The 28th Shanghai International Film Festival‘s SIFF ING section wrapped its new Mobile Filmmaking Camp, with 10 short films shot entirely on iPhone by emerging Chinese directors screened both on-site in Shanghai and online.
Launched as a new featured initiative within the 2026 SIFF ING section, the camp selected its 10 participants through an open call and provided each with professional iPhone filmmaking equipment, production funding and technical mentorship. The program covered the full production cycle from development through filming, festival screening and industry exchange, positioning itself as a structured pathway for early-career directors to develop their cinematic voices.
The 10 resulting short films span a wide tonal range. Ding Ding’s “One Way Out” follows a city drifter who embarks on a surreal adventure after picking up an unusual passenger. Li Chenxi’s “The Lobster” imagines an encounter between human and artificial life forms. Yang Xiaoman’s “A One and A Two” centers on a mother and daughter sorting through a deceased man’s belongings in what becomes an unexpected reunion with him. Wu Xinyu’s “Days With You” tracks two women who spend three days role-playing as mother and daughter before parting with candid confessions.
Stray Chen’s “Till Death” takes a science-fiction angle, following an AI humanoid who chooses to deteriorate alongside his terminally ill wife after a bitter argument. Bonnie Chen’s “Mentors” is an autobiographical-inflected piece in which the director, still haunted two decades on by an unresolved rupture with her rhythmic gymnastics mentor Lily, enlists her acting mentor Jim to help devise a theatrical process aimed at finding reconciliation with Lily. Xu Xiang’s “Live Photo” uses the iPhone’s Live Photo feature as its central metaphor, with a man on the last day of a divorce cooling-off period revisiting old photographs as his memories of the marriage unravel.
Tu Hailun’s “The Unscientific Disappearance” is a supernatural thriller in which an elderly man a driver is ferrying to the hospital vanishes without explanation inside a tunnel. Han Yuqi’s “Hide and Seek” observes an eight-year-old boy processing the death of his younger sister while his parents refuse to discuss it. Harry Cai’s “Amour” captures a woman concealing heartbreak over her ex’s wedding while a companion quietly stays by her side.
The SIFF ING section, which runs across the Shanghai International Film Festival, is designed to draw on the creative energy of younger filmmakers from diverse cultural backgrounds and give them access to broader industry platforms.
