In Depth With: NAI An & YANG Chao

1:15 PM, Tuesday August 13 @ Innis Town Hall

Host: SHEN Wei, Artistic Director, MulanIFF
Language: Mandarin with English translation

NAI An and YANG Chao have long been champions of emerging filmmakers, and are credited for being the executive producers for numerous award-winning films. In this session, they will share their insights into the role and responsibilities of a producer, and explore the interaction and collaboration with directors in film production. They will address common issues and strategies in the production process. Additionally, they will discuss how they select film projects and reveal what they value in projects presented by emerging filmmakers in the early stages.

Speakers

NAI An

NAI An is an internationally celebrated producer. She graduated from the Central Academy of Drama, majoring in directing. She works as an independent film producer, and films she produced include Suzhou River (2000), Blind Massage (2014), and The Shadow Play (2018). She has served as a judge for the international competition at the Sundance Film Festival and the Young Cinema Competition at the Hong Kong International Film Festival. As an actress, NAI An was awarded Best Actress at the 65th Festival del Film Locarno with When Night Falls (2012).

YANG Chao

Director, Executive Producer, Professor, and Initiator of A Film. His film Run Away was awarded at the Cinefondation selection of the 54th Cannes Film Festival. His feature Passages was the special mention winner of the Best First Feature (Golden Camera) Award at the 57th Cannes Film Festival. His feature Crosscurrent was in the main competition of the 66th Berlinale, and is the winner of the Silver Bear Award for Best Artistic Contribution, and was nominated for Best Director by the China Film Director’s Guild Awards. 

The Films he executive produced including Weed (WANG Liren, 2006), Female Directors (YANG Mingming, 2012), Girls Always Happy (YANG Mingming, 2016), Give Me A Ride (XU Zhenhao,2019), Seaweed (SHEN Chaofang, 2021), Love Found, Love Lost (LI Songming, 2021), Just An Alien (HUA Weicheng,2022) and Go Photo Shooting (NAN Xin,2023), that have been selected and awarded by film festivals at both domestic and international levels.

Price

Regular: $25
Student: $10

Access included in Filmmaker Pass

Schedule

1:15 PM – 1:20 PM: Opening Welcome
1:20 PM – 2:00 PM: Talk with NAI An & YANG Chao
2:00 PM – 2:15 PM: Q&A

Host

SHEN Wei

Originally from Wuhan, China, SHEN Wei spent her formative years in Shenzhen before relocating to Toronto in 2008. She holds a BBA from the University of Toronto and has worked in the public sector. In 2018, she co-founded the Mulan International Film Festival. Driven by a commitment to fostering cinematic talent and diverse narratives, she pursued an MFA in film production at the University of California, Los Angeles, where she recently graduated.

Co-Presenter