PINGYAO, Shanxi — Pingyao Film Festival 2026 marks its 10th edition from 24 to 30 September at the Pingyao Festival Palace, the anniversary slate founded by Jia Zhangke in 2017. Variety’s Naman Ramachandran and Chinese festival reporting put roughly 50 films from nearly 40 countries and regions on the board, with an unusually dense run of Asian and China premieres for anyone planning travel or tracking awards chatter before the week begins.
The opening night is a deliberate heritage play: Fei Mu’s 1948 classic Spring in a Small Town arrives in a new 4K restoration for its Asian premiere. Closing night is Hong Kong dramedy Good Trip, directed by Norris Wong Yee Lam and Hoi Wong, in its mainland China premiere. Between those bookends sit competitions, galas, restorations and a decade of “discovered at Pingyao” retrospectives — the clearest advance map yet for searchers typing Pingyao Film Festival 2026 ahead of Mid-Autumn week.
Opening, closing and Fenjiu Night
Beyond the Fei Mu restoration, festival founder Jia Zhangke’s own short Torino Shadow — an Italy–China co-production — screens as an Asian premiere under the Fenjiu Night banner, tied into a Mid-Autumn programme around 25 September. The Cinephile strand includes Keane T.K. Wong’s Hong Kong title Afterpiece. Together those slots signal Pingyao’s dual identity: a launch pad for new Asian work and a curator of Chinese film history that can still make industry news outside Beijing and Shanghai.
Hidden Dragons world premieres
Hidden Dragons, the festival’s key competition lane for emerging voices, lists three world premieres that will drive much of the trade coverage: Malaysian director Kethsvin Chee’s Dead Tide, Chengjie Cai’s Suzhou Quartet and Niu Niu’s Final Payment. Other Hidden Dragons titles flagged by Variety include Dongnan Chen’s documentary Whispers in May (Netherlands–Sweden–South Korea–Hong Kong) and Zou Jing’s France–China co-production A Girl Unknown, plus Asian premieres such as Xu Zao’s Light Pillar and Quentin Hsu’s Admission.
Crouching Tigers widens the geography — from Simón Vélez’s Colombia–Portugal Gemstones to Rafael Manuel’s Filipiñana (with Jia as executive producer), Anastasia Kuzina’s Bo Bo, and Marie-Clémentine Dusabejambo’s Rwanda–Gabon–France–Norway Ben’Imana. The section is where Pingyao advertises its claim as a discovery festival rather than a red-carpet echo of Cannes or Busan.
Galas: Mungiu, Gray, Na Hong-jin, Kreutzer
Galas pull established auteurs into Shanxi for Asian or China premieres: Cristian Mungiu’s Fjord, James Gray’s Paper Tiger, Marie Kreutzer’s Gentle Monster and Na Hong-jin’s Hope, the last listed for a mainland China premiere alongside Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s The Beloved. Fernando Eimbcke’s Flies and Kent Jones’s Late Fame also appear on the China-premiere gala list in Variety’s full selection.
Special Presentations and Pingyao 10 Years
Special Presentations include Liu Wenpu’s world premiere A Better Jianghu and a 4K restoration of Allen Fong’s 1986 Just Like Weather. The East–West Contribution strand anchors on a restoration of juror Ann Hui’s 1981 The Story of Woo Viet. Anniversary programming under Pingyao 10 Years pairs the Spring in a Small Town restoration with Pan Yilin’s new documentary Echoes of Fei Mu, plus Roberto Rossellini’s Generale Della Rovere and Alessandro Rossellini’s The Rossellinis — a nod to the Roberto Rossellini Awards that sit beside the festival’s Fei Mu Awards.
Memorial and “Start From Pingyao Corner” strands trace shorts first spotted in earlier editions into later features — including pairings linked to Wei Shujun’s Only the River Flows and Kong Dashan’s Journey to the West. Chinese wire coverage around the 10th edition has repeatedly stressed high Asian and China premiere rates across the ~50-title selection, which is the practical reason international buyers still put Pingyao on September calendars.
Awards purse and how to plan the week
Pingyao’s dual prize architecture — Roberto Rossellini Awards and Fei Mu Awards — remains a search hook for industry readers; the Fei Mu Best Film purse has been widely cited in Chinese coverage at RMB 1 million (about $140,000), among the richer single-film cash prizes on the Asian festival circuit. For audiences, the practical calendar is simpler: 24–30 September 2026, Festival Palace, Shanxi, with Mid-Autumn Fenjiu Night midway through and Good Trip closing the week.
Anyone searching Pingyao Film Festival 2026, Spring in a Small Town 4K, Good Trip closing film, Dead Tide world premiere or Jia Zhangke Torino Shadow now has the verified spine before the same-week spike. Primary sources for this guide are Variety’s lineup and dates coverage by Naman Ramachandran, Deadline’s edition notes, and Chinese festival/wire roundups confirming the 50-film, ~40-country footprint.