The Call for Entries for the 3rd MINT Chinese Film Festival officially wrapped up on December 25th, 2024, and we’re thrilled to share some incredible stats with you in the New Year!

💡 Gender Representation:

From the 436 submissions received, 39.68% came from women filmmakers (consistent with the 2nd edition), 48.62% from men, and 11.7% from non-binary or gender-anonymous filmmakers. There’s still a long way to go in supporting women and other underrepresented filmmakers!

🌏 Geographic Diversity:

Our submissions, including Chinese and Asian films, came from 18 countries and regions across Asia, North America, and Europe! With 283 films from China (64.91%) and 38 from the United States (8.71%), alongside submissions from India, South Korea, Japan, and more, Asia led the way, contributing 73.17% of the total entries. We’re delighted to see this align with our mission to promote Chinese cinema and underrepresented filmmakers across borders and echo our expended curatorial focus on Asian presence.

📈 Emerging Voices:

Over half (54.82%) of the submissions came from filmmakers born in or after the millennium! This new wave of Asian filmmakers is breaking boundaries, redefining cinema, and leading MINT CFF toward a more diverse and dynamic film festival in the UK to amplify emerging wider Asian voices!

The competition features two sections: Feature Competition and Short Film Competition. This, year we are expanding our curatorial focus beyond Chinese cinema to include a broader Asian presence. This includes the introduction of a new dimension, ‘Asia Sparks,’ into our feature film competition. Alongside this, our existing competition sections for Chinese films remain, with all films being required to have the UK premiere.

We're thrilled to announce The Juries of 2025 MINT CFF brand new Competitions! Building on this year's expanded curatorial vision of Asian presence at the MINT CFF, we are hereby to amplify the voices of Asian women and underrepresented groups behind the screen and focus on those who work across cultural boundaries!
Our 2025 juries comprise 9 distinguished directors, screenwriters, film producers, film curators/programmers, festival directors, and film academics, journalists, from around the world. They will play a crucial role in selecting the winners of our competition categories:
🏆 Best Feature (C-Film in Focus)
🏆 Best Short (C-Film in Focus)
🏆 Best Asian Film (Asian Spark)
🏆 Best Director (All Sessions)
…and the Audience Choice Award, voted by YOU!

Feature Films Competition Jury

  • Jane Zheng

    Film Producer

    Jane Zheng holds a Bachelor's in Economics from the University of Melbourne and a Master's in TV from Goldsmiths. She co-produced Gasp (2009) and produced Red Light Revolution (2010) which was named one of the "Top 10 Films Shot in Beijing”. The films Dead Pigs (2018) and The Farewell (2019) are significant works produced by her, with The Farewell (2019) earning a Golden Globe Award for Best Picture in 2020. A Song Sung Blue (2023) she produced was selected for 2024 Cannes and many other international film festivals. The Dreamer and the Jungle (2024) was shortlisted for the FIRST Competition.

  • Yulia Evina Bhara

    Film Producer

    Yulia Evina Bhara is an Indonesian producer and founder of KawanKawan Media. She began producing films in 2012 through Partisipasi Indonesia and gained recognition with On the Origin of Fear, which premiered at Venice in 2016. Her feature debut, Solo, Solitude (2016), premiered at Locarno. She has since produced acclaimed films such as The Science of Fictions (2019), Autobiography (2022), and Tiger Stripes (2023). Named one of Variety International’s Impactful Women in 2023, her work focuses on films with history and humanity themes.

  • Eszter Simor

    Academic, Festival programmer and Journalist.

    Dr Eszter Simor is an academic, festival programmer and journalist. She completed her PhD in Film Studies at the University of Edinburgh. She was an Assistant Professor of Film and Media Studies at Sam Houston State University in Texas. She has worked as a curatorial fellow in the film department of the Museum of Fine Arts Houston (MFAH). As a journalist, she has covered the Berlinale, SXSW, and the Edinburgh International Film Festival, among others.

  • Xue Ma

    Filmmaker, Screenwriter and Producer

    Xue Ma, a Chinese director, screenwriter, and producer with extensive experience in both commercial and arthouse cinema, with works grossing 6.355 billion RMB. Her latest directorial work Sonata of Wave（2024）released in China last year and was selected for Jeonju International Film Festival and won awards at the Buenos Aires International Independent Film Festival, among others. As a producer, she worked on Sheep Without a Shepherd（2019）and as a supervisor on Dayao Swims Against the Flow（2025） which was selected for the 80th Venice International Film Festival VPB section.

  • Jue Li

    Director

    Jue Li studied at the Bollywood Film Academy and the New York Film Academy. Her debut feature film, Yangzi's Confusion, was released in China in 2023 and selected for major festivals like Pingyao International and Beijing International Film Festivals. She won "Best New Director" at the 2023 Movie Youth Handbook, and the film was also featured in the 2024 MINT Chinese Film Festival and 2024 Women Hold Up Half the Sky: MINT on Tour.

Short Films Competition Jury 

  • Shuli Huang

    Director and Cinematographer

    Shuli Huang, based in New York, studied cinematography at the BFA and film directing in the Graduate Film Program at NYU Tisch. In 2022, his short film Will You Look At Me (2022) won the Queer Palm at the Cannes 2022, Best Documentary Short at the 59th Golden Horse Awards, the Jury Award for Short Films at the Sundance Film Festival 2023 and 2023 MINT CFF X Lighthouse Art London Queer Film Exhibition.  His latest short film Goodbye First Love (2024) was selected for the Short Film Competition at the 2024 Berlinale. His work as a cinematographer on Borrowed Time (2023) was selected for the 2024 International Film Festival Rotterdam.

  • Rachel Hamada

    Festival Director and Journalist

    Based in Edinburgh, Rachel Hamada is director of films for social change organisation Take One Action, and founder and co-chair of Scottish investigative journalism cooperative The Ferret. She worked as a journalist and community organiser for over two decades, with a particular interest in social justice, marginalised communities and new models. She holds a Masters in Playwriting at the University of Edinburgh, and previously worked on collaborative theatre projects such as It's Criminal.

  • Guo Xiong

    Film Curator​​

    Guo Xiong is currently the Executive Curator of the NOWNESS Short Film Awards. She holds a Bachelor's degree from the Communication University of China and a Master's degree in Film Studies from King's College London.

  • Sol Ye

    Film Producer

    Sol Ye is an independent producer dedicated to bringing the most original, boundary-pushing Asian stories to the international audience. The narrative short Across the Waters (2024) she produced was nominated for the Palme d'Or in the 2024 Cannes Short Films Competition and 2024 Women Hold up Half the Sky: Mint on Tour. The queer documentary The Last Year of Darkness (2023) she produced, has won the Special Mention at the 2023 CPH: DOX and was selected by the IDFA. Her work Some Rain Must Fall (2024) earned the Special Jury Award at the 2024 Berlinale Encounters Competition.