Recap | 2019 ShPFF Officially Opens
On June 8, ShanghaiPRIDE Film Festival (ShPFF) 2019 had its grand opening at Biblioteca Miguel de Cervantes. The festival officially runs for nine days, with nearly 40 hours of films.
Over the past decade, ShPFF has been dedicated to bringing Chinese LGBTQ films to Shanghai, supporting emerging Chinese filmmakers, and screening diverse international LGBTQ films to the local audiences. This year, we selected the Berlin International Film Festival Teddy Jury Award Winner, A Dog Barking at the Moon, as the opening film.
Lisa Xiang, the director of A Dog Barking at the Moon, sent her regards with a video message to the audience. She was excited her film was selected as the opening film of ShPFF and hoped this film could inspire the community. Gao, Co-Producer of the film, shared behind the scenes stories with us. The film was based on the true experiences of the director. Although the production of the film was challenging due to a limited budget, the team was very satisfied with the outcome.
The ShPFF 2019 Chinese Short Film Awards received over 50 submissions from Mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, USA, Singapore, Canada, and England.
Festival Director, Raymond, announced the winners of the 5 awards at the opening:
Best Screenplay
Benjamin’s Last Day at Katong Swimming Complex
Best Cinematography
Kiss of the Rabbit God
Best Editing
Kiss of the Rabbit God
Best Sound & Music
Benjamin’s Last Day at Katong Swimming Complex
Best Film
We Outlaws
The Best Film winner, We Outlaws will represent ShPFF at Iris Prize Festival. The director of the film, Wang Kaixuan, was invited to share more about the film with the audience. Wang said that the film was inspired by her childhood memories. We Outlaws has won several awards since the film was first screened, but the director said that the award from ShPFF was the most meaningful.
The award-winning films, Benjamin’s Last Day at Katong Swimming Complex and Kiss of the Rabbit God, and the nominee, Rising Sun were also screened. The directors of three short films thanked ShPFF and shared their stories via video messages.
Award-winning and nominated short films will be screened throughout the festival.
The screening of the day ended with the Spanish film Carmen & Lola, which was a Cannes Film Festival Queer Palm Nominee last year.
We would like to thank Biblioteca Miguel de Cervantes for venue support. Thanks to Kate & Kimi, Diesel, Tenga, Iroha, Sweeteeth, Goodrug, and Xuhui CDC for the generous support and gifts.
