Pingyao International Film Festival (PYIFF) has announced the line-up for its eighth edition, including its Crouching Tigers and Hidden Dragons sections, and opening film A River Without Tears.
The festival also announced that it is screening a restored version of Chen Kaige’s award-winning Yellow Earth, to mark the 40th anniversary of the film, one of the first major titles of China’s Fifth Generation movement, which won a Silver Leopard at Locarno as well as best cinematography for Zhang Yimou at Nantes Three Continents Film Festival.
Opening film A River Without Tears, the second feature of female director Liu Juan, is the story of a father who insists on finding out the truth of his daughter’s suicide. Executive produced by Chinese auteur and Pingyao festival founder Jia Zhangke, the film will also screen as one of 12 titles in the festival’s Hidden Dragons section for emerging Chinese filmmakers (see full list below).
Meanwhile, the Crouching Tigers competition for emerging international filmmakers includes the China, Asia and international premieres of several films that have been making waves on the international festival circuit – including Matthew Rankin’s Universal Language, which is Canada’s submission for the Best International Feature category of the Oscars, Magnus Von Horn’s The Girl With The Needle, Astrid Rondero and Fernanda Valadez’ Sujo, and Neo Sora’s Happyend (see full list below).
Seven films are receiving Gala screenings at the festival including Patricia Mazuy’s Visiting Hours, Roberto Minervini’s The Damned, Hiroshi Okuyama’s My Sunshine and Hong Kong filmmaker Yon Fan’s Crossing Years. Other sections include Made-in-Shanxi for films from the province where the Pingyao festival is held, and a special presentation of He Jianjun’s Huang Denglin.
Chen’s Yellow Earth will screen in a Retrospective section of classic films entitled “Earth” which will also screen restored versions of Auguste Francois’ Images De Chine, Satyajit Ray’s Pather Panchali and Gaston Melies’ The Ruins Of Angkor, among other classic titles.
Pingyao is taking place in a new time slot this year – moving from its usual October timing to run ahead of the Busan film festival. Marco Mueller, who co-founded the festival with Jia, quit last year and is currently artistic director of Taormina Film Festival in Sicily, Italy.
The festival announced earlier this year that Lin Xudong has been officially appointed as artistic director, overseeing a programming team that includes Naoki Kamiya and Junko Fukatsu for foreign-language films, Wu Jueren for Chinese language films, and Song Jia for shorts. Pingyao has also launched a film fund, Wings International, to support five non-Chinese film projects each year.
Pingyao International Film Festival 2024:
HIDDEN DRAGONS:
Hello, Spring (China) [Debut]
Dir: Ma Lanhua
Asian Premiere
Village Music (China)
Dir: Wang Lina
World Premiere
A Song River (China) [Documentary]
Dir: Zhu Xin
World Premiere
Karst (China) [Debut]
Dir: Yang Suiyi
World Premiere
Chinatown Cha-Cha (China) [Documentary, Debut]
Dir: Luka Yuanyuan Yang
World Premiere
Floating Clouds Obscure The Sun (China) [Debut]
Dir: Shen Tao
World Premiere
A River Without Tears (China)
Dir: Liu Juan
World Premiere
True Love, For Once In My Life (Hong Kong, China) [Debut]
Dir: Siu Koon Ho
World Premiere
Reflections In The Lake (China)
Dir: Zhai Yixiang
World Premiere
Betwixt And Between (China) [Debut]
Dir: Zhou Quan
World Premiere
Stars And The Moon (China)
Dir: Tang Yongkang
Asian Premiere
Green Wave (China)
Dir: Xu Lei
World Premiere
CROUCHING TIGERS:
Savanna And The Mountain (Portugal, Uruguay)
Dir: Paulo Carneiro
Asian Premiere
Universal Language (Canada)
Dir: Matthew Rankin
Asian Premiere
Good One (US) [Debut]
Dir: India Donaldson
China Premiere
Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed (Argentina, Spain, Portugal)
Dir: Hernán Rosselli
Asian Premiere
Christmas Eve In Miller’s Point (US)
Dir: Tyler Taormina
China Premiere
The Girl With The Needle (Denmark)
Dir: Magnus Von Horn
China Premiere
Sujo (US, Mexico, France)
Dirs: Astrid Rondero, Fernanda Valadez
China Mainland Premiere
The Story Of Souleymane (France)
Dir: Boris Lojkine
Asian Premiere
I Saw Three Black Lights (Colombia, Mexico, France, Germany) [Debut]
Dir: Santiago Lozano Álvarez
Asian Premiere
My Summer With Irène (Italy, France)
Dir: Carlo Sironi
International Premiere
The Sparrow In The Chimney (Switzerland)
Dir: Ramon Zürcher
China Premiere
Happyend (Japan, US)
Dir: Neo Sora
Asian Premiere
