Cannes 2025 Line-Up; China's Reduction Of US Film Imports

Apr 19, 2025

This edition of Streamlined is looking at films in the Cannes 2025 line-up from Asia, Africa and the Middle East, as well as the immediate impact of China’s decision to “moderately reduce” the number of US film imports in response to Trump’s tariffs. I’m also researching two Streamlined Guides – one on Chinese buyers and the other on East Asia’s co-production funding schemes – which I plan to publish before Cannes. I was hoping to publish the Chinese buyers report next week, but many people I need to speak to are currently attending Beijing International Film Festival, which I’m hoping is a good sign for acquisitions and theatrical releases in the future.

Cannes Unveils Fresh Line-Up; First Film From Nigeria; But Fewer Asian Titles

Cannes film festival has announced one of its youngest and most female-oriented line-ups in years, with an opening film from a first-time female director, Amélie Bonnin’s Leave One Day, and six other women selected for Competition. While there’s a smattering of older, established auteurs in Competition, including Wes Anderson, Richard Linklater and the Dardennes Brothers, the average age of the filmmakers across the selection appears younger than in previous editions. The festival also has a female jury president for the second year running with Juliette Binoche picking up the baton from Greta Gerwig.

Female filmmakers in Competition include Japan’s Chie Hayakawa with Renoir, sold internationally by Goodfellas, but on the whole there are fewer Asian films in the Official Selection than last year. Renoir is the only Asian title in Competition and there are just two in Un Certain Regard – Neeraj Ghaywan’s Homebound, produced by Karan Johar’s Dharma Productions, another high-profile Indian entry following All We Imagine As Light in Competition last year, and Ishikawa Kei’s Japan-UK co-production A Pale View Of The Hills, an adaptation of the Kazuo Ishiguro novel, handled internationally by Gaga Corp.

Midnight Screenings usually selects a few Asian titles and this year has Genki Kawamura’s Exit 8, based on a horror infinite-loop video game and sold by Toho and Goodfellas, along with Hong Kong filmmaker Juno Mak’s Sons Of The Neon Night, a long-gestating dystopian crime thriller handled by Distribution Workshop. Kawamura was last in Cannes as the producer of Hirokazu Kore-eda’s 2023 Monster, which won best screenplay.

Critics Week has selected Taiwanese filmmaker Tsou Shih-Ching’s Left-Handed Girl, produced and edited by last year’s Cannes Palme d’Or winner Sean Baker (Anora), and A Useful Ghost from Thailand’s Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke. Directors Fortnight has Kokuho from Korean-Japanese filmmaker Lee Sang-il, about a man born into a yakuza family who becomes a kabuki performer, and two first features – Brand New Landscape from Japan’s Yuiga Danzuka and Girl On Edge from China’s Zhou Jinghao.

Un Certain Regard will also feature what may be the first film from Nigeria in Cannes Official Selection, Akinola Davies Jr’s My Father’s Shadow. Produced by UK-Ireland outfit Element Pictures with Nigeria’s Fatherland Productions and backing from BBC Film and BFI, the film follows two brothers spending a day with their estranged father against the backdrop of the 1993 Nigerian presidential election. Germany’s The Match Factory is handling international sales and Mubi has already sprung for a bunch of territories.

Arabic-language films include three Un Certain Regard titles – Aisha Can’t Fly Away, from Egypt’s Morad Mostafa; Arab and Tarzan Nasser’s Once Upon A Time In Gaza; and Promised Sky (previously known as Marie & Jolie) from French-Tunisian filmmaker Erige Sehiri. The ACID section has two Arab documentaries – Namir Abdel Messeeh’s Life After Siham, about his family’s history between Egypt and France, and Sepideh Fari’s Put Your Soul On Your Hand And Walk, capturing life in Gaza under the Israeli military campaign.

The latter film focuses on Palestinian artist and photojournalist Fatima Hassouna who tragically died this week with nine members of her family in a direct strike on their home in Gaza City. There are no words.

As usual there are many films in official selection that involve some combination of Arab and African filmmakers, talent and locations, but are produced and/or financed by Europe – including Tarik Saleh’s competition title Eagles Of The Republic, about an Egyptian actor pressured to make a propaganda film, and Thomas Ngijol’s Cameroon-set police thriller Indomptables, selected for Directors Fortnight.

More than one Indian film selected for Cannes last year was produced and financed out of Europe, so it’s encouraging to see that Dharma’s Homebound is an Indian production, co-produced by French producer Mélita Toscan du Plantier, who was also a co-producer on Ghaywan’s 2015 Un Certain Regard title Masaan. Meanwhile, My Father’s Shadow is produced by Lagos-based Funmbi Ogunbanwo, co-founder and CEO of Fatherland Productions, and one of a growing number of female producers out of Nigeria.

The last few editions of Cannes have yielded a slew of Oscar winners and hot international sales titles, so beleaguered theatrical markets around the world will be praying for more this year. As we understand it, the Official Selection is still not complete so hopefully a few Asian titles will be added at a late stage. If not, look out for a hot Venice and Toronto – there are many interesting films in the pipeline.

Will China’s “Moderate Reduction” Of US Films Benefit Imports From Other Countries?

As Beijing International Film Festival (BJIFF) kicked off yesterday, just one week after the China Film Administration announced it would “moderately reduce” the number of US film imports as part of its response to Trump’s tariffs, the messaging to film industries elsewhere in the world was loud and clear.

During Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s visit to Beijing last week, the China Film Administration and Spain’s Institute of Cinematography and Audiovisual Arts (ICAA) signed a film cooperation agreement, covering “joint participation in festivals, mutual screenings, co-productions and personnel exchanges”.

Chinese state media also recently trumpeted the signing of a co-production agreement for Chinese-Cambodian action adventure The Angkor Code, conveniently timed to coincide with Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Cambodia in the wake of a Trump-imposed tariff of 49%. And it hasn’t gone unnoticed that Italian film There’s Still Tomorrow has recently grossed more than $6m at the China box office.

Just in case we somehow missed the point, a Global Times editorial earlier this week quoted academic and “BJIFF judge” Shi Wenxue saying that “China’s intention is to maintain a diverse cultural ecosystem by introducing films from more countries.”

In other words, the reduction in US film imports may present opportunities for cinema from other parts of the world in the China market. The same editorial said that “many film insiders analysed that the space left by reduced US film imports will be filled by high-quality films from Japan, Europe and Southeast Asia” (notice no mention of South Korean films, which have been barred since 2016, although China has recently hinted it’s reconsidering the ban).

But while policy may loosen, it remains unclear whether Chinese audiences will warm to foreign films, other than Hollywood and Japanese anime titles, currently the two largest import categories in a shrinking sector. Chinese cinema-goers have focused on local films since the pandemic to the extent that the space left by US film imports is now a fraction of what it used to be – around $859m (RMB6.27bn) or 14% of total box office in 2024, according to a report released by Alibaba’s Beacon tracking platform, compared to $2.73bn (RMB19.9bn) or a 31% market share in the pre-pandemic year of 2019.

Not that Hollywood has written the market off. This new policy-driven reduction will likely hurt the US studios – which are hoping for global recovery this year with titles including Cannes-bound Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, Jurassic World Rebirth and Avatar: Fire And Ash – but it’s not great for Chinese cinemas either. After China’s box office suffered a 23% decline in 2024, cinema owners need all the films they can get their hands on, something the China Film Administration is keenly aware of and probably explains why they didn’t announce an outright ban. Although Nezha 2 was a record-breaking hit over Lunar New Year in February, the market has been sluggish throughout March and April.

Meanwhile, Hollywood can probably not hope for much support from Trump who smirked when a reporter asked him about China’s reduction of US films and said “there are worse things”. Shares of US studios including Walt Disney Co and Warner Bros Discovery plunged on the China Film Administration announcement, but then Trump’s reckless tariff war has hurt nearly everyone. Chinese exhibitors may receive limited state support, perhaps some promotional campaigns to drive audiences back to cinemas, but many were allowed to go to the wall during the pandemic.

Currently, one small ray of hope for the theatrical sector is the attempts of Chinese distributors including Hishow Entertainment, Hugoeast Media, Road Pictures and Jia Zhangke’s Unknown Pleasures Pictures, which released There’s Still Tomorrow, to cultivate an audience for prestige cinema in the country. We could potentially see a scenario in which it’s the Oscars and Cannes-anointed films, rather than US indie action titles, that are helping fill theatrical release schedules. The upcoming Streamlined Guide to Chinese Buyers will explore this topic in more detail and I’ll be writing about sales of indie films to China and other parts of Asia as part of Deadline’s coverage in Cannes.

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Streamlined by Liz Shackleton

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Streamlined by Liz Shackleton

Cannes 2025 Line-Up; China's Reduction Of US Film Imports

Cannes Unveils Fresh Line-Up; First Film From Nigeria; But Fewer Asian Titles

Will China’s “Moderate Reduction” Of US Films Benefit Imports From Other Countries?

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