The Shanghai International Movie Competition’s important jury wore its coronary heart on its collective sleeve Saturday night time, giving the highest Golden Goblet prize to first-timer Zhong Kaifeng’s Atlantic Rhapsody and revealing that they had all been “captivated and impressed” by the director’s daring strategy to moviemaking.
At the beginning of this yr’s June 12-21 occasion, jury head and Hong Kong legend Tony Leung Chiu-wai had revealed that early conversations amongst his group — which included administrators Guan Hu, Aktan Arym Kubat, Déa Kulumbegashvili and Fernanda Valadez, producer Dora Bouchoucha and actress Xin Zhilei — had discovered them unanimous in a need to search for “surprises.”
And the 29-year-old Zhong actually delivered on that along with his debut, which circles round a younger man (Wang Yitong) looking for a father who left his residence within the far north as China was the 2000s, searching for the riches supplied by the commercial growth down south. The movie performs with reminiscences, and with time, because the younger man searches for which means — and it left critics right here divided. Not so the jury.
“Through a bold experimental approach, the director explores the absurdity of human life, while the outstanding cinematography and editing create a uniquely compelling visual experience,” the jury assertion learn — and Zhong appeared overwhelmed when the information was learn out on the Shanghai Grand Theatre.
“Thank you very much to parents, to my wife,” started Zhong. “Since I started making movies, I haven’t had any income for many years. It has been you who kept me going. I want to say that Atlantic is not a definition, it does not provide answers, but today it seems to have given me an answer, and that answer is to persist, to love, to work hard, and then to believe.”
It was double delight for the younger filmmaker and his crew on the night time, because the Greatest Cinematography award went to Hao Jiayue for his work on the movie.
This yr’s important Golden Goblets featured a collection of 12 movies from 15 international locations and territories, and the jury went extensive with its picks, protecting a fittingly various vary of genres. The Jury Grand Prix went to Colombian director Nicolás Rincón Gille’s Iluminada (Belgium), a heartfelt and in the end life-affirming story of a younger lady going through the trials of life within the Bogota slums. Greatest Director went to Morocco’s Yassine El Idrissi for the darkly amusing Halima, whose star, Khadija Amari, took Greatest Actress for her compelling, typically hilarious flip as an growing older widow simply attempting to get by.
And there have been big cheers for native favourite Zhang Songwen on the information that he’d landed Greatest Actor for his flip as a puzzled (and very often puzzling) man accused of homicide within the Hong Kong-set Secret within the Field (China/Hong Kong), directed by Frankie Tam Kwong Yuen.
“The gradual build of this intensity is difficult to achieve. The actor’s accomplished performance further elevates the film’s literary depth,” the jury stated.
2026 SIFF Golden Goblet winners
Greatest Function Movie: Atlantic Rhapsody (China), directed by Zhong Kaifeng
Jury Grand Prix: Iluminada (Belgium), directed by Nicolás Rincón Gille
Greatest Director: Yassine El Idrissi, Halima (Morocco)
Greatest Actor: Zhang Songwen, Secret within the Field (China/Hong Kong)
Greatest Actress: Khadija Amari, Halima (Morocco)
Greatest Screenplay: Reis Çelik, Night time of Blindness (Turkey/Germany)
Greatest Cinematography: Hao Jiayue, Atlantic Rhapsody (China)
Excellent Creative Achievement: The Depressing Mom (Germany/France), directed by Susanne Heinrich
