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Dark comedy film “Manchurian Tiger” won the top prize, the Golden Goblet, Saturday at the 24th edition of the Shanghai International Film Festival.

“Manchurian Tiger,” directed by Geng Jun, is the tale of a man who is on the run from debt collectors and manages to embroil family and friends in his misadventures.

Films that won multiple prizes included “The Contrary Route” by currently jailed Iranian director Abolfazl Jalili and Russia’s “The Conscience,” which collected three awards.

Prizes were presented at a large-scale ceremony held on the penultimate day of a festival that was largely run as an in-person event, albeit adhering to national and local safety protocols. The festival, which started in June 11, 2021, continues into a final day on Sunday with the public screenings of some of the winning titles.

In-person events throughout the week have included film premieres, and the popular master class lecture series, with guests such as director Apichatpong Weerasethakul.

One of the most prominent Chinese propaganda films of the year is set for a flashy, state-sanctioned premiere as the opening night selection of the Shanghai Intl. Film Festival on Friday. The sweeping period drama “1921” will be celebrated despite recent nationalist blowback of the kind that over the past year has felled China releases for films like Chloe Zhao’s “Nomadland” and video game adaptation “Monster Hunter.”

Backed by Tencent Pictures and Shanghai Film Group, the film was developed as a tribute to China’s ruling Communist party for the 100th anniversary of its founding, which falls on July 1 — the day “1921” will hit theaters. The movie re-enacts the story of the Party’s early years.

As such, it was necessarily vetted by censors and producers with extraordinary care to ensure that it could in no way be deemed to send the wrong political message.

Even so, hot-blooded online...

The Shanghai International Film Festival (Shiff) will kick off this year with the Chinese propaganda film “1921” as its opening night gala. The announcement was made late Tuesday evening local time with just three days to go before the premiere.

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the founding of China’s ruling Communist Party on July 1, a key political date that for the past year already has sent censors into high alert and film companies scrambling to develop content lauding the Party’s history and achievements.

Shiff’s 24th annual iteration takes place just before the anniversary itself, running from June 11-20.

Its opening night will be used to showcase the star-studded, Tencent Pictures-backed retelling of the Party’s early history, which is set in Shanghai in the year 1921.

Although Shiff has historically been China’s most internationally minded festival by far, its choice to honor a propaganda...

An angelic chorus of young boys set the scene at a big Tencent press conference held last week to announce new production strategies and a huge slate of upcoming content.

“The blood which fills our chest has boiled over, we must struggle for the truth! Arise, slaves, arise, we shall be the masters of the world!” they warbled, singing the version of “The Internationale,” the Socialist anthem, translated into Chinese from Russian in the 1920s by a poet friend of Mao Zedong.

Though the song was also taken up in 1989 by the pro-democracy demonstrators in Tiananmen Square, it was here deployed as a segue into a half-hour presentation on one of the tech giant’s biggest upcoming film projects: “1921,” a blockbuster about the founding of the Chinese Communist Party intended as a tribute on the 100th anniversary of the occasion.

It’s no surprise that despite all the uncertainties of...

Filmmaker Vikram Bhatt is gearing up to release yet another horror film, titled "Ghost", and he says the only time he feels scared is when his horror films don't work.

"I feel every director likes a certain kind of sensation or emotion. Some like to make people laugh, some like to make people cry. I like to scare people. I call myself a fear peddler. People who like excitement and adventure watch my films. I think somebody has to be there to make horror films. There are times when I feel scared when my horror films don't work at box-office, but this time around with the release of 'Ghost', I hope I will not feel scared," said Bhatt, while interacting with the media at a promotional event of "Ghost" on Tuesday in Mumbai.

Also Read:?Vikram Bhatt's 'Ghost' trailer is here to haunt you

Accompanying the...