ShanghaiPRIDE Film Festival 2019 Opens for Submissions

ShanghaiPRIDE Film Festival (ShPFF) will return on June 8-16, 2019. In June of 2018, we celebrated 10 years of ShanghaiPRIDE — and 10 years of sharing our stories. We are very excited to bring the community together once again around LGBTQ films!

The festival’s cinematic component has come a long way, evolving from a single film night to a full-blown festival that supports emerging Chinese filmmakers while also bringing international queer cinema to Shanghai.

Roberto Canuto and Xiaoxi Xu, the directors of Sunken Plum

In its early years, ShPFF worked with the Beijing Queer Film Festival to host film screenings and discussions. Since 2012, we’ve collaborated with foreign consulates in Shanghai to bring in foreign LGBTQ films. In 2014, ShPFF created an independent category for Chinese LGBTQ films.

Nefise Özkal Lorentzen, the director of Gender Me

Wei Wei, Professor of Sociology at East China Normal University, Ms. Mei from PFLAG and Chen Xiangqi, Founder of Shanghai Nvai

In 2015, ShPFF relaunched with the first annual Chinese LGBTQ Short Film Competition, the winner of which gets to compete in the U.K.’s Iris Prize Festival. ShPFF also independently sourced new international films for the first time, with an appearance by famous actress Peipei Cheng. The same year, we co-founded the Asia-Pacific Queer Film Festival Alliance (APQFFA) alongside ten other LGBTQ film festivals from the region.

Furthering our relationships across Asia, ShPFF collaborated with AKS Pakistan in 2016. The director of “East Palace, West Palace,” Yuan Zhang, also joined us for a great session to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the film, while esteemed actor Sir Ian McKellen sent his wishes to the festival. In 2017, ShPFF travelled to Sydney, Hong Kong, and Taipei to share about Chinese LGBTQ films. We have also collaborated with BFI Flare, Roze Filmdagen and MIX Copenhagen and invited winning films to screen at ShPFF.

Pink Pills

Utjung Tjakivalid (main actor, Alifu, The Prince/ss)

Philippe Mangeot (co-screenwriter, 120 BPM)

Sridhar Rangayan (director, Evening Shadows)

Last year our tenth festival ran on for 12 days and 45 hours. The submissions for the Chinese Short Film Awards achieved an all-time high of 50 films, and the Best Film “Pink Pills” was among the top nominations in UK Iris Prize Festival. We welcomed top award-winning and nominated films “Alifu, The Prince/ss” (Taiwan Golden Horse Awards 2017), “120 BPM” (Caesar Award 2017, Cannes Film Festival 2017 and Palme D’or Award 2017), and “Anchor and Hope” (Gaudi Awards 2017) with special guests Utjung Tjakivalid (main actor, Alifu, The Prince/ss), Philippe Mangeot (co-screenwriter, “120 BPM”) and Sridhar Rangayan (director, Evening Shadows) joined us for discussions.

Jannik Splidsboel, the director of Between Here & Now

ShPFF 2019 will once again offer an exciting array of events, as well as opportunities for filmmakers. The film competition submissions open TODAY, and we would like to welcome Chinese and international LGBTQ films and filmmakers to join us on this amazing journey.

There are two categories in this year’s competition:

Chinese Short Film Awards
The Chinese Short Film Awards invite filmmakers to submit works of fiction, documentary, experimental film, animation, and more that tell stories about LGBTQ Chinese characters. The film length is limited to 40 minutes. Filmmakers of all backgrounds and experience levels are eligible.

Our grand prize includes the chance to win funding for your next film through our partner, Iris Prize Festival. In 2018, the top Iris award was £30,000 (around RMB 300,000).
Click here to download the submission form and enter ShPFF Chinese Short Film Competition.

World Cinema
The World Cinema category invites filmmakers to submit works of fiction, documentary, experimental film, animation, and more that tell stories about LGBTQ characters. There is no limit to film length. Filmmakers of all backgrounds and experience levels are eligible.

Click here to enter the ShPFF World Cinema.

ShPFF Submission Requirements
1. Films must focus on LGBTQ subjects.
2. The filmmakers themselves do not need to identify as LGBTQ.
3. The submission period is December 24, 2018 to April 15, 2019.
4. Films can be in any language. Films not in Mandarin Chinese MUST include Mandarin Chinese subtitles. Films not in English MUST include English subtitles.
5. Films must have been produced after January 1, 2018, to be eligible.

Please direct any questions to films@shanghaipride.com.