likely to resonate with Jia Zhang-ke devotees as it is to mystify those who are new to his work, “Caught by the Tides” finds the Chinese auteur returning the most pivotal characters and locations that have defined his movies over the last two decades. Then again, perhaps it would be more accurate to say that he never left them.

Tracing the faintest contours of a scripted love story around the scaffolding of some documentary footage that Jia has collected over the course of 22 years, this elusive chimera of a film strains to literalize the delicate relationship between time and memory — a theme that has become increasingly central to the director’s work since the Three Gorges Dam was constructed in 2006 (see: “Still Life”), submerging 13 entire cities and forever displacing the millions of people who once lived in them. Here, even...

China- and Netherlands-based sales firm Fortissimo Films has picked up the international rights to new Chinese sports feature film “Wild Punch.” It will launch the film in territories outside mainland China next week at the Cannes Market.

Co-directed by well-established director Yu Lik-wai and Wang Jing (“The Best Is Yet to Come”), “Wild Punch is a sports and action drama about a top mixed martial arts athlete who has passed the peak of his career and faces competition from his young and gifted trainee. Both with something to prove, the two will have to face each other in the ring.

Yu has directed four feature films, including Cannes competition title “Love Will Tear Us Apart” and Venice title “Plastic City.” He is also well-established as a cinematographer who has worked on films including “Still Life,” “A Touch of Sin,” and “Mountains May Depart” by Jia Zhangke, Lou Ye’s “Love...

Sporting a warm smile and a pair of sunglasses – “Sorry, I’ve been busy editing and my eyes hurt,” he explained – one of China’s leading indie directors Jia Zhangke, whose upcoming film “Caught by the Tides” will be vying for the Palme d’or in Cannes next month, was guest of honor at the 55th edition of Swiss doc festival Visions du Réel this week.

Finished just in time for submission to Cannes, the film features his wife Zhao Tao, his muse over the last two decades, and tells the story of a couple spanning 20 years. (Jia previously spoke with Variety about the film in February when it still went under the working title “We Shall Be All.”)

Explaining how the pandemic gave him the opportunity to review his footage all the way back to 2001, he described his new film as “a concentration of 20 years’ experience,” which blends footage...

The lineup for the 77th Cannes Film Festival has officially been unveiled. As of right now, 19 films will be competing for the prestigious top prize, the Palme d’Or. The festival will be running from May 14 through the closing ceremony on May 25 in the small town on the French Riviera. This year’s jury will be led by Greta Gerwig, fresh off of her success writing and directing “Barbie,” which earned her an Oscar nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay. The remaining members of the jury have yet to be announced.

Having an idea of a filmmaker’s history at the festival can sometimes help give us an insight as to who could be in the best position to take home the Palme. For example, two of this year’s entries come from filmmakers who have previously claimed the Palme. Another five are from directors who have won prizes in official...

Acclaimed auteurs Francis Ford Coppola, Yorgos Lanthimos, Paolo Sorrentino and Andrea Arnold are among the filmmakers set to compete for the coveted Palme d’Or at the 77th Cannes Film Festival.

A total of 19 features were revealed today (April 11) that will play in Competition at the festival, set to run May 14-25.

Rarely a festival to veer far from familiar names, the Competition line-up is dominated by directors who have been selected multiple times for Cannes.

They include US filmmaker Coppola with sci-fi epic Megalopolis, which stars Adam Driver and is set in a future version of New York City following a disaster.

Ali Abbasi’s Donald Trump drama The Apprentice, Anora, the latest from The Florida Project and Red Rocket director Sean Baker, and Andrea Arnold’s Bird, starring Barry Keoghan and Franz Rogowski, are among the highlights of this year’s Cannes Film Festival competition.

Abbasi, the Iran-born, Sweden-based director, whose Holy Spider was a sensation of the 2022 Cannes festival, returns with his story of how a young Donald Trump and the notorious lawyer Roy Cohn built up Trump’s real estate business in New York in the 1970s and 1980s. Sebastian Stan stars as Trump, Succession‘s Jeremy Strong plays Cohn and Maria Bakalova (Borat Subsequent Moviefilm) is wife Ivana.

Yorgos Lanthimos’ Poor Things follow-up Kinds of Kindness will also premiere in the Cannes competition. The film, featuring the Oscar-winning Poor Things star Emma Stone, will be high on every Cannes attendee’s must-see list. The Greek auteur has again...

Chinese filmmaker Jia Zhangke, who “humanizes China’s modern history – and turns it into poetry,” according to one critic, will be the guest of honor at Visions du Réel. The documentary film festival’s 55th edition runs April 12-21 in Nyon, Switzerland.

Jia, a leading figure in independent Chinese cinema, will present a masterclass exploring his body of work, and a retrospective of his films will run throughout the edition. The tribute is made possible thanks to the collaboration with the Cinémathèque suisse and Ecal, the university of art and design in Lausanne.

“Since the outbreak of Covid-19, I haven’t left China for almost four years,” Jia said. “I feel like embracing the world again, as excited as a child about to go on a long trip for the first time. I am heading to Nyon for cinema that reveals the world as it really is.”

Jia belongs to...

Chinese filmmaker Jia Zhangke is set to receive an honorary award at the 55th edition of documentary festival Visions du Reel, taking place in Nyon, Switzerland from April 12-21.

Jia will attend the festival in person, marking his first visit to Europe since the outbreak of Covid-19 in 2020, and is set to present a masterclass exploring how his work explores the history of China and its people.

The festival will host a retrospective of Jia’s work, which has included Still Life, which won the Golden Lion at Venice in 2006, and A Touch Of Sin, which won best screenplay at...

Film geeks, rejoice. Leading indie label Kino Lorber is entering the world of streaming. The company has launched Kino Film Collection, a new subscription video service available in the U.S. via’s Amazon’s Prime Video Channels. The Collection will feature new Kino releases fresh from theaters, along with hundreds of films from its expansive library of more than 4,000 titles, many now streaming for the first time. It will cost users $5.99 per month.

Films available at launch include award-winning theatrical releases and critically acclaimed festival favorites and classics from around the globe, such as The Conformist (Bernardo Bertolucci), Dogtooth (Yorgos Lanthimos), Taxi (Jafar Panahi), Poison (Todd Haynes), Ganja & Hess (Bill Gunn), The Scent of Green Papaya (Tran Anh Hung), A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (Ana Lily Amirpour), Computer Chess (Andrew Bujalski), Portrait of Jason (Shirley Clarke), and A Touch of Sin (Jia Zhangke).

Joining them are entries...

Independent film distributor Kino Lorber has officially unveiled streaming service Kino Film Collection, available via Prime Video here.

The Kino Film Collection will be launched in the U.S. on the Amazon Service via Prime Video Channels for $5.99 per month. The Collection will feature new Kino releases fresh from theaters, along with hundreds of films from its expansive library of more than 4,000 titles, with many now streaming for the first time.

New 4K restorations of films like Bernardo Bertolucci’s “The Conformist,” Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Dogtooth,” Jafar Panahi’s “Taxi,” Todd Haynes’ “Poison,” Tran Anh Hung’s “The Scent of Green Papaya,” Ana Lily Amirpour’s “A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night,” and Jia Zhangke’s “A Touch of Sin” are among highlights of the first offerings from Kino Film Collection.

Kino canon films like Fritz Lang’s historic “Metropolis,” F.W. Murnau’s “Nosferatu,” Robert Wiene’s “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari,...

The Tokyo International Film Festival undertook a series of bold changes in 2020 to enhance its international reach, including a location change and major shakeups across staffing and programming. For the global film community, however, much of the overhaul went unfelt due to the travel restrictions of the pandemic. The Tokyo festival’s chairman, Hiroyasu Ando, emphasized at a press conference in the Japanese capital Wednesday that the event “aims to take a bigger leap” this year with its upcoming 36th edition, making good on its ambitions for a transformation.

“We’re really focussing on international interaction,” Ando said, noting that the festival would welcome some 600 overseas guests this year, including filmmakers, jury members and industry professionals, a major uptick from the 104 international industry VIPs who attended in 2022.

The Tokyo International Film Festival will open Oct. 23 with a gala screening of acclaimed German auteur Wim Wenders’ Tokyo-set drama Perfect Days, which...

Everything started in the 90s when the digital revolution and the emergence of the first camcorders coincided with the Chinese documentarians' need to record the rapidly changing post-Tiananmen reality. Wu Wenguang's “Bumming in Beijing” (1990) became the first documentary outside of the official channels in China, and the whole wave of guerilla filmmaking was to soon follow suit. Among them was “West of the Tracks” (2003), a seminal work by Wang Bing demonstrating the New Documentary Movement's artistic potential. 2023 sees Wang's two most recent films included in Cannes Film Festival's official selection, marking a watershed moment for Chinese independent documentary cinema. The recognition, unsurprisingly, was long overdue.

The clash of the modern with the traditional, the main topic of 6th Generation's filmmakers, represented by the likes of Wang Xiaoshuai and Jia Zhangke, captivated the international festival audiences. Yet, the grimy and unglamorous works of their non-fiction colleagues never achieved the same level of recognition.

Matthieu Laclau is a French editor who has been working in China since 2008. He studied Film Theory in Paris 3 Sorbonne Nouvelle and received his Master’s degree in 2008. He’s currently living in Taipei. In 2013, he won the Golden Horse Best Editing for ‘A Touch Of Sin’ directed by Jia Zhang-ke and in 2017, the American Chlotrudis Awards Best Editing for ‘Mountains May Depart’ directed by Jia Zhang-ke. Both films were selected in Cannes Film Festival (Competition) and ‘A Touch Of Sin’ won the Best Screenplay.

Since then, he edited ‘Ash Is Purest White’ by Jia Zhang-ke (Cannes Film Festival / Competition), “The Wild Goose Lake” directed by Diao Yinan (Cannes Film Festival / Competition), “Nina Wu” directed by Midi Z (Cannes Film Festival / Un Certain Regard), “The Best Is Yet to Come” directed by Wang Jing (Venice Film Festival / Orrizonti).

We speak with him about the path that led him to edit film in China,...

New York-based distributor Cheng Cheng announces the North American release of “Ever Since We Love” directed by Li Yu with a new poster and trailer. The latest collaboration between award-winning filmmaker Li Yu and pop icon Fan Bingbing will start playing in virtual cinemas in select cities on September 17th and expand in the following weeks before arriving on DVD and streaming platforms this December.

Regarded as China’s prominent woman director, Li Yu had been telling stories about women on the fringe of society in her previous documentaries and narrative features recognized by film festivals in Venice, Berlinale, and Toronto. An adaption of contemporary novelist Feng Tang’s semi-autobiographical best-seller “Everything Grows”, “Ever Since We Love” marks her first attempt at a film with a male protagonist. Starring alongside Fan Bingbing, Li Meng, and Qi Xi, K-pop sensation “Super Junior’s” former member Han Geng plays a medical school...

Each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit streaming platforms in the United States. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.

China Lost and Found: Eight Films by Jia Zhangke

One of the greatest directors to emerge in this young century, Jia Zhangke has captured his native country like few others. The Criterion Channel is now spotlighting his stellar body of work, including the new restoration of his debut Xiao Wu (1997), along with Platform (2000), Unknown Pleasures (2002), The World (2004), Still Life (2006), 24 City (2008), A Touch of Sin (2013), and Mountains May Depart (2015). Also playing is the documentary Jia Zhangke, A Guy from Fenyang from 2014.

Where to Stream: The Criterion Channel

Irma Vep (Olivier Assayas)

In the quarter-century since its debut, Olivier Assayas’ hilarious, mischievous, altogether unclassifiable Irma Vep stands merrily uninterested in many things contemporary movies are meant to be interested in—not ultra-sophisticated narrative gimmickry...

Next month’s Criterion Channel selection is here, and as 2021 winds down further cements their status as our single greatest streaming service. Off the top I took note of their eight-film Jia Zhangke retro as well as the streaming premieres of Center Stage and Malni. And, yes, Margaret has been on HBO Max for a while, but we can hope Criterion Channel’s addition—as part of the 63(!)-film “New York Stories”—opens doors to a more deserving home-video treatment.

Aki Kaurismäki’s Finland Trilogy, Bruno Dumont’s Joan of Arc duology, and Criterion’s editions of Irma Vep and Flowers of Shanghai also mark major inclusions—just a few years ago the thought of Hou’s masterpiece streaming in HD was absurd.

I could implore you not to sleep on The Hottest August and Point Blank and Variety and In the Cut or, look, so many Ernst Lubitsch movies,...

Siff Young is jointly organised with the Cannes Marche.

Shanghai International Film Festival (Siff) announced the five directors who have been selected for Siff Young, a new talent support programme jointly organised by the Cannes Marche du Film, during the festival’s opening weekend.

Four of the filmmakers – Han Shuai, Liang Ming, Rao Xiaozhi and Wang Jing – attended the June 12 event in person, which was held as a forum with a live audience at the Crowne Plaza Hotel. The fifth is Hong Kong-based Derek Tsang who was unable to come in person due to pandemic travel restrictions.

The directors were...

Co-founder and former Venice director Marco Muller takes new role.

Acclaimed Chinese filmmaker Jia Zhangke has returned to the Pingyao International Film Festival (Pyiff), following his surprise departure last year from the festival he co-founded.

At a press conference in the Chinese city of Taijuan today (June 1), Jia was present to announce a series of changes for the fifth edition of the festival, which will take place from October 12-19 in the ancient city of Pingyao in China’s Shanxi province.

Pyiff will now be co-organized by Shanxi Film Academy of Shanxi Communication University, which will see resources allocated to...

The great Chinese filmmaker Jia Zhang-Ke has made both dramas and documentaries across his award-winning career so far, yet what binds all his movies is a sense that the labels of fiction and non-fiction aren’t as necessary as the observation that what he’s working in is a large, unimpeachable truth about people and progress in a rapidly changing China.

Sometimes it comes in story form, but against a hard reality — like his early pictures about disaffected teenagers or his Three Gorges dam film “Still Life” — and sometimes the focus is real people, but always in the context of the vast narrative that is China’s monumental economic and social transformation, a distinction that marks his latest documentary, “Swimming Out Till the Sea Turns Blue.”

Having made two previous documentaries about artists — 2006’s “Dong,” about painter Liu Xiaodong, and 2007’s “Useless,” a snapshot of clothing designer Ma Ke — “Swimming...

Ten years after his last documentary, “I Wish I Knew” (screened in Un Certain Regard, Cannes 2011), acclaimed Chinese auteur Jia Zhang-Ke returns to non-fiction with “Swimming Out Till the Sea Turns Blue,” the final panel in his trilogy about the arts in China. It follows Venice winners “Dong” (2006) and “Useless” (2007).

Continue reading ‘Swimming Out Till The Sea Turns Blue’ Trailer: Chinese Auteur Jia Zhang-Ke’s Critically-Acclaimed New Doc Arrives In May at The Playlist.

Chinese director Jia Zhangke has formally launched his new venture: a filmmaking school in his native Shanxi staffed by some of China’s top industry talent, including helmers Ning Hao and Bi Gan.

Communist party officials presided over an inauguration ceremony for the Shanxi Film Academy that was attended by major firms seeking synergies between the school’s future graduates and their own thirst for new talent and content. The school is affiliated with the existing Communication University of Shanxi, which trains many graduates to enter top media regulatory bodies like the State Administration of Radio and Television.

Official support for the new academy was repeatedly highlighted in both speeches and news coverage of the event. Little can be achieved in China at scale without strong government buy-in.

“The comprehensive thinking and strategic arrangements of the Shanxi Province Party Committee and government for the economic transformation of Shanxi has inspired us,...

Shot shortly after Pai Ching-jui returned from Italy, where he studied film and got acquainted with neo-realism,”A Morning in Taipei” delivers exactly what its title suggests, through a number of sequences that highlight a plethora of aspects of life in Taipei, accompanied by music scored by Lim Giong, singer, musician and film composer.

A Morning in Taipei is screening at Electric Shadows Asian Film Festival

As Pai Ching-jui’s approach is that of the tour guide, the short begins from very early in the morning, as the city gradually begins to wake up. The sequences begin from outside the city, where a group of women are carrying baskets on a stick placed in their shoulders, probably containing fruits and vegetables. Then the camera gets into the city as the dawn breaks and traffic begins to pick in the filled with fog streets. The billboards in the street, the bright...

(February 9th, 2021, New York, NY) New York-based distributor Cheng Cheng releases new US poster and trailer for A First Farewell by Wang Lina. The winner of the Best Film award at Berlinale’s Generation Kplus will start playing in virtual cinemas in select cities on February 19th and roll to more locations in the following weeks. The filmmaker Wnag Lina spent four years documenting the protagonist’s life in her hometown Xinjiang, delivering an awe-inspiring debut about the joys of growing up as Uyghurs on the picturesque land and the emotional costs of assimilating into the prosperous mainstream.

Aside from newcomer Wang Lina’s true-to-life writing and direction, top-notch technical works from cinematographer Li Yong, editor Matthieu Laclau (A Touch of Sin), and sound designer Li Danfeng (Long Day’s Journey into Night) solidify the gem praised by press as “another sign of independent cinema revival in China”. Since premiering at Berlinale,...

The world we currently orbit is a strange and confined one. This world has introduced us to a new type of solitude as unfamiliar feelings surface that are unique to a chaotic world amidst a global pandemic. During this time, reflection has happened upon us all to varying degrees. As we move into winter with no prospect of clarity, we seek out ways to stay positive and escape the distress of uncertainty. A constant source of solace during this time has been the (re)discovery of cinema. Through cinema the exploration of other worlds is possible: small pockets of alternate realities to escape the reality of a winter stuck inside the house, missing loved ones and the joys of full bodied freedom.It came as perfect timing then, that as "melancholy fall" became my particular cinematic mood, Pure Person Press released a new charity compilation Va focused on musician and...

Exclusive: Cinema Guild has picked up U.S. distribution rights to Jia Zhangke’s documentary Swimming Out Till the Sea Turns Blue. The Chinese film premiered at the Berlin Film Festival in February and made its U.S. premiere at the New York Film Festival earlier this fall. Cinema Guild is eyeing a release for early next year.

Zhangke delivers here a vital document of a changing Chinese society, interviewing three prominent authors—Jia Pingwa, Yu Hua and Liang Hong—born in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, respectively, and all from the same Shanxi province where the filmmaker also grew up. In their stories, the dire circumstances they faced in their rural villages and small towns are recounted, and the substantial political effort undertaken to address it, from the social revolution of the 1950s through the unrest of the late 1980s.

“We...

Director Kiyoshi Kurosawa and producer Ichiyama Shozo were the other speakers.

At the Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF) today (November 7), Chinese filmmaker Jia Zhang-ke failed to show up for a scheduled hybrid on-and-offline Asia Lounge talk with Japanese filmmaker Kiyosho Kurosawa, moderated by producer and Tokyo Filmex head Ichiyama Shozo.

The two Japanese cineastes carried on in Jia’s absence, with Shozo, who has served as producer on the Chinese director’s films including Ash Is Purest White, Mountains May Depart and A Touch Of Sin, answering Kurosawa’s and later the online audience’s questions about the Chinese filmmaker’s methods and plans.

The upcoming Tokyo International Film Festival, kicking off Oct. 31, will host a new panel discussion series featuring some of Asia’s most accomplished arthouse filmmakers.

Dubbed the “Asia Lounge,” the program was proposed and co-organized by Palme d’Or winning Japanese auteur Hirokazu Kore-eda (Shoplifters). The series will pair selected directors for an hour and half-long conversation about their craft, industry trends and the impact of Covid-19 on the film business.

Some of the directors confirmed to take part are Chinese auteur Jia Zhangke (A Touch of Sin), Thai Palme d’Or winner Apichatpong Weerasethakul (Uncle Boonmee ...

The upcoming Tokyo International Film Festival, kicking off Oct. 31, will host a new panel discussion series featuring some of Asia’s most accomplished arthouse filmmakers.

Dubbed the “Asia Lounge,” the program was proposed and co-organized by Palme d’Or winning Japanese auteur Hirokazu Kore-eda (Shoplifters). The series will pair selected directors for an hour and half-long conversation about their craft, industry trends and the impact of Covid-19 on the film business.

Some of the directors confirmed to take part are Chinese auteur Jia Zhangke (A Touch of Sin), Thai Palme d’Or winner Apichatpong Weerasethakul (Uncle Boonmee ...

The fourth annual Pingyao International Film Festival will run as an in-person event from Oct. 10 to 19 in the central Chinese province of Shanxi.

Chinese director Diao Yinan, who won the 2014 Golden Bear for his gritty thriller “Black Coal, Thin Ice” and premiered his latest neo-noir “Wild Goose Lake” at Cannes last year, will act as “festival mentor,” hosting special screenings of his own works and a masterclass.

In a video message, Diao complimented Pingyao on being “unique and professional,” a place that “gathers people like a bonfire, with everyone chatting around.” He praised the festival for its support of young talent, saying that it has “provided a platform for [young people] to join each other, to discuss openly and explore freely.”

Founded by Chinese filmmaker Jia Zhangke (“A Touch of Sin”) and Marco Muller, the former director of the Venice Film Festival who serves as Pingyao’s artistic director, the festival unfolds...

A film about an infection and the upset, paranoia, and unease that follows is, well, tailor-made for right now. There is no better time, then, to see director Jin Wang’s The Best Is Yet to Come, a selection at both the 2020 Venice Film Festival and the Toronto International Film Festival. It is a complex study of the illegal blood trade that helped hepatitis B carriers circumvent the discrimination they faced when seeking jobs and applying for school in early-2000s Beijing. While there is not a direct correlation to the Covid-19 pandemic, it is impossible not to make connections between both the story itself and even its creation. As Wang explains in the film’s press notes, “Due to the pandemic, post-production took place online. The editor and I were 1300km apart. Distance sparks reflection.”

The Best Is Yet to Come is the feature directorial debut from Wang, who...

First-time director Jing Wang sees the pain that his mentor Jia Zhangke has experienced on the movie set as motivation for his filmmaking journey. The perfection, precision and attention to details that he aspires to in his directorial debut “The Best Is Yet to Come” are the fruits born from being on the set with the Chinese auteur.

Wang, who has worked as assistant director on Jia’s “Ash Is Purest White,” “Mountains May Depart” and “Touch of Sin,” recalls that the director would sometimes get furious on the set over what was seen as something very minor, such as a prop letter without a stamp chop, or a tiny maltreatment of an actor’s costume.

“He blasted on the set, telling the crew that he did not want any irreversible mistakes to stay in this film should this film live and be revisited by people in the future. It...

Produced by Jia Zhangke, the film follows an aspiring journalist facing a moral dilemma while investigating a story.

Beijing-based sales agent Rediance has picked up international rights to Wang Jing’s debut feature, The Best Is Yet To Come, which has been selected for the Orizzonti Competition of Venice Film Festival as well as Toronto International Film Festival.

Produced by Jia Zhangke, the film is set in Beijing 17 years ago and tells the story of an aspiring journalist who faces a huge career dilemma while investigating a story about carriers of Hepatitis B.

Wang was born in Taiyuan, capital of Shanxi Province,...

China’s Cmc Pictures will bring a line-up of five titles to the Cannes virtual market this year, including “Assassin in Red,” a major blockbuster set to hit next Chinese New Year.

The firm will be selling global rights outside of China and Southeast Asia to the fantasy drama directed by Lu Yang and executive produced by Ning Hao (“Crazy Alien”).

The film, whose Mandarin title translates to “Assassinate the Novelist,” tells the story of a man who, in order to save his missing daughter, is tasked with killing a writer whose writing creates a parallel world that begins to interact with the real one.

The title reunites “Brotherhood of Blades II” stars Yang Mi (“Tiny Times”) and Lei Jiayin (“The Longest Day in Chang’an”), alongside Golden Horse Award winner Dong Zijiang (of Jia Zhangke’s “Mountains May Depart” and “Ash is Purest White”).

Cmc also brings two of its...