From August 21 to 23, 2026, the Hainan Island International Film Festival (HIIFF) partnered with the China Film Archive to host a special screening and post-screening Q&A event. Seven films from the 7th HIIFF met with moviegoers in Beijing. Ranging from award-winning masterpieces of the Golden Coconut Awards to restored films in the Tribute and Pearls of Cinema sections, this special screening brought Beijing audiences a cinematic experience spanning contemporary creation, classic retrospectives, and avant-garde exploration through diverse genres and rich visual styles.
The films in this special screening continued HIIFF's focus on the forefront of global cinematic
creation and classic cinema, collectively reflecting a cross-section of the festival's curatorial philosophy. Over the past year, special screening events have brought HIIFF films to cities such as Beijing and Suzhou. Geographical boundaries cannot hinder the enthusiasm for cinema; HIIFF will continue to implement the "year-round screening" concept in the future, ensuring that outstanding creations are seen by wider audiences. This year's special screening further presented the behind-the-scenes thinking of "how to curate a film festival" to the audience. Why select this film and not that one? How do different sections form a dialogue? How do curators use a group of films to articulate a cinematic philosophy? — These questions extend the act of viewing into an understanding of the festival itself, allowing audiences not only to watch on the screen but also to step into the process of a film from being discovered to being selected.
On August 21, following the screening of Black Rabbit, White Rabbit, HIIFF Competition Head Zhu Yuying hosted the first salon, joining Li Xun, Researcher at the China Film Art Research Center and HIIFF Artistic Advisor, and Sha Dan, Programmer at the China Film Archive, to discuss "What kind of new films do we expect to see at a film festival?".
For cinephiles, a film festival means opportunities to encounter unknown works. For a film festival, discovering new auteurs and new works from the constantly emerging global cinema remains a crucial task. From "how new films get noticed by festivals" to "how global creative trends are perceived," the guests shared a wealth of real experiences from frontline programming and curatorial practices. This included the moments of "fishing out" surprises from thousands of submissions, and the deliberation process of determining whether a film with a highly distinctive auteur style is suitable for the festival. During the conversation, Li Xun stated: "I advocate for domestic film festivals to be more diverse. It would be best to bring films that are relatively new and cutting-edge globally each year, those with innovations in formal structure and genre, and present them to domestic audiences."
On August 22, the post-screening event for Night Shift was hosted by Zhu Yuying, with Li Xun, Sha Dan, and producer Shan Zuolong sitting down for a conversation. Approaching from the perspectives of scholars, curators, and producers, the guests pieced together a comprehensive picture of festival programming. Starting from the Pearls of Cinema section, to which the film Night Shift belongs, the salon discussed the curatorial models of film festivals and the detailed deliberations in the selection process. Every film section is not categorized arbitrarily, but carries different curatorial intentions.
Sha Dan reflected on the artistic considerations of festival programming through the "Frontiers" section of the Beijing International Film Festival: "'Frontiers' structures the question in a morphological or aesthetic way: cinema is not just what you typically see; there are many different ways of filmmaking. The structure of a film might be singular, its expression might be avant-garde, and its image quality might be highly blurred. And such films are precisely the very important ones within a film festival."
Shan Zuolong offered another perspective from a producer's point of view: "A producer has no choice; the only choice is to accompany the director in finishing the film. You might have to accompany it through a journey of being rejected, until finally a film festival wants it. A good festival's competition slate must offer filmmakers choices."
Li Xun emphasized the importance of engaging with world cinema: "To use a metaphor, cinema is a language. So, it is actually very important to know which linguistic form or linguistic modality is currently trending internationally. Therefore, you must learn to communicate with people in English or French, and to tell our Chinese stories to the world."
On-site material distribution
Beyond the screen, the brochures and posters prepared on site became tangible extensions of the viewing memory. Before each screening, audience members could exchange their ticket stubs for posters and collect stamps on the back page of the brochure to redeem tickets for the 8th Hainan Island International Film Festival according to the rules. The posters, featuring a double-sided design that extracted detailed elements from the films and incorporated media reviews, were highly favored by cinephiles. Over the three days of screenings, moviegoers carried their brochures between sessions, showing great enthusiasm for stamp collecting. These small stamp booklets not only recorded their three-day cinematic journey but also carried the audience's anticipation for the 8th HIIFF at the end of the year. Many cinephiles have already filled their stamp collections; let us look forward to meeting again in Sanya at the end of the year.
Cinephiles who collected all the stamps
Seven films of diverse genres formed the cinematic journey of the Beijing special screening. Meanwhile, the two salons acted as a key, helping audiences unlock the "behind-the-scenes door" of the film festival. Although the Beijing stop has concluded, the screenings of the Hainan Island International Film Festival continue on—the next city, the next screen, and the next work waiting to be discovered are all carrying the journey forward. The 8th Hainan Island International Film Festival will be held as scheduled in December 2026, when more films and filmmakers will converge on the island. From north to south, from late autumn to the end of the year, cinema is always searching for new eyes. We cordially invite all cinephiles to return to the island at the end of the year to appreciate diverse masterpieces, and to let those unfinished cinematic stories continue to unfold on this new journey.
Film submissions for the Golden Coconut Awards and applications for the HIIFF Fresh Coconut Lab Venture Training Camp at the 8th Hainan Island International Film Festival (HIIFF) are currently open. Filmmakers are welcome to register on the official website (https://www.hiiff.net/). The deadline for Golden Coconut Awards film submissions is September 24, 2026, and the deadline for HIIFF Fresh Coconut Lab Venture Training Camp applications is September 10, 2026. For specific details, please refer to the regulations on the official website.
