As the light and shadows turn, the annual rendezvous returns. On November 3, the press conference for the 8th Hainan Island International Film Festival (HIIFF) (first session) was held at the Hainan Provincial Press Conference Hall. Reporters learned at the conference that, on the occasion of the first anniversary of the overall customs closure operation of the Hainan Free Trade Port, the 8th Hainan Island International Film Festival, jointly hosted by the China Media Group and the People's Government of Hainan Province, is scheduled to be held in Sanya from December 6 to 12. At that time, global filmmakers, film critics, media, and cinephiles will once again gather on the shores of the South China Sea to partake in this grand celebration of cinema.
With the theme of "Vibrant Ocean, Cinema Leading the Future," this edition of the festival aims to focus on new technologies, new expressions, and new trends in global cinema. It seeks to leverage the role of film as a cultural bridge, allowing more domestic and international cinephiles to witness the vibrant atmosphere of the Hainan Free Trade Port and the pulse of the times in the development of Chinese cinema through the screen. This edition of the festival features a total of 11 sections: the Opening Ceremony, the Closing Ceremony, the Golden Coconut Awards Competition, Film Screenings, the Golden Coconut Forum, the Free Trade Port International Film and Television Technology Exhibition, Copyright Trading Events, the AI Film Exhibition, and more. Following intense and orderly preliminary work, preparations are now essentially complete. Among them, the Opening Ceremony is scheduled for December 6, and the Closing Ceremony is scheduled for December 12.
As the core Competition Section, the Golden Coconut Awards Competition and Screening sections of this edition of the festival have collected outstanding films from around the world, featuring three main sections: Feature Film, Documentary, and Short Film. According to statistics, the film collection for this edition's Golden Coconut Awards received a total of 4,632 submissions from 133 countries and regions worldwide, setting a new record for the number of submissions.
This edition of the festival will be led by Jury President Ruben Östlund, heading a jury composed of 13 film professionals from countries and regions including Sweden, Spain, and the United States. Renowned French actress Audrey Tautou will serve as the Image Ambassador for the 8th HIIFF.
The screenings at this edition of the festival will achieve new breakthroughs in both scale and quality, carefully selecting 100 to 120 outstanding Chinese and international films and hosting 250 to 295 screenings. During the festival, special screenings will be held for Egypt, Greece, Serbia, Thailand, and an "ASEAN Section," a "Hong Kong, China Thematic Screening" will be co-presented with the Hong Kong International Film Festival, and a "Special Retrospective of the International Jury President" will be prominently featured in the Filmmaker in Focus section.
At the same time, the characteristic outdoor screenings will be continued, focusing on Sanya and Haikou, radiating out to 10 to 16 cinemas and 4 to 6 outdoor locations across the island. A sub-venue will also be set up at the Hainan Changying Fantasy Land, featuring classic and family sections, allowing the festival to better serve audiences of different ages.
After the Closing Ceremony on December 12, Sanya and Haikou will continue to hold extended screenings on weekends to sustain the atmosphere of public moviegoing; the Hainan "Follow the Film to Travel" public-benefit and consumption-boosting campaign will also continue until December 31. Audiences can enjoy "stacked discount" ticket purchasing benefits at over a hundred cinemas, and upon redemption, they will automatically receive cross-industry vouchers covering gas stations, supermarkets, dining, and duty-free shops. Visitors to the island will also simultaneously receive movie vouchers when claiming "Flight+" consumption vouchers.
This year's main Golden Coconut Forum will be themed "High-Level Opening-Up of Chinese Cinema Forum: Hainan Free Trade Port and the New Ecology of the Film Economy," revolving around the two main threads of film economic transformation and cultural innovation. It will jointly explore answers to how Hainan can serve as both a practical platform for the innovative development of the film industry and an important space for cultural innovation and international expression in Chinese cinema, at this new stage of high-quality development and high-level opening-up of Chinese cinema. At the same time, continuing the partnership with the China Film Archive, it will release the "2026 Research Report on the Development of China's Film Economy," providing an annual reference for the industry.
On this basis, this edition of the festival will leverage the policy advantages of the Hainan Free Trade Port to innovatively host the Free Trade Port International Film and Television Equipment Technology Exhibition, enabling domestic production teams to complete the comparison and procurement of high-end equipment right in Hainan. With "industry screenings + one-on-one negotiations" at its core, it will build an international film and television copyright matchmaking platform, promoting high-quality projects to complete substantive matchmaking for authorization, distribution, and co-production in Hainan, making the festival a hub for film and television copyright "bringing in and going global."
This year, the festival will continue to present the AI Film Exhibition. With the theme of "Rebirth of Images" and the benchmark of "cinema-grade," it will cover four collection sections: Cinema-Grade AI Feature Films, AI Premium Series, Cinema-Grade AI Short Films, and AI Experimental Images, and plans to screen approximately 50 selected works. It will set up the "2026 AI Film Exhibition Selection" and annual selection channels for directors, screenwriters, digital performances, images, and sound, promoting creative sharing, workflow demonstrations, and industry exchanges. It will also partner with the Science and Art Research Institute of the Beijing Film Academy to jointly release the "8th HIIFF AI Film Exhibition Report," documenting first-hand samples of AI entering the film production process from dimensions such as creative methods, hybrid production, and industrial adaptation.
Regarding the HIIFF Fresh Coconut Lab Venture Training Camp, this edition's HIIFF Fresh Coconut Lab will select 6 incubation projects from 207 short film submissions, including 2 projects with Hainan themes and 1 from a special collaboration track with the Hong Kong HAF Film Training Programme. Meanwhile, relying on the "Shoot in Hainan, Hainan on Screen" platform, it will provide selected projects with one-stop services including co-production matchmaking, location matching, and approval processing, enabling young creators to "afford to shoot and shoot smoothly" in Hainan, and continuously delivering fresh talent to the Chinese-language film industry.
At the press conference, the key visual poster for this edition of the festival was also unveiled. The poster features a primary tone of clear, translucent gradient blue, with the silhouette of an island fixed in the center of the image. The vast ocean surface fully showcases Hainan's pristine and pure mountain and sea character, while also symbolizing the inclusive and broad-minded vision of the art of cinema. Between the horizon and the sea, a circular halo slowly hovers, replicating the unique optical quality of a camera lens. It resembles a slowly opening door of light and shadow, guiding the audience from reality into the realm of cinema. The circular halo casts upon the tranquil sea, outlining a giant number "8", directly echoing the 8th Hainan Island International Film Festival (HIIFF), and integrating the natural scenery with the festival's current logo.
