The 2019 ShanghaiPRIDE Film Festival (ShPFF) will run from June 8 to 16. The festival has evolved from an LGBTQ film screening night to a full-blown festival that supports emerging Chinese filmmakers while bringing cutting-edge international LGBTQ cinema to Shanghai.
We are bringing back the LGBTQ film marathon this summer by screening over 60 strong and inspiring LGBTQ films from more than 20 countries in the span of 9 days!
ShPFF 2019 Chinese Short Film Awards received over 50 submissions, 33 made it into the finals. The nominees are in the run for five awards, including Best Film, Best Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Editing, and Best Sound & Music. The winners and nominees will be screened during the festival. We also invited the director of nominees to Shanghai to meet the audience.
This year, we have selected the Berlin International Film Festival Teddy Jury Award Winner, A Dog Barking at the Moon, as the opening film.
Among the films, the highlights include romance between two women, Carmen & Lola, a Cannes Film Festival Queer Palm Nominee; Voice for China LGBT, a documentary of the LGBTQ community in China; Jose, the Venice Film Festival Queer Lion Award Winner which focused on the gay community of the lower-class; The Fruit Machine, the Inside Out LGBT Film Festival Audience Award winner; A Woman is A Woman, the closing film of Amsterdam TranScreen Film Festival; and This Perfect Day, which just had its world premiere at the 2019 Tribeca Film Festival.
Short films, Crashing Waves, I, Carlito Leaves Forever and A Normal Girl, which are from #FiveFilms4Freedom will be screened at ShPFF this year.
Besides film screenings, ShPFF has invited directors and filmmakers to join us for discussions, too. We have also added a discussion, Translating Anglophone Queer Cinema into Chinese: Imagination, Identification and Representation in the line-up. In addition to that, members of QAFOne and Jihua will collaborate with us on a workshop.
On June 16, as one of our top highlights, the Nordic Day will present films from Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. A discussion is arranged to learn and share about the Nordic LGBTQ community in Shanghai.
The closing film of ShPFF 2019 is Shanghai Queer, which will have its premiere in Mainland China. The film shows the progress and development of the Shanghai LGBTQ community for the past 15 years. The filmmakers of the documentary will be up close with the audience.
We are proud to announce and share the schedule of ShanghaiPRIDE Film Festival 2019! We invite you to join us and enjoy the feast of LGBTQ films!
Recap | Queer Lion Winner China Premiere
Posted on Jun 12th, 2019
Last night, ShanghaiPRIDE Film Festival continued at the Department for Culture and Education of the German Consulate General in Shanghai. A series of short films from the Chinese Short Film nominations were screened and Jose, the Venice Film Festival Queer Lion Award Winner had its China premiere.
The screened short films include: 1995, a mockumentary about campus bullying; Stand by Me, a documentary from OUT CHINA; The Drum Tower, which presented a unique city charm; Eyes, which featured a distinctive expression; Shall We Dance?, which focused on emotions of a lesbian couple.
Since the release of our schedule, our audience has been very excited to watch the Mainland China premier of Jose, the Venice Film Festival Queer Lion Award Winner.
Jose focused on a young man, who is part of the lower-class in Guatemala. He lives with his devout mother and works in a restaurant. When he meets Luis, they pursue an unexpected relationship and Jose is thrust into passion and pain and self-reflection that was previously unimaginable.
Cheng Li, the Director of Jose, enjoyed the screening with the audience and was excited to join the audience for a lively discussion. Li said that when they traveled to many South American countries and arrived at Guatemala, they were interested in the conservative and impoverished country. As a religious community, the locals were not friendly nor acceptive to the LGBTQ community.
In order to learn more about the country, Cheng Li lived there for two years. The filmmaking process was inspired by the neo-realist and famous filmmaker, Hou Hsiao-Hsien. The casts were local up-and-coming actors.
“When we talk about LGBTQ films, we place significance in ones such as Brokeback Mountain from USA and Happy Together from China. But when we look at South America, and Guatemala, there are no such films.” So the team decided to create a film which tells the story about the Mayans.
We want to thank the Department for Culture and Education of the German Consulate General in Shanghai for the venue. Thanks to Diesel, Tenga, Roxie, Great Leap Brewing, and Xuhui CDC for their generous support and gifts.
