The 6th Hainan Island International Film Festival (HIIFF) will be held from December 4 to 10, 2024, in Sanya, Hainan Province. The screenings will run from December 4 to 14, taking place across 20 cinemas in 7 counties and cities throughout Hainan Island. Screening tickets will officially go on sale at 12:00 noon on November 29 and can be purchased online via Maoyan. Today, it was officially announced that young actress Zhou Yiran will serve as the Screening Ambassador.
Screening Ambassador: Zhou Yiran
A new-generation actress from mainland China, she gained widespread attention and affection with the youth drama Sk8er Boi, entering the public eye. She crafted rich and compelling screen personas in the films Across the Furious Sea and One and Only, and subsequently starred in multiple highly acclaimed drama series, exploring different fields and themes. To the Wonder sparked a nationwide viewing frenzy, The Last Brushstroke focused on a special profession, Regeneration achieved both popularity and critical acclaim, Sifang Museum offered a novel and unconventional perspective, and In Your Time was highly anticipated for its theme of sisterly salvation. Characters such as Li Wenxiu, Jin Lina, Zhao Sanyue, He Shan, and Ashu have left unique impressions on audiences, becoming landmark roles in the growth of actress Zhou Yiran. As a young actress, she is observant and meticulous, integrating her characters into herself while hiding her own ego behind them. With sensitive and nuanced expressions, she creates beloved figures for the audience, maintaining firm convictions and continuous progress.
01 / Filmmaker in Focus: Omnes Films
Starting from a Small Town, Looking Out at the World
The "Filmmaker in Focus" section introduces audiences to luminaries or film groups shining on the world cinema stage through thematic screenings. This year, we cast our gaze across the ocean to Omnes Films, inviting audiences to focus on cutting-edge global imagery with an eye toward the future.
Releasing four new works within a single year, Omnes Films is a dazzling star in contemporary filmmaking. Through their re-imagination and experimentation with cinema, they ingeniously blend personal and collective memories with regional and cultural symbols, forging a film style that is both unique and profoundly resonant.
These films resemble an "expanded universe" of echoing chapters, collectively writing a world built of imagery, steeped in sensibility and intellect. There, quietly permeating surrealism intertwines with not-yet-fully-solidified nostalgia, and in this intersection of reality and imagination, innovation and nostalgia, a dreamlike shimmer is revealed—cinema continues to shine with its enduring vitality.
About Omnes Films
Omnes Films is an independent filmmaking collective primarily based in Los Angeles, USA. They state their mission as "filling the voids in contemporary cinema," with an overall style that emphasizes atmosphere over narrative plot, focusing on various forms of cultural decline in the 21st century. Regardless of genre or type, they strive to create conceptually novel, unprecedented forms of cinema.
Most of their works are co-produced by group members: Taormina and Davis are not only members of the same drone music group, but also serve as producers on each other's films, and both of their debut feature films were shot by Carson Lund as cinematographer. Michael Basta, after serving as co-producer on Ham on Rye and as co-writer, co-producer, and assistant director on High Arc Slow Ball, is currently making his own debut feature Racoon, which Carson Lund has been involved in since the script stage.
In addition to American filmmakers, some group members have international backgrounds: Lorena Alvarado and Alejandra Simpson are filmmakers from Venezuela and France, respectively, and they each released their debut features this year: The Lost Chapter and Sleepless.
02 / Tribute
Brilliant Echoes from the Galaxy of Film History
A retrospective, a revisitation—the Tribute section turns its gaze to the landmark works and figures that have shaped film history. Crossing the river of time, they continue to radiate light and echo on the screen in unique ways, redefining the connection between cinema and the present.
Film history is like poetry; the Tribute screening section unfurls a long scroll of time. Here, there is Antonioni's existentialist ode woven in black-and-white imagery, La Notte (1961, 4K Restoration), and Jacques Demy's romantic chanson painted in dazzling colors, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964, 4K Restoration).
In addition, we engage in a dialogue here between The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (2024) and the 50th anniversary of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974), re-examining its cultural legacy; we explore Jacques Demy's creative world through the panoramic perspective of The Pink and the Black (2024); we witness how Godard bid farewell to the world through cinema at the end of his life with The Image Book (2018) and the short film Trailer of= the Film That Will Never Exist: 'Phony Wars' (2024); and we honor the great pioneer who brought Asian cinema to the international stage with Aruna Vasudev: Let the World See Asian Cinema (2021).
This is both a retrospective of the long scroll of film history and a continuation of the spirit of cinema. From honoring pioneers to rediscovering classics, these films constitute the core of the Tribute section. They not only evoke the audience's reverence for the glorious history of cinema but also inspire infinite imagination for the future of cinematic art.
