While Eurocentric eyes already turn towards Locarno and the Venice Biennale generates its own ambivalent advertising for the approaching Mostra with questionable defensive decisions, Asia’s largest and most prestigious film event opens its curtains for a singular selection of films, and its doors for visitors from all over the world. Among them, the Western press seems curiously underrepresented, still or possibly again, as the USA’s political polemics and the growing power of Europe’s right-wing religious factions increase tensions with China. Its biggest and most modern metropolis once again reaffirms its status as the country’s cultural capital with the 28th Shanghai International Film Festival. 

From June 12th to 22nd, the city becomes the cinematic center of a flood of over 420 films, overflowing the city and the whole Yangtze delta with more than 1,500 screenings. These include retrospectives, this year for Billy Wilder and Marilyn Monroe, and a tribute to Ken Loach (The Old Oak) for his 90th birthday; the main program is comparatively contained. Five sections, four for feature-length productions and one for shorts, delegate the titles into the main competition and Asian New Talent with 12 films each, as well as five animations and documentaries. It’s a pleasantly manageable amount in contrast to the staggering amounts at Cannes or Venice, let alone the indiscriminate mass of films at the Berlinale.

This makes the actual challenge, at least for non-native attendees, navigating the event. Almost all information, even for professionals, is in Chinese. Non-Chinese speakers wanting to attend have to invest a lot of time in translation. As a little extra challenge some info directly from the festival agents might be incorrect. Relying on the festival's main hub location according to the Apple Maps from the festival? Too bad, that’s more than an hour by train away from the actual place. Heading for the wrong location might result in an immense time loss. Shanghai’s inner city alone spans over 200 km², and getting somewhere takes a while, despite the hypermodern infrastructure.

But Moviebreak is ready for that to explore the city’s cinematic scene and bring you the most exciting titles. Among the most anticipated of the world premieres from 15 countries competing for the Golden Goblet awards are Atlantic Rhapsody by China’s Zhong Kaifeng, Liu Xiaoyang’s The Great Skull, Halima by Moroccan director Yassine El Idrissi, Night of Blindness by Turkish filmmaker Reis Çelik, and Hong Kong director Frankie Tam Kwing Yuen’s Secrets in the Box. The six-person jury presided over by Tony Leung and including Guan Hu (Dongji Rescue), Dea Kulumbegashvili (April), and Fernanda Valadez, will award the trophies in eight categories, with best acting still divided into binary categories. 

Such lingering reactionary concepts highlight the contradiction between head-spinning high-tech modernism and obstructing obsolescence. Print your own badge at self-service counters via QR code instead of queuing at badge pick-up, but don’t forget to use that QR code also to print the physical tickets obligatory for theater entry. As the nation’s sole FIAPF-accredited A-list film festival’s role as a marketplace and networking hub grows with Shanghai’s importance as a global fixture for film production and distribution, such logistical issues will likely soon disappear. Whether the same applies to the organizational obstacles for foreign attendees ultimately depends on the visitors’ reception of one of the festival’s most diverse film lineups.

The audience is already significantly younger than the middle-aged crowd at Cannes and Berlinale or the aging demographic of Venice and Sundance. A seemingly ideal requisite to bridge both the gap to a global film community and that between past and present. 

You find the program here and the festiva schedule here.