Xining, the capital city of Qinghai province, is the unlikely home of one of China’s most highly anticipated annual film events: the Xining FIRST International Film Festival. Originally known as the Chinese College Students Film Festival, FIRST was inaugurated in 2006 at the Communication University of China in Beijing and moved to its western home in 2011. Now in its 18th year, it has retained its status as the beating heart of China’s independent film scene and prides itself on its volunteer-led initiatives and abundance of young talent.

This year’s festival was defined by a focus on female filmmakers and stories. Feature film Sally’s Memories transported the audience into the psychology of a grieving mother, while the short film Monsoon Blues explored a woman’s harrowing navigation of her trauma.

This is also the first year that no film received the Best Feature award. Guan Hu, the jury head and a renowned sixth-generation director in China, explained the decision by citing a lack of outstanding and groundbreaking works.

Despite the absence of a major prize winner this year, several notable films are still worth exploring. TWOC attended the festival in July and our editors have rounded up a list of five films that shouldn’t be missed.

Unstoppable 《永无止境》

Directed by Xu Huijing, Unstoppable documents the comeback of mixed martial artist Zhang Weili, China’s first world champion in the Ultimate Fighting Championship. The film follows Zhang after the loss of her championship belt in 2021, and her year-long journey to regain not only her title, but her identity. Between 2021 and 2022, Zhang traveled to the United States and Thailand to train with world-class coaches in wrestling and Muay Thai. She grappled with tensions within her Chinese coaching team, her own recurring injuries, the loss of her dog, and her homesickness as she trained, ultimately arriving at a place of inner peace before regaining her championship belt. “I realized that we are all the same,” she said in the documentary. “My opponent is the same as me.”

In his director’s statement, Xu Huijing professed how deeply he related to Zhang, whose desire to end her family’s poverty is one of her primary motives for fighting. “Both Zhang Weili and I come from rural areas,” he wrote. “Seeing her journey feels like witnessing the embodiment of our generation’s upbringing.” He encountered his own set of challenges while completing the documentary because travel between China, Thailand, and the US was nearly impossible during the Covid-19 pandemic. “We relied on our US team to complete the project,” he told the audience during a Q&A session. “Everyone worked together well. Weili herself is quite used to the camera, so it was easy to work with her.” His efforts paid off: Unstoppable won the Audience Award for Best Documentary.

Chengzi_1《上流》

The drama Chengzi_1 follows the journey of Chen Ziyi, a wannabe influencer, as she ascends to internet stardom. After she goes viral for exposing another influencer for fraud, Chen’s account comes under the management of the charismatic Evan, a mysterious art influencer who claims to have her best interests at heart. But as Evan tasks Chen with taking down more and more influencers, she must confront her own values and complicity in the industry. How far is she willing to go for fame?

At four hours long, Chengzi_1 is the longest submission for this year’s festival. Director Fu Zongsheng employed a mixed media collage for the film, combining the natural light and slower flow of the “real world” with the hyperpigmentation and condensed time of the “virtual world.” His team interviewed dozens of influencers to understand the realities of the industry, and to better design the art for Chen’s account. “We were quite ambitious,” he says in a Xiaohongshu video. He cites Stephen Shore’s American Surfaces and Paul Cezanne’s paintings as key inspirations: “Through absurdity, we hoped to capture reality.” The film received the Spirit of Freedom prize.

I’m Gonna Find You《我要找到你》

This year’s winner of the Best Documentary award, I’m Gonna Find You, follows three parents—Wu Xinghu, Wang Meizhi, and Wu Xuexian—as they hunt for clues regarding their children’s whereabouts. Though none of them can say for certain, they suspect that their children were trafficked into slavery. The trio travels to the provinces of Henan, Shandong, Anhui, and Hebei, following police reports and eyewitness accounts, while supporting their own elderly parents through their declining health. The parents’ struggles do not end with a reunion—though Wu Xuexian finds her son after 20 years of searching, she realizes that she must reconcile with his adopted family. Wang Meizhi and Wu Xinghu, meanwhile, continue to search for their children to this day.

Director and videographer Meng Xiao has worked on multiple award-winning documentary films that focus on societal issues. He hopes to raise awareness for victims of human trafficking—both children and parents—with his latest installment. “The individuals behind it bear immense suffering,” he wrote in his director’s statement. “Each child’s abduction represents a mountain of hardship for their families.”

The Dreamer in the Jungle《胆小的“龙”》

When timid 10-year-old Aimeng goes on a rainforest trek with his father, everything goes horribly awry. Aimeng accidentally overturns their kayak, his father breaks three of his four limbs, and Aimeng is left to find his own way back to civilization to seek help. Along the way, Aimeng stumbles upon creatures of all kinds, including a bull-headed monster who seems intent on hunting him down, as he realizes his own capacity to be brave. His journey is a poignant exploration of childhood wonder and self-confidence, and viewers will find themselves laughing alongside him as he ventures through the jungle.

Director Tu Hailun has always been fascinated by children’s stories. He was inspired to create The Dreamer in the Jungle after documenting the story of a Yunnan boy who ran away and survived in the wild for 24 days in 2017. “We hope that this film can give children some encouragement, and inspire them to be their true selves,” he wrote in his director’s statement. Tu embodied this very courage and childhood whimsy at the first open-air screening of the movie, sporting a pair of butterfly wings to entertain his younger audience. He took seven years to finish The Dreamer in the Jungle and submitted the film to FIRST two years in a row. His efforts were duly recognized: The movie received a Special Mention award.

Carp Leaping Over Dragon’s Gate《菠萝，凤梨》

Jing Wei, a single mother from Shandong province who never finished college, desperately wishes for her daughter to attend one of China’s top universities. As the college entrance exam, or gaokao draws nearer, she exhausts all her connections and resources to help her daughter take the exam in the less competitive province of Hainan under a different identity. But Jing’s scheme backfires on both her and her daughter, who didn’t want to take the gaokao in the first place—and Jing soon finds herself in grave danger.

Screening just weeks after the release of China’s gaokao scores, Carp Leaping Over Dragon’s Gate is a harrowing exploration of the intense competition behind the highly stressful exam and the elusive promise of socioeconomic mobility that a prestigious college degree offers. The Chinese title of the film Boluo, Fengli, refers to the two different ways to say “pineapple” in Mandarin. Director Yan Xiaolin explains after the first public screening of the movie that the inexpensive boluo in Shandong can be the pricey fengli in Hainan, just under a different name in a different market.

In his director’s statement, Yan states that his protagonist, Jing, is a character motivated by “a strong desire for dignity and equality,” despite her morally dubious choices. “She could be anyone,” he said after a screening. Indeed, at an audience Q&A, many viewers expressed how deeply they resonated with Jing’s struggle. “It’s a very contemporary movie,” said one audience member, as he expressed his appreciation for Yan. “It’s set in 2008, but it could be happening today.”

All images courtesy of FIRST International Film Festival