Tan Chui Mui’s ‘All About Yuyu’ Scores at Shanghai Project Market

Barbarian Invasion director Tan Chi Mui from Malaysia scored a top result from the SIFF Project Market. The market is a component event of the Shanghai International Film Festival, which wrapped up over the weekend.

Tans All About Yuyu was named as the recommended project for creativity at the project markets closing event. The project, which is already being structured as a Malaysia-China coproduction, is a story that combines contemporary wuxia (heroic martial arts) with youth elements. I want to make a modern wuxia film to recapture the magical feeling I had when watching films during my childhood, she told local media.

Tan is a repeat visitor to Shanghai. She was previously a jury member for the Asian New Talent Award at the festival and saw Barbarian Invasion pick up the Grand Jury Prize at the festivals 24th edition.

Other top prizes from the project market jury, which was headed by filmmaker Wuershan, included: Gods Are Watching as a recommended work in progress; Floating Cloud, Lone Crane, as recommended new talent project; and Two Time Zones, which received a special mention.

The project market showcased 33 projects in total, including 8 New talent projects, 2 co-production projects, 13 pre-production ventures and ten works in progress. During the event, a total of 643 one-on-one negotiations were conducted, organizers said.

The project market in Shanghai was set up in 2007 and has a track record of 87 projects that have been completed as feature movies. Som 72 of these have appeared at local and international film festivals and 63 have had commercial releases of some kind.

Absence, which was appeared in the project market in 2019 and picked up the jurys special recommendation was this year set as the opening film of the Belt and Road Film Week. Similarly, previous project market participant One and Four screened in both the Chinese Art Cinema and Refreshing Chinese Cinema sections.

2023 SIFF PROJECT MARKET WINNERS

Recommended WIP

Gods Are Watching dir. Yesir.

Recommended New Talent Project

Floating Cloud, Lone Crane dir. Emetjan Memet.

Recommended Project for Creativity

All About Yuyu dir. Tan Chui Mui.

Special Recommended Project by Jury

Two Time Zones dir. Gao Ming

Image Forestt Post-Productions Choice

Reflections in the Lake dir Zhai Yixiang.

Mofei Pictures (New Voice) Post-Productions Choice

She Sat There Like All Ordinary Ones dir. Qu Youjia.

Phenom Films Post-Productions Choice

Untamed dir. Song Pengfei.

Dirty Monkey 72 Transformations Film Project

Post-Productions Choice

Fiery Eyes, Cold Embrace dir. Geng Zihan

Baination Post-Productions Choice

The Embers dir. Sun Aoqian.

Aimmedia Pictures Post-Productions Choice

The Front Tooth dir. Li Xin.

Wanda Medias Elite+ Project Post-Productions Choice

Fiery Eyes, Cold Embrace dir. Geng Zihan

Alibaba Pictures Post-Productions Choice (three prizes)

The Fresh Girl dir. Chen Meiyu

A Story Untold dir. Jinying Chen

Fiery Eyes, Cold Embrace dir. Geng Zihan