Alula Film Festival unveiled the full line up for its 2025 edition, including the official competition alongside spotlight screenings. A total of 18 feature and short films have been selected for the Official Competition, reflecting the festival’s ongoing commitment to showcasing bold and original Chinese-language cinema.
This year’s Spotlight Screenings section will feature several highly anticipated titles from acclaimed filmmakers, including the North American Premiere of Hou Hsiao-Hsien’s A City of Sadness (4K restored version), a marathon screening of Wang Bing’s Tie Xi Qu: West of the Tracks with the director in attendance, the U.S. Premiere of Tsui Hark’s Green Snake (4K restored version), the Los Angeles Premiere of Jia Zhangke’s Xiao Wu (4K restored version).
Continuing its mission to spotlight Chinese-language cinema in North America, The Alula Film Festival, formerly known as the D.C. Chinese Film Festival will return to The Culver City Theater from October 16–19, 2025. Dedicated to independent, arthouse, and auteur-driven films, Alula celebrates the full spectrum of Chinese-language expressions, offering audiences layered, intimate perspectives that reach beyond the familiar. More than just a showcase, the festival creates a space where filmmakers and audiences come together to connect, discover, and imagine new possibilities for cinema.
This year’s theme, In the Making, highlights a moment of emergence. While Chinese-language cinema draws from a rich and storied legacy, today’s filmmakers are charting bold new paths, embracing risk, experimentation, and deeply personal expressions. Alula 2025 celebrates this spirit of becoming, reminding audiences that these films are not just finished works, but milestones in an ongoing journey of creativity and shared imagination.
A testament to this dynamic shift, six out of the eight feature-length films in competition are directorial debuts, underscoring the festival’s commitment to uplifting new and daring voices. Of the 20 directors selected (with several films being co-directed), 8 are female filmmakers, accounting for 40% of the total—reflecting a notable increasing trend.
“This year’s program gathers films that embody this momentum, capturing lives and places caught between memory, ambition, and change. The works range from intimate portraits of family and aging to explorations of displacement, uncertainty, and fragile ties to the natural world, while others observe communities negotiating devotion, survival, and rapid redevelopment. Each film bears its own cinematic language, whether dreamlike, observational, or boldly experimental, making the program as diverse in form as it is in story. In keeping with the spirit of emergence, six of the eight features in competition are directorial debuts, underscoring the vitality of new voices taking shape.”
said Shiyu Wang, the director of Alula Film Festival.
The four feature narrative films selected unveil an extraordinarily rich and diverse cinematic landscape—from the countryside of China to the beaches of Brazil—as we gradually uncover the wonders and cruelties of life through intricate human relationships. In The Botanist (dir. JING Yi), a Kazakh boy and a Han girl resemble two distinct plants, resonating on the same frequency within a tender affection. As The Water Flows (dir. BIAN Zhuo) tells the story of Shuwen, who, after his wife suddenly passes away from a heart attack, quietly begins bridging generational gaps within his family, rebuilding familial bonds while healing himself. Karst (dir. YANG Suyi) follows a cattle-raising woman, Ziying, on her journey to find medical help for her cow—a trip that invites deep reflection on the resilience of life and enduring connections. Sleep With Your Eyes Open (dir. Nele Wohlatz) takes us to a coastal city in Brazil, where the chance encounter between a heartbroken traveler and a Chinese migrant worker weaves a fragile bond emerging under the scorching summer heat.
The four feature documentaries focus more closely on individual experiences and family interiors, aligning with the broader social phenomenon of introversion in the post-pandemic era. Obedience (dir. WONG Siu-pong) observantly captures the stark contrasts between wealth and poverty, life and death in Hong Kong’s Hung Hom district, revealing the alienation and fragmentation between individual existence and urban development. Never Too Late (dir. by YANG Lizhu) turns its lens inward on a family: as memories gradually fade and time slips away, the fragmented past of an elderly couple slowly surfaces. The Homeless (dir. JI Qiuyu) documents the lives of a wanderer, Xiaolong, and a waste collector, Wawa, shedding light on the sense of belonging and survival of people we often see yet seldom understand. The Watchman (dir. Victoire Bonin & Lou Du Pontavice) portrays parents watching their children grow up and leave home. This experience, so common among overseas diaspora, is filled with the struggles of a nuclear family balancing perseverance and letting go—inviting profound resonance.
The ten short films selected for the main competition encompass narrative, documentary, animation, and experimental genres. Their vastly different stories and forms of expression will allow audiences to experience the myriad possibilities of cinematic storytelling.
Alula Film Festival’s Queer Community Screening event will showcase Hong Kong film Queer Panorama by director Jun Li. The film was selected for 75th Berlinale International Film Festival Panorama section and is a provocative exploration of identity and intimacy that captures the fragmented realities of contemporary LGBTQ+ life in Hong Kong. A Charity Screening in collaboration with Jugbow Care Initiative, dedicated to animal lovers, will feature Guan Hu’s Cannes award-winning film Black Dog.
2025 Alula Film Festival is set to take place from October 16 to 19 at The Culver City Theaters in Los Angeles, USA. Tickets will be available on the official website of The Culver City Theater. Regular updates about festival jurors, panel discussion events, and more can be found across Alula Film Festival social media platforms.
Here’s the full lineup:
Spotlight Screenings
Tie Xi Qu: West of the Tracks | dir.WANG Bing | Documentary Feature | 2002 | 9h 11m
A City of Sadness (original title: Bei Qing Cheng Shi) | dir. Hou Hsiao-Hsien | Narrative Feature | 1989 | 4K restoration 2023 | North American Premiere | Tony Leung, Chiu-wai Shu-Fen, Hsin Sung-Young Chen | 2h 37m
Green Snake (original title: Qing She) | dir. Tsui Hark | Narrative Feature | 1993 | 4K restoration 2025 | U.S. Premiere | Joey Wang, Maggie Cheung, ZHAO Wenzhuo | 1h 39m
The Pickpocket (original Title: Xiao Wu) | dir. JIA Zhangke | Narrative Feature | 1997 | WANG Hongwei, HAO Hongjian, Zuo Baitao | 1h 50m
Black Dog (original title: Gou Zhen) | dir. Guan Hu | Narrative Feature | 2024 | Eddie Peng, Liya Tong, JIA Zhangke | 1h 56m
Queerpanorama (original Title: Zhong Sheng Xiang) | dir. Jun Li | Narrative Feature | 2025 | Arm Anatphikorn, Jayden Cheung, Zenni Corbin | 1h 27m
Official Competition Selection – Narrative Features
As The Water Flows | dir. BIAN Zhuo | First Feature | CN | U.S. Premiere | officially selected for the Asian New Talent Award at the 27th Shanghai International Film Festival and the Panorama unit of the Vancouver International Film Festival
The Botanist | dir. JING Yi | First Feature | CN | officially selected for the Generation section of the 75th Berlin International Film Festival and the Firebird Competition of the 49th Hong Kong International Film Festival
Karst | dir. YANG Suiyi | First Feature | CN | U.S. Premiere | officially selected for Fei Mu Honor at the 8th Pingyao International Film Festival
Sleep With Your Eyes Open | dir. Nele Wohlatz | BR, TW, AR, DE | officially selected for the Encounters section of the 74th Berlin International Film Festival, and the Horizons Award competition at the 72nd San Sebastián International Film Festival
Official Competition Selection – Documentary Features
Never Too Late | dir. by YANG Lizhu | First Feature | CN | North American Premiere | officially selected for the Golden Coconut Award competition at the 6th Hainan Island International Film Festival
Obedience | dir. WONG Siu-pong | U.S. Premiere | HK | officially selected for the Harbour section of the 52nd International Film Festival Rotterdam, the Documentary Competition of the 48th Hong Kong International Film Festival
The Homeless | dir. JI Qiuyu | First Feature | CN | World Premiere
The Watchman | dir. Victoire Bonin & Lou Du Pontavice | First Feature | FR, BE | North American Premiere | officially selected for the Documentary Competition of the 28th Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival
Official Competition Selection – Short Films
Burning Room | dir. HUANG Xinyi | CN | Animation Short
The Burning Night | dir. Demon WANG| HK | Narrative Short
Damp | dir. CHEN Etsen | TW, KR | Narrative Short
Distant Water Won’t Quench Immediate Thirst | dir. ZHOU Zijie | CN | Documentary Short
In a Village | dir. KISTAWBAY Ulan | CN | Narrative Short
It’s Over, but Don’t Forget. | dir. ZHENG Miaoxin & GAO Tianyi | CN | Narrative Short
Echo from the Spiral | dir. CHEN Yipei | CN | Experimental Short
Kill the Horse | dir. GUO Xiaoruo | CN | Animation Short
The Park is Public | dir. LI Yan | CN | Narrative Short
Sweetie Ping | dir. WEN Dechuan | CN | Documentary Short
For the whole lineup please visit: www.alulafilm.org
Ticket On-Sale Dates: September 25, 2025
Screening Venues: The Culver Theater, 9500 Culver Blvd, Culver City, CA 90232
General Admission Information: Tickets are $12 for single screenings of Competition films and $15 for single screenings of Spotlight films (unless otherwise noted). A Festival Pass is available for $60, granting access to all 10 Competition screenings. Tickets can be purchased at the theater’s website: https://web.theculvertheater.com/.
