The Los Angeles Chinese Film Festival Announces 2nd Annual Festival with a Robust Slate of Films and Panels from 21 Chinese Independent Voices

The Los Angeles Chinese Film Festival (LACFF) is proud to host its second annual festival, screening 21 nominated films from Chinese independent filmmakers and artists, at the Downtown Independent Theater, from November 1^st to 4^th, 2018.

LACFF is the only film festival in Los Angeles to focus on independent Chinese culture and heritage films. LACFF also aims to foster cultural exchange between the Hollywood and Chinese film industries.

This year, the festival received a total of 255 film submissions from 11 different countries and regions. After two months of expert and jury deliberations, 21 films were nominated; including three features, three documentaries, six narrative shorts, four documentary shorts, and five experimental/animated shorts.

Of the festival line-up, nine films will be making their North American and/or Los Angeles Premiere at LACFF this year. The feature film, E.T. Made in China (Dir. Xiaosha Zhang), as well as stop-animation short, The Quintet of the Sunset (Dir. Jie Weng), will be making their World Premiere at LACFF as well.

This year's films cover a variety of international topics, focusing primarily on the directors' thoughts on the ever changing Chinese and global landscapes. For example, E.T. Made in China looks at the modern Chinese rural reality in the presence of actual extraterrestrials; Speculator (Dir. Yuntao Du) features the ride-sharing app, Uber and the foreign capital flowing into the Chinese market; People's Republic of Desire (Dir. Hao Wu) explores the financial and personal conflicts behind live internet streaming platforms; and Hanzi (Dir. Mu-Ming Tsai) explores Asian culture and identity through a typographic lens.

Jury members this year include Ruijun Li, the director and screenwriter of Walking Past the Future,which has been featured in the official selections of the 70th Cannes Film Festival, the 65th Berlin International Film Festival, and 69th Venice Film Festival; film scholar Gabrielle Kelly, who has taught at UCLA, USC, & NYU and is currently on the faculty at AFI; Rebecca Baron, a Los Angeles-based media artist whose works have screened widely at the New York, Toronto, and London Film Festivals; award winning producer Richard Liang, whose documentary won the Best Chinese Documentary Award at the Taiwan International Documentary Festival in 2016; David E. James, film studies professor at USC's School of Cinematic Arts; Jeff Swimmer, professor of Documentary at Chapman University's Dodge College of Film and Media Arts; award winning cinematographer, Helder K. Sun; and Emmy Award winning visual artist, Lin Zheng.

This year, LACFF is also hosting industry tastemakers to speak at two panels discussing the collaboration and future of US and Chinese entertainment, in both the business and creative fields. The panelists include Rong Chen, Senior Vice President of Perfect World and CEO of Perfect World Pictures, Mike Gabrawy, Chief Creative Officer of Arclight Films; Randy Greenberg, Executive Producer of The Meg (2018); Bennett Pozil, Executive Vice President of East West Bank; Jimmy O. Yang, actor on Silicon Valley (2014-2018) and Crazy Rich Asians (2018); Jessica Gao, Emmy Award winning writer for Rick and Morty (2013) and Silicon Valley (2014); Helen Shang, writer on Hannibal (2015) and Invoking 5 (2018); Rachel Song, Founder, CEO, and bilingual producer of XS Media (A Kid Like Jake, 2018); and Rui Yao, screenwriter of Lin Shi Yan Yuan (2017) and Angry Kid (2013).

The LACFF is organized by Chinese in Entertainment (CIE), a Los Angeles-based non-profit organization that supports Chinese talent and culture in entertainment and the arts.

For additional information on the 2018 LACFF, including screening times, locations, featured guests and ticketing details, please contact pr@lacff.org.

Website: https://www.lacff.org/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/losangeleschinesefilmfestival/
Ticket Information: https://tinyurl.com/lacfftix

Full Festival Line Up
Narrative Features
E.T. Made in China (World Premiere)
Director: Xiaosha Zhang

Girls Always Happy
Director: Mingming Yang

Transcendent (North American Premiere)
Director: Linzi Zhang

Documentary Features
Hanzi (Los Angeles Premiere)
Director: Mu-Ming Tsai

I've Got a Little Problem (Los Angeles Premiere)
Director: Ximing Zhang

People's Republic of Desire
Director: Hao Wu

Narrative Shorts
Besieged
Director: Mengchen Niu

Birthday Party
Director: Theo Ma

Cupcake
Director: Dawei Zhang

Jiejie
Director: Feng-I Roan

Miss World
Director: Georgia Fu

Mother Eden
Director: Erzhuo Wang

Documentary Shorts
Arcosanti: A State of Fugue (North American Premiere)
Director: Kehui Feng

Life as He Likes
Director: Lizhu Yang

One Day In GaoYi (Los Angeles Premiere)
Director: Jiaxuan Xiao & Muqiu Qin

Speculator (Los Angeles Premiere)
Director: Yuntao Du

Animation and Experimental Shorts
Ayesha (Los Angeles Premiere)
Director: Yanyu Dong

Barry
Director: Anchi Shen

Cry Baby (Los Angeles Premiere)
Director: Xiner Jiang

Light (Los Angeles Premiere)
Director: Tatsu Aoki

The Quintet of the Sunset (World Premiere)
Director: Jie Weng

Opening and Closing Screenings
Opening Screening: Walking Past the Future
Director: Ruijun Li

Closing Screening: Linsanity
Director: Evan Jackson Leong