To strengthen the team that curates the International and National short film competitions, Riga International Film Festival (RIGA IFF) welcomes two new experienced and renowned members of the film industry to the selection committee, French curator Chantal Lian and Chinese filmmaker Qiu Yang.
Chantal Lian has been working in the film industry for more than 12 years, as a programmer and curator at major French festivals such as the Les Arcs International Film Festival and the Champs-Élysées Film Festival for independent cinema where she also established the US in Progress Paris programme to promote cooperation between the European and North American film industries. She has worked as a film distributor and script consultant for reputable companies such as Sophie Dulac Distribution and Wild Bunch, as well as for Oxbelly, a training laboratory for screenwriters and directors.
Meanwhile, Chinese-born Qiu Yang studied directing at the Victorian College of the Arts in Australia, making both virtual and live-action short films – his graduation short Under the Sun (2015) was selected for the Cinéfondation student film competition at the Cannes Film Festival. He is the director of A Gentle Night (2017), which won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Short Film Competition, making Yang the first Chinese filmmaker to receive this award. His most recent work, She Runs (2019), won the Leitz Cine Discovery Award at Semaine de la Critique at Cannes.
We are extremely excited about the new members of the selection committee, and we look forward to working with their individual views of cinema, which will help shape the screenings at the tenth anniversary edition of RIGA IFF. Chantal knows American independent cinema better than anyone, and we are proud that a great, award-winning filmmaker like Qiu trusts our work enough to want to be a part of it,
Curator and the head of the RIGA IFF
short film committee Leo Soesanto
The RIGA IFF short film committee currently consists of festival curator, film critic and journalist Nanako Tsukidate from Japan, film publicist and moderator Līga Požarska from Latvia and now also Lian and Qiu and the work will continue to be led by French curator and film critic Leo Soesanto. The selection committee creates the shortlist for both the National and International short film sections where the final films not only compete for the festival’s main prizes, but also for the chance to be nominated for the European Film Academy’s European Short Film Award 2024.
The RIGA IFF Short Film International Competition is open for submissions until 23:59 on 31 May, while the National Competition is open for submissions until 23:59 on 30 June.
The Riga International Film Festival will celebrate its tenth edition this year and will take place from 12 to 22 October. The festival's four competitions seek out bright and innovative filmmakers from around the world, while parallel sections highlight the most current, innovative, and vivid filmmakers and uses of cinematic language.