Pingyao Fest Unveils Line-Up; Opening Film ‘A River Without Tears’

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 LanhuaAsian Premiere Village Music (China)Dir: Wang LinaWorld Premiere A Song River (China) [Documentary]Dir: Zhu XinWorld Premiere Karst (China) [Debut]Dir: Yang SuiyiWorld Premiere Chinatown Cha-Cha (China) [Documentary, Debut]Dir: Luka Yuanyuan YangWorld Premiere Floating Clouds Obscure The Sun (China) [Debut]Dir: Shen TaoWorld Premiere A River Without Tears (China)Dir: Liu JuanWorld Premiere True Love, For Once In My Life (Hong Kong, China) [Debut]Dir: Siu Koon HoWorld Premiere Reflections In The Lake (China)Dir: Zhai YixiangWorld Premiere Betwixt And Between (China) [Debut]Dir: Zhou QuanWorld Premiere Stars And The Moon (China)Dir: Tang YongkangAsian Premiere Green Wave (China)Dir:  Xu LeiWorld Premiere CROUCHING TIGERS: Savanna And The Mountain (Portugal, Uruguay)Dir: Paulo CarneiroAsian Premiere Universal Language (Canada)Dir: Matthew RankinAsian Premiere Good One (US) [Debut]Dir: India DonaldsonChina Premiere Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed (Argentina, Spain, Portugal)Dir: Hernán RosselliAsian Premiere Christmas Eve In Miller’s Point (US)Dir: Tyler TaorminaChina Premiere The Girl With The Needle (Denmark)Dir: Magnus Von HornChina Premiere Sujo (US, Mexico, France)Dirs: Astrid Rondero, Fernanda ValadezChina Mainland Premiere The Story Of Souleymane (France)Dir: Boris LojkineAsian Premiere I Saw Three Black Lights (Colombia, Mexico, France, Germany) [Debut]Dir: Santiago Lozano ÁlvarezAsian Premiere My Summer With Irène (Italy, France)Dir: Carlo SironiInternational Premiere The Sparrow In The Chimney (Switzerland)Dir: Ramon ZürcherChina Premiere Happyend (Japan, US)Dir: Neo SoraAsian Premiere