Shanghai Film Fest Unveils Golden Goblet Lineup With Record Submissions

The 27th Shanghai International Film Festival (SIFF) has unveiled its Golden Goblet Awards selection, with 49 films competing across five categories.

This year’s edition has set new records, with competition sections receiving over 2,800 submissions from 119 countries and regions, marking notable increases in entries from the Americas and Africa. Short film submissions alone rose 18% year-over-year.

The main competition features 12 titles spanning diverse territories. These include Chilean-U.K.-French co-production “After the Fog” directed by Miriam Heard, Kyrgyzstan’s “Black Red Yellow” from Aktan Arym Kubat, and Brazil’s “Cyclone” directed by Flavia Castro. Chinese cinema is well-represented with entries including “My Father’s Son” (Qiu Sheng), “One Wacky Summer” (Cao Baoping), and “Wild Nights, Tamed Beasts” (Wang Tong). The section also features Poland’s “Loss of Balance” (Korek Bojanowski), Germany’s “Luisa” (Julia Roesler), Japan’s “On Summer Sand” (Shinya Tamada), Argentina-Spain-Chile’s “The Reborn” (Santiago Esteves), Portugal-Brazil’s “The Scent of Things Remembered” (António Ferreira), and Germany-Switzerland’s “You Believe in Angels, Mr. Drowak?” (Nicolas Steiner).

The Asian New Talent competition highlights emerging filmmakers with 12 titles, including China’s “As the Water Flows” (Bian Zhuo), “Odds Beater” (Cheng Liang), “Seven Days” (Qiu Yujie), “The Last Summer” (Shi Renfei), and “Water Can Go Anywhere” (Fang Liang). Japan’s “Brand New Landscape” (Yuiga Danzuka), fresh off its Cannes debut, and Turkey’s “Grace for Sale” (Gözde Yetişkin, Emre Sert) and “Kanto” (Ensar Altay) round out the international entries. The section also features India’s “Victoria” (Sivaranjini J), Iran’s “The Daughter” (Pourya Kakavand), Sri Lanka’s “Riverstone” (Lalith Rathnayake), and an Italy-Philippines co-production “Where the Night Stands Still” (Liryc Dela Cruz).

The documentary category presents five titles: Iran’s “A Part of the Land” (Nima Mahdian Asl), Mexico’s “Brigade 2045” (Olivia Luengas Magana), China’s “Catchers on the Moon” (Xu Huijing), Spain’s “Constanza” (Agustín Márquez Gómez), and Laos’ “The Guardian of Stories” (Claudia Bellasi, Markus Steiner Ender).

The animation category includes “Edge of Time,” a China co-production directed by Li Wei, Weng Ming, Shinichiro Watanabe, and Shuhei Morita. Other entries span from Australia’s “Magic Beach” (Robert Connolly) to Japan’s “Make a Girl” (Gensho Yasuda), France-Switzerland-Belgium’s “The Songbirds’ Secret” (Antoine Lanciaux), and China-U.S. co-production “Tom and Jerry: Forbidden Compass” (Zhang Gang).

The live-action short film competition features 10 entries from around the globe. China contributes “A Story About Winter” (Luo Zhaoguang, Zhou Nanjun), “Children of the Land” (Xu Rui), “Crow” (Xu Jianming), and “No One Knows I Disappeared” (Bo Hanxiong). International entries include Iran’s “Dead in the Water” (Leila Hekmatnia), France’s “Joana is Leaving” (Jonathan Millet), Portugal’s “Judite, or First Rebellion” (Pedro Carneiro), Peru’s “The End of the World” (Alessandro Mosca), Spain’s “The Fountain of Memory” (Jordi Sanz Angrill), and Mexico’s “Video Game Auteur” (Txema Novelo).

The animated short film category rounds out the competition with five titles: Poland-France’s “I Am Not Here Anymore” (Nawojka Wierzbowska), Belgium’s “Little Story” (Mirjam Plettinx), China’s “Love Music Friend” (Xu Zao), Russia-Kazakhstan’s “Son” (Zhanna Bekmambetova), and Romania’s “Triassic Cuddle” (Iulia Turicianu).

Italian director and screenwriter Giuseppe Tornatore, Oscar winner for “Cinema Paradiso,” will preside over the international jury panel. “A film festival is not just a celebration of cinema; it’s an opportunity for people from different nations to come together, exchange ideas and appreciate exceptional films,” Tornatore said. “I’m honored to serve as a juror at SIFF and to enjoy these incredible works alongside my fellow jury members in Shanghai.”

This year’s edition introduces several firsts, including the merger of the SIFF Film Market with the Shanghai TV Festival’s market to form a unified International Film and TV Market. The fest also launches the Asia Now section highlighting regional perspectives. Guided by the principles of “Asian, Chinese Film, and New Talents,” this year’s festival is expected to feature around 60 Chinese-language films spanning competition entries, premieres, and restored classics.