(THR) The Shanghai International Film Festival, celebrating its 21st edition this year, on Tuesday unveiled the first eight features selected for its main competition section.
The sole U.S. contender so far is A.J Edwards' young adult drama Friday’s Child, starring Tye Sheridan, while China will be represented by LV Yue's family drama Lost, Found. Also screening in competition is Batbayar Chogsom's Out of Paradise, a Mongolian road movie about a pregnant couple living an idyllic life on the steppe who must travel to the big city for medical treatment.
This 19th edition of the Shanghai festival, set to run June 16-June 25, will feature its usual blend of high-minded retrospectives and crowd-pleasing sidebars. Well attended locally, the event gives Shanghai residents a chance to see films they wouldn't normally get to experience in theaters as China's censorship regime takes a momentary lighter hand.
Legendary Chinese actor-director Jiang Wen is presiding over the jury that will decide the winner of SIFF's annual Golden Goblet Awards. He is joined by Japanese auteur Naomi Kawase, U.S. producer David Permut, Taiwanese actor Chang Chen, Hungarian filmmaker Ildiko Enyedi, Turkish director Semih Kaplanoglu and Chinese actress Qin Hailu.
This year's documentary competition includes American filmmaker Stephen Maing's searing indictment of New York police corruption, Crime + Punishment. Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady's doc One of Us, which chronicles the lives of three ex-Hasidic Jews from Brooklyn, will also compete in the category, along with Chinese director Yi Han's tale of rural Chinese hardship, In My Eyes.
The animation category, meanwhile, includes Disney veteran Tony Bancroft's Magical Circus and Japanese director Mari Okada's anime fantasy Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms.
Over the next week, festival organizers will announce six more competition titles, as well as further programming additions.
See the full competition lineup so far below.
Competition Features：
FRIDAY’S CHILD
Country/Region： USA
Director： A.J Edwards
HATTRICK
Country/Region： IRAN
Director： Ramtin Lavafipour
A HOLE IN THE HEAD
Country/Region： POLAND
Director： Piotr Subbotko
LOST, FOUND
Country/Region： CHINA
Director： LV Yue
OUT OF PARADISE
Country/Region： SWITZERLAND/MONGOLIA
Director： Batbayar Chogsom
A TRANSLATOR
Country/Region： CANADA
Director： Rodrigo Barriuso/Sebastian Barriuso
THE WAY TO MANDALAY
Country/Region： DENMARK
Director： Ole Bornedal
WHERE I’VE NEVER LIVED
Country/Region： ITALY
Director： Paolo Franchi
Documentary Films：
CRIME AND PUNISHMENT
Country/Region: USA
Director： Stephen Maing
IN MY EYES
Country/Region: CHINA
Director： Yi Han
THE LONG SEASON
Country/Region： THE NETHERLANDS
Director： Leonard Retel Helmrich
MY ENEMY, MY BROTHER
Country/Region： CANADA
Director： Ann Shin
ONE OF US
Country/Region： USA
Director： Heidi Ewing / Rachel Grady
Animation Films：
HOFFMANIADA
Country/Region： RUSSIA
Director： Stanislav Sokolov
MAGICAL CIRCUS
Country/Region： CHINA/UK/SPAIN
Director： Tony Bancroft
MAQUIA: WHEN THE PROMISED FLOWER BLOOMS
Country/Region： JAPAN
Director：Mari Okada
S HE
Country/Region： CHINA
Director： ZHOU Shengwei
WHITE FANG
Country/Region： FRANCE
Director： Alexandre Espigares
Source: The Hollywood Reporter by Patrick Brzeski