Hong Kong drama Afterpiece, produced by business veteran Derek Yee and helmed by first-time characteristic filmmaker Keane T.Okay. Wong, will world-premiere because the opening movie of the twenty eighth Shanghai International Movie Competition, the competition introduced this week. The occasion’s full lineup can be unveiled on June 3, and the competition runs June 12-21 this yr.
Written and directed by Wong, Afterpiece follows Owen, a celebrated stage director who has spent greater than a decade in artistic paralysis. When his former lover resurfaces and his spouse begins to float towards betrayal, Owen commits to writing, directing and starring in a brand new theatrical manufacturing — solely to turn out to be dangerously entangled with an untrained younger actress he encounters throughout casting, steadily dissolving the boundary between stage and life. Stephen Fung stars as Owen, with Chrissie Chau, Myolie Wu and Angela Yuen rounding out the solid.
The challenge grew out of the Administrators’ Succession Scheme of the Hong Kong Particular Administrative Area authorities, which pairs established filmmakers with rising administrators as producer-mentors. Yee is finest identified for a string of gritty Hong Kong crime dramas together with One Nite in Mongkok (2004), Protégé (2007) and Shinjuku Incident (2009), in addition to the beloved 1993 romantic drama C’est la Vie, Mon Chéri, which swept six Hong Kong Movie Awards together with finest movie and finest director. Wong beforehand labored beneath the road on numerous business Hong Kong productions, together with I Am Anyone, Sword Grasp and In Search of Misplaced Time.
The competition additionally unveiled the total jury rosters for its Golden Goblet Awards throughout 5 aggressive sections. Tony Leung Chiu-wai, beforehand introduced as the principle competitors jury president, will preside over a seven-member panel that features Chinese language director Guan Hu, whose Black Canine took the Un Sure Regard prize at Cannes in 2024; Tunisian producer Dora Bouchoucha, a outstanding determine in North African cinema; Georgian writer-director Déa Kulumbegashvili, whose characteristic April debuted in competitors at Venice in 2024; Mexican filmmaker Fernanda Valadez, winner of the World Cinema Dramatic Viewers Award at Sundance in 2020; Kyrgyz director Aktan Arym Kubat, a veteran of the worldwide circuit; and Chinese language actress Xin Zhilei, who took one of the best actress prize at Venice final yr for The Solar Rises on Us All.
The Asian New Expertise part is headed by Singaporean filmmaker Anthony Chen, finest identified for his 2013 Digital camera d’Or winner Ilo Ilo. The documentary jury is chaired by U.S. filmmaker Geeta Gandbhir, Oscar-nominated for The Excellent Neighbor and The Satan Is Busy. And British animator Will Becher, beloved for A Shaun the Sheep Film: Farmageddon, chairs the animation part.
