Film+
Top 8 Directors Make Stunning Debut at Samsung Mobile Short Film Unit
With an eye on selecting excellent young Chinese-language directors and developing a top-notch mobile short film competition, the 13th Beijing International Film Festival (BJIFF) works with Samsung Galaxy S23 series to launch the Samsung Mobile Short Film Unit dedicated to discovering every young director with whimsical ideas. With the powerful ultra night photography system of Samsung Galaxy S23 models, young directors are encouraged to capture the changes in light and shade with a Samsung phone, frame their wonderful imaginations in the creation of mobile short films, and explore new boundaries of image creation.
After the invitation and selection of young Chinese-language directors from around the world, eight outstanding entrants who won awards at film festivals or short film competitions at home and abroad have finally stood out. They include: Liu Xiaoli and Yang Zizheng, the recent winners of the Best Si-Fi Short Film at the Blue Planet Science Fiction Film Festival; Miao, a director dedicated to the creation of genre films and who has participated in mobile short film competitions; Sun Jie, a young director who accepted the Best Works Award of Hunan Province for a theater feature; and Guo Yu, a famous Chinese film researcher and public class lecturer, who has surprisingly entered the competition as a director.
After preliminary preparations, the eight directors have already started shooting their short films with a Samsung Galaxy S23 series phone.
13th BJIFF—Samsung Mobile Short Film Unit
Final Shortlist of Directors
Yang Zizheng
Director and screenwriter. He studied architecture and cinema and particularly focuses on space and time. His science fiction short film Sisyphus (2022) won the Best Sci-Fi Short Film award at the 4th Blue Planet Science Fiction Film Festival and was selected for the Narrative section of Hishorts! Film Festival.
Liu Xiaoli
Screenwriter and director. His sci-fi short film Green Food accepted Best Sci-Fi Short Film at the 3rd Blue Planet Science Fiction Film Festival and Best Screenplay at the Aranya Waves Film Festival, and was selected for the Focus on China section at the 79th Venice International Film Festival.
Sun Jie
Screenwriter and director who wrote stories for TV dramas like Cracker and A Police Officer’s Family as well as theater films such as Vast Bodies of Water. His theatrical film Zhengzheng’s World was included in the Films of Excellence list awarded by the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee in 2018 and the Best Works Award of Hunan Province.
Guo Yu
Freelance director, screenwriter, script consultant, and senior film critic of national media. He was awarded Best Director at a number of international film festivals, including the Tokyo International Short Film Festival, the Roma Short Film Festival, and the Japan International Film Festival, for his short film Wish You Well, which took the Best Short Film award at a number of international film festivals, including the London Independent Film Awards and the Montréal International Festival of Films on Art.
Miao
Director and screenwriter. His feature-length script Brainstorm was selected for the Pitching Section at the Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (BiFan) and FIRST Lab. His 5-minute mobile short film Where to Go Today? was selected for the Super Short Film section at the FIRST International Film Festival in 2021, and served as a director mentor for the FRIST Training Camp in 2022. Miao hopes to become a qualified genre director.
Ma Guyuan
Director, screenwriter, and director of photography. In 2022, her directorial multi-part short film ABNORMALITIES III was a breakout hit on bilibili, of which the segment Beauty was selected for a number of film festivals, including the Budapest International Film Festival and the Mumbai International Film Festival, and won the Best Thriller Award at the Best Independent Film Festival 2022.
Xia Meng
Screenwriter and director. In 2021, her screenplay From Ejin to Ergun was among the top ten in Project Pitches at the BJIFF. In 2022, her screenplay It’s Going to Snow at Night won the Best Original Script Award in Project Pitches at the BJIFF.
Peng Chenran
Director. He is skilled in shooting commercials and promo videos, including the promo video for CASIC No. 3 Research Lab and the commercial for Rise Education. He is also experienced in shooting micro and short films, such as the microfilm for FAW Bestune and the short film of the characters for the CCTV The Reader Program.
The 13th BJIFF—Samsung Mobile Short Film Unit encourages young directors to express their images in a diversified way and to capture the “splendid signs” of image creation with scientific and technological innovation.