Discover the Latest Talent: ‘The Botanist,’ ‘Lonely Musketeer,’ ‘The Poet,’ and ‘Peacock’ Shine in Beijing’s New Filmmakers Showcase

Liam James7 days agoLast Updated: 9 April 2025

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‘The Botanist,’ ‘Lonely Musketeer,’ ‘The Poet’ and ‘Peacock’ Set for Beijing’s New Filmmakers Section

The Beijing International Film Festival has announced the 15 titles that will be featured in the Forward Future section of its 15th edition later this month.

The Forward Future section, which was launched in 2014, aims to discover and promote emerging filmmakers, particularly focusing on directors’ first or second feature films. Renowned Hungarian director, screenwriter, and producer Béla Tarr, known for works like Damnation and Satan’s Tango, will preside over the jury for the Forward Future program. Joining him on the jury are Chinese actress Jin Chen (also known as Gina Jin), Chinese actor Song Yang, Japanese director, screenwriter, and actor Sabu, and Swiss director and screenwriter Cyril Schäublin.

Organizers of the Beijing festival promise an “innovative” spirit, “unique styles,” and “cutting-edge” filmmaking in the Forward Future section, offering insights into the thoughts and concerns of young filmmakers from around the globe.

The lineup features films from first-time Chinese directors, including Jing Yi’s The Botanist, which recently premiered at the Berlin Film Festival, and Tao Shen’s Floating Clouds Obscure the Sun, alongside Austrian writer-director Bernhard Wenger’s Peacock. Below is the complete list of titles in this section.

The 15th edition of the Beijing festival will be held in the Chinese capital from April 18 to 26.

Chinese actor-director Jiang Wen, known for films such as Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and Let the Bullets Fly, will lead the main competition jury, which will award the prestigious Tiantan Award. The jury also includes Chinese American director and actor Joan Chen, British director David Yates, Chinese actor Ni Ni, Finnish director Teemu Nikki, Swiss director and actor Vincent Perez, and Hong Kong art director Tim Yip.

Here is the lineup for the Forward Future program at the Beijing film festival:

– Nobody Wants to Shoot a Woman (director Kerry Ann Enright)
– My Eternal Summer (Sylvia Le Fanu)
– At the Bench (Yoshiyuki Okuyama)
– The Lonely Musketeer (Nicolai Schumann)
– Espina (Daniel Poler)
– Peacock (Bernhard Wenger)
– The Poet (Felix Umarov)
– Sugar Island (Johanné Gómez Terrero)
– Our Lovely Pig Slaughter (Adam Martinec)
– In the Name of Blood (Akaki Popkhadze)
– Mongrels (Jerome Yoo)
– Nyamula (Oskar Weimar)
– It Is Only Sound That Remains (Ali Farahmand)
– Floating Clouds Obscure the Sun (Tao Shen)
– The Botanist (Yi Jing)