In 2021, the British Council and One’s Young jointly initiated the Short Film Project for Female Directors, which aimed to encourage and support emerging women filmmakers in China to tell stories about themselves and help make their voices heard.
5 filmmakers were shortlisted out of 348 applications by a judge panel of five local and international film experts, two of whom were from the UK recommended by Encounters - the UK’s leading exhibitor of international short, animated, and immersive audio-visual storytelling. The judge panel also provided online mentoring sessions to help the filmmakers develop their stories.
The 5 shorts created from the project were premiered at the One International Women’s Film Festival in Chengdu, China on 22 September 2021. In 2022 the films will premier at the Encounters Film Festival in the UK.
The shorts
- Floaters 17’15’’
Director/Screenwriter: Han Xia
Producer: Sol YeSynopsis: 36-year-old Chang Yue, a single woman who just quit her job, is suspected of suffering from the eye disease called "floaters". After one examination at the hospital, she meets beautiful strangers in the street and gets to see the stuff she has not seen before...
- Canker 13’16’’
Director/Screenwriter: Tu Lin
Producer: Zhu XixiSynopsis: As the flashy life of the influencer girl 33 gets crazier, the canker inside her lower lip grows larger as well...
- Nasi 14’12’’
Director/Screenwriter: Tang Xiaoting
Producer: Du YatingSynopsis: Nasi, a female hunter who has a life-time goal, to catch “divine bird”. As her age grows, she has to choose between her family and her dream.
- Butterfly Lady 15’25’’
Director/Screenwriter: Jinn Zhang
Producer: Jinn Zhang, Li ZeyangSynopsis: Lady Butterfly's life billows under a seeming composure—arising from the summer ablaze with passion and self-contradiction, to the bleakness of autumn, then to the audaciousness of winter, and eventually returning to the calmness and resuscitation of spring.
- Dear Cang 13’
Director/Screenwriter: Zhou Jialin
Producer: Liang ShuangSynopsis: On a summer day, a young boy is wandering in the Hutong area and park, exploring his own private fantasy world.