北京国际短片联展

Chinese environmental films are trying to bring viewers closer to nature, but are struggling to win the attention game. “You need to go touch a tree. Feel a cow’s breath, feel its heartbeat. Only when you have that lived experience, rather than just ideals, will your thinking change” Ding Dawei, founder of the Beijing International Short Film Festival (BISFF) explains when asked about the disconnection between people and the environment and how films can emulate that lived experience. 👉 Tap the link in our bio to read more. ✍️ Jiang Mengnan 📷 @ziga.ciber , @igor_smola1 , Huang Jiayi, Mia Halme

Featuring 331 films, the Beijing International Short Film Festival (BISFF) expands year by year, showcasing a broad overview of short films, with occasional mid-length and feature-length works tucked into sidebars. In its ninth year, the festival made a leap, transitioning from an event organised in art galleries and foreign cultural institutions to one held in a commercial cinema. However, things did not go as planned. Therefore, this report is written in two parts. In the first part, I discuss the background of what happened, and in the second, I delve into the foreground—that is, the films showcased at the festival.

Weaved this piece of consciousness with my favourite cinematic alchemist @nichi.baratto on his sci-fi-oneiric short film “dew point“💧 which was selected for Beijing International Short Film Festival. It is a bilingual interview published on BISFF‘s beautiful Correspondence-書信計劃 (or could be more directly translated as “The Letter Project“) platform. In this piece, we echoed on dream, water, dew, material, alchemy, archeology and our mutual passion towards the truth of cinema. Read here: https://www.bisff.co/single-post/bissff2025-correspondence-%E9%80%9A%E4%BF%A1%E8%AE%A1%E5%88%92053%EF%BC%9Adew-point-%E5%87%9D%E9%9C%B2%E7%82%B9 Or see link in bio. Many thanks for the invitation from Nichi and BISFF. Last but not the least, big shout out for BISFF‘s amazing curation and organisation. Very much impressed and touched by their aesthetic, care and courage in navigating the cultural landscape in China. It is so precious 💗 #cinematicalchemy #bisff2025 #dewpoint #wateranddreams

I’m truly happy that Forced Symphony was part of the Nova Competition at the prestigious Beijing Festival 2025. Thank you for the warm invitation and hospitality. Grateful for this opportunity and for the wonderful friends I made along the way. Hope to see you again — in China, Iran, or anywhere else in the world. ✨ 非常高兴我的影片《Forced Symphony》入选 2025 北京电影节 的 Nova Competition 单元。 非常感谢你们的邀请和热情款待。 感恩这次难得的机会，也感谢在旅途中结识的珍贵朋友。 期待再次相见——无论是在中国、伊朗，还是世界的任何角落。✨ @forcedsymphony.docu

Very excited to share the news that we screened Bora @bisffest last month in Beijing! I have been attending the festival as an audience member while studying at Beijing Film Academy and thus it has been a great pleasure to screen my thesis film at this festival that is so close to my heart :) 💙 #beijinginternationalshortfilmfestival #bisff #shortfilms #studentfilm #thesisfilm #filmschool #filmfestival

❤️BISFF2025 #北京国际短片联展 #bisff2025 #filmfestival #shortfilm

📷BISFF2025 #北京国际短片联展 #bisff2025 #filmfestival #shortfilm

BISFF2025 Sinophone Competition Award List - Part 2 华语竞赛奖项公布 - 第二部分 🏆JURY SPECIAL MENTION 评审特别提及 🎬The Glass Essays｜玻璃随笔 River Yuhao Cao｜曹宇豪 2025｜0:16:57｜No Dialogue Asian Premiere｜亚洲首映 Jury Statements 评委评语 “Between waking and dreaming, how free can the boundaries of the human psyche become?” Glass Essays employs a purely audiovisual language to explore this question. Is it a remembrance of the departed? A projection of desire toward another? Or an unbearable erotic dream? Through the magical threshold between night and day, the film uses a seemingly realistic male journey to symbolize time and space, opening up rich possibilities for interpretation. When fireworks burst in the distance and the scene suddenly returns to the quiet of early morning, I would say that the most beautiful, most essential vitality in a person is, in fact, the state of being in flux. （Shen Ko-Shang） 🏆Committee Awards-Outstanding Art Exploration Award 🎬Words Fly Back to the Black Earth｜词藻飞回大地深处 Zhang Xiao｜张晓 2024｜0:19:12｜Cantonese International Premiere｜国际首映 Jury Statements 评委评语 Through an image–sound experiment imbued with the spirit of labor and the traces of handcraft, the film revisits, translates, and dialogues with women’s private–collective memories. Blankness is both history and space. When writing holds hegemonic power in the construction of history, the film, through revelation and invocation, powerfully brings back another mode of existence and expression. (BISFF Committee) Check the full list of award winners:👉https://www.bisff.co/single-post/bisff2025-25sinophone-award #北京国际短片联展 #bisff2025 #filmfestival #shortfilm

BISFF2025 Sinophone Competition Award List - Part 1 华语竞赛奖项公布 - 第一部分 🏆Best Film 最佳影片 🎬Misdirection｜当局者迷 He Yingjie｜何英杰 2025｜0:20:01｜Japanese, English World Premiere｜世界首映 Jury Statements 评委评语 The film carries a delicate, natural, and intriguing inner world within its simple storyline and characters. The nervousness before a first solo exhibition, the desire to be noticed yet lacking confidence—these natural emotional currents allow viewers to find echoes of themselves in the narrative. Nature and humanity, reality and magic, the factual and the dreamlike intertwine through the film’s gentle pacing, forming a narrative that resonates with the inner world of the girl on screen. Amid the bustling opening ceremony, the camera slowly drifts away; on the other side of the wall lies someone quietly asleep—an image imbued with the essence of a haiku. (Zhao Jia) 🎬The Land in Between｜中间之地 Zhou Yilu ｜周亦辂 2025｜0:15:18｜Mandarin Chinese, Uyghur, Chinese Dialects Jury Statements 评委评语 The Land in Between is a moving and innovative documentary poem about cultural loss as the possible price of development and integration in a Tajik village in a distant corner of Xinjiang. The film captures the encounter between the Mandarin-speaking filmmaker and the villagers. Moving between distant observation and efforts at communication, Mandarin words are exchanged for Tajik words. But she soon discovers that the children in the village are so immersed in Mandarin in their efforts to get ahead and integrate that they are often less sure of the Tajik words than the Mandarin ones. They often talk to each other in Mandarin and rely on their mother to “send letters” or translate for them with the older generation. (Chris Berry) Check the full list of award winners:👉https://www.bisff.co/single-post/bisff2025-25sinophone-award #北京国际短片联展 #bisff2025 #filmfestival #shortfilm

Bravo à @juliangarcialong qui vient de remporter le prix du 𝐌𝐞𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐮𝐫 𝐟𝐢𝐥𝐦 pour 𝑫𝒆𝒔𝒅𝒆 𝒍𝒂 𝒎𝒐𝒏𝒕𝒂𝒏𝒂 𝒗𝒆𝒎𝒐𝒔 𝒍𝒂 𝒎𝒐𝒏𝒕𝒂𝒏𝒂 au Beijing International Short Film Festival @bisffest ! ✨ 𝑫𝒆𝒔𝒅𝒆 𝒍𝒂 𝒎𝒐𝒏𝒕𝒂𝒏𝒂 𝒗𝒆𝒎𝒐𝒔 𝒍𝒂 𝒎𝒐𝒏𝒕𝒂𝒏𝒂 𝑖𝑠 𝑎𝑛 𝑒𝑙𝑒𝑔𝑦 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑃𝑎𝑡𝑎𝑔𝑜𝑛𝑖𝑎𝑛 𝐴𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑠 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐼𝑛𝑑𝑖𝑔𝑒𝑛𝑜𝑢𝑠 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑚𝑢𝑛𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑒𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑑𝑤𝑒𝑙𝑙 𝑖𝑛 𝑟𝑒𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑡𝑜 𝑖𝑡. 𝑇ℎ𝑟𝑜𝑢𝑔ℎ 𝑖𝑚𝑎𝑔𝑒𝑟𝑦 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑖𝑠 𝑏𝑜𝑡ℎ 𝑞𝑢𝑖𝑒𝑡 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑎𝑏𝑢𝑛𝑑𝑎𝑛𝑡, 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑓𝑖𝑙𝑚 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑗𝑢𝑟𝑒𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑟𝑒𝑔𝑖𝑜𝑛’𝑠 𝑔𝑟𝑎𝑠𝑠𝑒𝑠, 𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑡𝑠, 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑑𝑟𝑖𝑓𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑐𝑙𝑜𝑢𝑑𝑠, 𝑡𝑜𝑔𝑒𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑡ℎ𝑒 ℎ𝑢𝑚𝑎𝑛 𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑒𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑚𝑜𝑣𝑒 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑙𝑎𝑛𝑑𝑠𝑐𝑎𝑝𝑒. 𝐼𝑡 𝑏𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑔𝑠 𝑡𝑜𝑔𝑒𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑐𝑖𝑛𝑒𝑚𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑐 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑝𝑜𝑠𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛, 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑠𝑒𝑛𝑠𝑖𝑏𝑖𝑙𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑒𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑒𝑡ℎ𝑛𝑜𝑔𝑟𝑎𝑝ℎ𝑖𝑐 𝑑𝑜𝑐𝑢𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑎𝑟𝑦, 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑛𝑎𝑟𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑒 𝑡𝑒𝑛𝑠𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑟𝑜𝑑𝑢𝑐𝑒𝑑 𝑏𝑦 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑢𝑛𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑜𝑙𝑣𝑒𝑑 𝑚𝑦𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑦 𝑜𝑓 𝑎 𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑡 𝑓𝑖𝑟𝑒, 𝑢𝑙𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑙𝑦 𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑚𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑎 𝑐𝑎𝑝𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑣𝑖𝑠𝑢𝑎𝑙 𝑝𝑜𝑒𝑚. - 𝑇𝐴𝑁𝐺 𝐻𝑜𝑛𝑔𝑓𝑒𝑛𝑔 @soundimageculture @lefresnoy @luca.schoolofarts @AyaAyeFilm

K A F K A. I N L O V E at the Beijing International Short Film Festival! 🔥 So grateful and honored that the film received Best Short Film in the International Competition. 🙏 Huge thanks to Beijing ISFF for the opportunity to present the film in its original German language, featuring the exceptional voices of Christian Shengewald as Kafka and Jitka Moučková as Milena. 🙏 Thank you to all the jury members for this recognition — and to Sergei Loznitsa for his beautiful reflection on the film. #KAFKAINLOVE #SandAnimation #ShortFilm #FilmFestival #BeijingISFF #AwardWinningFilm #ChristianShengewald #JitkaMoučková #ZaneOborenko #InternationalShortFilm #AnimatedShort #CinemaLovers #IndieFilm #Filmmaking

Super happy and honoured that Riverlands had her World Premiere at BISFF — and won the Best Film Award! 
Thank you, @bisffest , for welcoming the film with such care and for including it in your amazing festival. 🧡 This research began by tracing the currents of the Merwede, and it means so much to see the work now reaching other shores. 🍒 ———————————————————------ Jury Statement by TANG Hongfeng With a gently unfolding poetic narration that weaves together intergenerational legends of the Merwede River, the film mobilizes archival footage across multiple registers. The sensory qualities embedded in their materiality—together with the intimate viewpoints and emotional memories carried by family footage—at moments grow estranged and distant, as they are refracted through the filmmaker’s dual perspective as both author and viewer. In this shifting dynamic, the archival images become raw material for speculation and conceptualization. Through a lyrical, essayistic voice and an anthropological sensitivity to the materials at hand, the filmmaker explores her evolving relationship to the archives she gathers and reanimates, seeking a narrative mode—and a calibrated distance—capable of sustaining the stories she hopes to set back in motion. ------------------------------------------ Thank you so much to every hand that contributed to Riverlands: -sound design: @_unspro_ -archive footage: oma & opa, RAD, HV Sliedrecht -special thanks: @info.familieblom , @edywassink & Wout 💙