Vietnamese-French director Trần Anh Hùng on the official poster of the 26th Shanghai International Film Festival. Photo courtesy of SIFF

HÀ NỘI Vietnamese-French director Trần Anh Hùng has been announced as the jury president at the 26th Shanghai International Film Festival (SIFF), scheduled to take place from June 14-23.

According to the organisers of the film festival, the works of the Vietnamese French director and scriptwriter, who won the Best Director Award at the 76th Cannes Film Festival in 2023 for The Taste of Things, blend the expressions of Eastern and Western cultures, with sensitivity, delicacy, and a romantic style.

SIFF has also highlighted notable works from the director, such as The Scent of Green Papaya (1992), Cyclo (1995), and I Come with the Rain (2009).

After being invited, Hùng expressed his desire to discuss film development as an art form with other judges and movie buffs in China at the festival.

In June 2011, he served as a judge for the main competition unit of the 14th SIFF and held a press conference for his film Norwegian Wood during the festival.

Organisers have revealed that three months after its launch, the film festival received over 3,300 entries from 105 countries across the five continents. More than 2,300 films were submitted for the Golden Goblet Awards Main Competition, Asian New Talent, Documentary, Animation, and Short Film, including new works by established directors and those by new talents. The list of nominees for the Golden Goblet Awards is expected to be announced this month.

As the only international competitive feature film festival in China, SIFF serves as a crucial corridor for the world to perceive signals of Chinese film development. In 2023, the Belt and Road Film Festival Alliance established by SIFF was listed in the third Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation outcomes.

In 2024, SIFF will further cooperation and exchanges between countries, as the second 'golden decade' of jointly building the Belt and Road has been unveiled. It will screen films recommended by institutions from Belt and Road countries across the Yangtze River Delta region, initiating dialogues across borders.

Adhering to the philosophy of 'Asia, Chinese and New Talents,' SIFF has established a six-plus-one system for cultivating young talents, which includes SIFF EXPLORE, Golden Goblet Awards Short Film, SIFF NEXT, SIFF PROJECT, Golden Goblet Awards for Asian New Talent, Golden Goblet Awards Main Competition, and SIFF YOUNG.

As a barometre of the film industry, SIFF is expected to explore the prospects of the industry through exhibitions, market events, and market screenings with film institutions and practitioners from home and abroad.

Born in Việt Nam and settling in France in 1975, Trần Anh Hùng studied filmmaking in Paris at l’École Nationale Louis Lumière from 1985 to 1987. His feature directorial debut, The Scent of Green Papaya (1992), won him an international reputation by receiving the Award of the Youth French Film and the Golden Camera Award at the 46th Cannes Film Festival and the Best First Film Award at the 19th Cesar Awards. The film was also nominated for an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.

His second feature film, Cyclo (1995), won the Golden Lion Award for Best Film at the 52nd Venice International Film Festival, and his Japanese language adaptation of famous writer Haruki Murakami’s internationally acclaimed novel Norwegian Wood premiered in competition at the Venice International Film Festival before going on to be released internationally. VNS