The 19th Shanghai International Film Festival will screen the Aaron Kwok-starrer crime thriller “Cold War 2” on June 11 to start this year’s edition, which will run until the 19th, reported The New York Times.
Veteran actor Chow Yun-fat makes a special participation in Longman Leung and Sunny Luk’s sequel to their 2012 hit, “Cold War.” Tony Leung Ka-fai, Eddie Peng, Gordon Lam, Aarif Rahman, Ma Yili and Charlie Young reprise their respective roles.
More than a dozen movies will compete for the festival’s highest recognition, the Jin Jue (“Golden Goblet”), for the Best Feature Film.
From Asia, four Chinese productions will contend with one another: Cao Baoping’s “Coke and Bull,” “Cold War 2,” Liu Jie’s “De Lan” and Zhang Yang’s “Soul on a String.”
Japan offers Junji Sakamoto’s comedy, “Danchi” (“The Projects”), narrating the events in an elderly couple’s life in a danchi or apartment complex.
The Philippines partakes in the festivities through Ralston G. Jover’s crime-drama, “Hamog” (“Haze”), tackling the struggles of four street children.
From two other continents, there’s Werner Herzog’s thriller, “Salt and Fire” (Germany), where a scientist deals with a volcano threatening to erupt, and Ulrich Thomsen’s romance-drama, “In Embryo” (USA), about a female drug dealer’s love story.
Four more drama movies made it to this year’s festival: Antti J. Jokinen’s “Pahan Kukat” or “Flowers of Evil” (Finland); Ed Ehrenberg’s “Hore die Stille” or “Hear the Silence” (Germany); Jan Jakub Kolski’s “Las, 4 rano” or “Forest, 4 am” (Poland); and Vito Palmieri’s “See You in Texas” (Italy).
Two films based their plots from the personal stories of two writers: Andreas Gruber’s drama, “Hannas schlafende Hunde” or “Hanna’s Sleeping Dogs” (Germany), based from Austrian Elisabeth Escher’s childhood memories; and Bruce Beresford’s drama, “Mr. Church,” based from American Susan McMartin’s life.
Raam Reddy’s dramatic comedy, “Thithi,” will be shown on June 15, 18 and 19 and aims to win the Best Film award, reported The Indian Express.
People from South India call their last funeral celebration as thithi, held 11 days after a person’s death.
Serbian filmmaker-actor-musician Emir Kusturica will lead this year’s jury. His fellow directors Atom Egoyan (Canada), Daniele Luchetti (Italy), Abderrahmane Sissako (Mauritius) and Pema Tseden (China) will compose the panel of judges, according to China.org.
Chinese writer Yan Geling and Taiwanese-Canadian actress-singer Karena Lam (“Zinnia Flower,” “July Rhapsody”) will also join the jury.
The Paris-based Federation Internationale des Associations de Producteurs de Films (International Federation of Film Producers Association) recognizes SIFF as an A category festival.
Established in 1933, FIAPF acts as a regulator of international film festivals.