Since the launch of our call for entries, the 2024 festival selection committee has received over 350 entries in total from regions including but not limited to the UK and other European countries, China and other East Asian countries, Southeast Asian countries, and North America. After the preliminary selection by young film selectors and multiple rounds of discussions by the selection committee, a certain number of feature films and short films will be shortlisted by the jury to compete for the four major awards: Best Feature, Best Short, Jury Prize (Feature), Jury Prize (Short). In addition, we have continued the Audience Choice Award set in the inaugural festival. The winner of this award will be chosen on-site by all the audience.

As the first women-organised independent Chinese film festival in the UK, facing the challenges, we have always been striving to break through barriers concerning identity and culture within the creative sector and the society of the UK and the globe. We focus on the roles of women both on and off the screen, especially women's discourse space in the film industry. We hope to make an effort, though modest, to elevate the representation of Asian women and cultural diversity in the international creative sector, to promote the cross-cultural understanding of female representation in cinema, and to construct a new language for the exploration of gender and cultural issues. 

Among the nearly 400 entries we received from the open call, female applicants account for 39.8% of the total (up by 6.8% compared with the first edition), male applicants 43.9%, and non-binary applicants 16.3% (up by 4.3% compared with the first edition). We highly encourage women and non-binary filmmakers interested in the Competition to submit their new works, convey their diverse perspectives, and showcase their unique image styles.

Notes from the Curation Team

Featuring inclusivity and diversity, the Competition of the 2nd edition of the Mint Chinese Film Festival continues to be open to Chinese filmmakers and talents of Chinese cinema. The Competition comprises two sections: Feature Film Competition and Short Film Competition.  By adding a new feature competition section, we attempt to redefine the essence of global Chinese cinema and the diverse identity of creators, balance different identities and cultures, and arouse new thinking and discussions on Chinese cinema culture through films. 

We have expanded the size and the expertise of the jury. It is our honour to have 11 renowned filmmakers, curators, artists, actors, screenwriters, producers, critics, and industry experts from different countries in our jury of 2024. It is hoped that the abundant experience of our professional jury members will enrich the selection standards, providing a fair, just, and multi-dimensional review environment for our applicants and making high-quality and pioneering works stand out.

The list below is in alphabetical order with no implication of priority

Feature Films Competition Jury

  • Lianlian Shen

    Independent Film Director, Screenwriter 

    Lianlian Shen is an independent film director and screenwriter from Jiangsu Province, China who has been devoted to independent films since 2020. She wrote and directed the feature Drifted in Life, and wrote, directed, and produced the feature Chang’e. She won the Jury Prize at Chongqing Youth Film Festival. Her works have also entered other international film festivals. All her features have been screened in China and abroad. In 2022, she produced a documentary called Mask which entered the China Screen Documentary Film Festival.

  • Paul Sng

    Filmmaker, BAFTA Breakthrough Artist 

    Paul Sng is a bi-racial British-Chinese filmmaker based in Edinburgh, Scotland whose works focus on people who challenge the status quo. His films have been screened internationally, and his feature documentary credits include Dispossession, Poly Styrene: I am Cliche (winner of BIFA 2021 Best Documentary, BIFA 2021 Raindance Discovery Award), and Tish (Sheffield DocFest 2023 Opening Gala film). He is a 2022/23 BAFTA Breakthrough artist.

  • Monica Gyamlani

    Film Curator, International Film Project Developer

    Monica Gyamlani is a seasoned Film Curator and Programmer who works with international film project developers with a decade of industry experience. Currently, she serves as a fiction film screener for the Sundance Film Festival in the USA and as a Film Curator and Programmer for the Dharamshala International Film Festival in India. She has always been inclined towards nurturing creative film projects through labs and Film Bazaar’s Co-Production Market, shaping the cinematic landscape and supporting emerging filmmakers. She is working towards setting up a Film Community based in India recognised and incubated by OWN Academy and Soho House Mumbai. 

  • Katharina Lüdin

    Shortlisted  Director of Locarno Film Festival

    Katharina Lüdin currently studies at UdK Berlin (Berlin University of the Arts) after graduating from HFBK Hamburg (University of Fine Arts of Hamburg). Her short films, shot on celluloid, have been screened at various festivals. She works in the field of intersectional anti-discrimination and was one of the women’s representatives at UdK. In summer 2023, her first feature-length film Of Living without Illusion premiered at the 67th Locarno Film Festival. 

  • Federica Pugliese

    Independent Film Programmer, Film Marketer

    Federica Pugliese is an independent film programmer and film marketer working across film exhibition and distribution. After graduating from Edinburgh University with a Master of Science in Film, Exhibition and Curation, she worked for Eden Court Theatre and the Inverness Film Festival. She later worked as a programme and marketing manager at Really Local Group. Currently, she is a film programmer at Lago Film Fest and works as a freelance film marketer and distributor for clients including Sovereign Films and Varicoloured Film Agency.

  • Pengyuan Gu 

    Film Festival Curator, Blu-Ray Producer and Distributor

    Pengyuan Gu is the Head of Programme at the FIRST International Film Festival. He is also a Blu-ray producer and distributor, and sub-titler. He has collaborated with Asian film expert Tony Rayns on the production of Blu-ray extras for numerous films. He independently organised the online film season Hangzhou New Cinema, worked for the BFI London Film Festival 2020, and served as a pre-selection judge for Film Africa and a student judge for the FOCAL International Awards. He has been the curator for multiple film festival university/city tour events. He is also the advisor for several award-winning short films.

Short Films Competition Jury 

  • Emily May Jampel 

    Filmmaker, Actress, and Film Programmer/Curator

    Emily May Jampel is a filmmaker, actress, and film programmer/curator based in New York City. Her short film Lucky Fish has been showcased at the 2023 MINT Chinese Film Festival and other international and Asian film festivals. She is one of the 2023 recipients of the New Voices Filmmaker Grant, a new initiative from NewFest in partnership with Netflix​​. She previously worked as a development executive at Department of Motion Pictures, a production company which is a Peabody Award winner and has produced Academy Awards-nominated films.

  • Brielle Yuke Li

    Independent Film Producer

    Brielle Yuke Li is an independent film producer based in Los Angeles. She assisted in the finance of Stonewalling, which has been showcased at renowned international film festivals; De Closin Night and Playhouse had their European premieres at the 2023 MINT Chinese Film Festival. She recently associate-produced a Duplass Brothers Production feature, co-produced a Disney Launchpad short film, produced a CAPE short film, multiple ReelShort web series, and served as the Development Executive/Head of Productions at BarBHouse Productions. She is currently producing a Film Independent fiscal sponsored short film, Calexico.

  • Emory Chao Johnson

    Shortlisted Short-Film Director of Berlinale, Filmmaker 

    Emory Chao Johnson (they/them) is a filmmaker settled in Los Angeles with an MFA in Film and Television from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Their latest short film To Write from Memory (默) had its world premiere at Berlinale 2023 and screened in MINT Chinese Film Festival London Queer Film Exhibition.  Emory’s works centre on the real and abstract forces that charge visions of new lifeworlds. Their experimental short F1-100 received awards from CAAMFest and LA Asian Pacific Film Festival. 

  • Veronica Nuccitelli  

    Youth Film Critic,  Film Marketer 

    Veronica Nuccitelli is a youth film critic and film marketer based in Rome, Italy. She was a member of the Arca Cinema Giovani youth jury at the Venice Film Festival for two editions. After graduating with a master’s degree in Creare Storie at Anica Academy, she started to work at LUCKY RED, Italy’s biggest and most important independent film production and distribution company. She believes that young, emerging directors are bringing forth a new way of filmmaking: more dynamic, multicultural, and interconnected.

  • Aziza Kadyri

    Interdisciplinary Artist (Theatre, Film, Performance, and AR/VR)

    Aziza Kadyri is an Uzbek interdisciplinary artist with a focus on theatre, performance, experimental costume and extended reality. Her personal projects explore the themes of migration, decolonisation, and loss of identity and language. After graduating from Tsinghua University with a degree in Fashion Design and Central Saint Martins with a Master of Arts (Distinction) in Performance Practice and Design, she produced designs for theatre, live performance, film, and XR projects internationally across the Eurasian continent, and co-founded Qizlar, a feminist art collective in Tashkent. Currently, she is the Creative Lead at Blippar.