The Chinese Independent Film Foundation (CIFF) is a
not-for-profit screen culture organisation dedicated
to showcasing new and old art-house Chinese-language
cinema across Australia. Founded in Narrm/Melbourne,
CIFF works with collaborators across mainland China,
Hong Kong and Taiwan to present films that
rarely receive theatrical release locally.


SPECIAL SCREENING – ACMI 

CHINESE AUSTRALIAN SHORT FILMS
A new wave of Chinese-Australian filmmakers are emerging as a bold generation of storytellers, eager to assert their place within both national and global cinema.

Presented by the Chinese Independent Film Foundation, this program gathers seven award-winning shorts, spanning 2012 to 2024, previously screened at Festival de Cannes, Toronto International Film Festival, MIFF, BFI London and more. Featuring Australian diaspora filmmakers, alongside directors from Singapore and mainland China who have lived and worked in Australia, the selection traces the stories shaping contemporary Chinese-Australian screen culture.

The screening will be followed with a panel discussion with the filmmakers, moderated by curator and artist Nikki Lam.

FARAWAYS (2012),  dir. Audrey Lam
WITHERED BLOSSOMS (2024), dir.  Lionel Seah
A GENTLE NIGHT  (2017), dir.  Qiu Yang
DANCING GIRL & BALLOON MAN (2023), dir. David Ma
BONG XI FA CAI (2024), dir. Johnathan Lo
TUI NA (2022), dir. William Duan
IDOL (2020), dir. Alex Wu

Where: ACMI, Fed Square
When: Thursday, March 26,  7.30pm

Tickets.
ACMI + THE ART GALLERY OF NSW | 2025

FOCUS ON QUEER 
中文 CINEMA
In 2025, CIFF curated and presented a selection of 18 queer Chinese-language films, from June 19 – August 2 at ACMI, and September 13 – November 1 at the Art Gallery of NSW. This program was presented with the curatorial support of the Beijing Queer Film Festival – mainland China’s longest running queer arts festival.

Spanning Mandarin, Cantonese, Hokkien and other dialects, this program captured queer experiences with nuance, emotional depth and cultural specificity. Everyday conversations, family tensions, unspoken desires and quiet acts of resistance unfold not only through story, but also through the cinematic form itself – traversing fiction, documentary and experimental modes.

SPRING FEVER 春风沉醉的夜晚 (2009)
THE TWO LIVES OF LI ERMAO 李二毛的两次人生 (2019)
HAPPY TOGETHER 春光乍洩 (1997)
THE LAST YEAR OF DARKNESS 最后的黑暗之年 (2023)
THE WEDDING BANQUET 喜宴 (1993)
SAVING FACE (2004)
THE RIVER 河流 (1997)
GREEN SNAKE 青蛇 (1993)
EAST PALACE, WEST PALACE 东宫西宫 (1996)
BE A WOMAN 舞娘 (2011)  
QUEER CHINA, ‘COMRADE’ CHINA 同志中国 (2008)
THE PARISIAN IN BALI VILLAGE 巴黎人在八里庄 (2023)
HERE, HOPEFULLY 希望在哪里 (2022)
FLYING FISH 会飞的鱼 (2024)
OUTPICKER (2024)
FROZEN OUT 无地自容 (2021)
WEGEN HEGEL 色空 (2023)


SEASONAL PROGRAM – ACMI

FOCUS ON TONY LEUNG CHIU-WAI

As part of ACMI’s upcoming Focus on Tony Leung Chiu-wai season, CIFF was invited to curate three early and rarely screened works from Tony Leung Chiu-wai 梁朝偉‘s celebrated career, spotlighting lesser-seen chapters of his filmography. Moving into film, Tony has become a director’s actor, working with some truly iconic filmmakers, including Wong Kar-wai, John Woo, Johnnie To, Hou Hsiao-hsien, Ang Lee, Zhang Yi-mou, Ildikó Enyedi and Tran Anh Hung. The list is as impressive as it is long. Join us in the cinema as we journey deep into the films and get lost in the thoughtful eyes of Tony Leung Chiu-wai.

THREE SUMMERS 三個夏天 (1992)
LOVE UNTO WASTE 地下情（1986)
THE LONGEST NITE 暗花 (1997)

Tickets.

STORM UNDER THE SUN 紅日風暴 (2007)  Directed by Wei Shiyu 魏時煜 & Peng Xiaolian 彭小莲 (China) 
Program: Once Upon A Time In 華語 CinemaStorm Under the Sun reconstructs the 1950s Anti-Rightist Campaign through survivor testimony and forbidden archives. Stripping away propaganda, it reveals how fear and silence reshaped generations of Chinese intellectuals and artists. As an act of resistance, its power lies in restoring names and voices erased from the national record—a stark reminder that cinema’s role is not just to dream, but to preserve truth where memory fails.
Sunday, July 5, 2pm

ACMI (Melb) tickets

BUTTERFLY 蝴蝶 (2004) Directed by Yan Yan Mak 麥婉欣 (Hong Kong) 
Program: Panorama of Chinese Film Flavia is a thirtysomething married teacher. She has suppressed the memory of her adolescent lesbian fling with Jin and is stuck in a stifling marriage. A chance encounter in a supermarket with the playful and seductive singer Yip reawakens dormant feelings and she begins to think back on her teenage affair with Jin.


THE STORY OF A SMALL TOWN 小城故事 (1980)  Directed by Li Hsing 李行 (Taiwan) 
Program: Once Upon A Time In 華語 CinemaThe Story of a Small Town follows a young woman caring for her blind father in a modest township, until a new lodger awakens tenderness long buried beneath duty. Anchored by Joan Lin 林鳳嬌’s gentle performance, the film exemplifies the craftsmanship and emotional restraint of Taiwan’s healthy-realism era. Its lasting power lies in its sincerity—affirming human decency amid change. In remembering Li, the film stands as both a love letter to ordinary lives and a cornerstone of Taiwan’s cinematic awakening.
Sunday, June 7, 2pm

ACMI (Melb) tickets

COMRADES: ALMOST A LOVE STORY 甜蜜蜜 (1996) Directed by Peter Chan 陳可辛 (Hong Kong) 
Program: Panorama of Chinese Film Set against the backdrop of post-reform migration, Comrades: Almost a Love Story frames romance within the uncertainties of mobility and economic survival. Following two mainland migrants in Hong Kong, the film explores love as contingent, delayed and shaped by structural forces.  Teresa Teng’s music functions as an affective archive, binding personal longing to a shared cultural memory in a city defined by transience. The film enduring resonance lies in its articulation of love under conditions of mobility, precarity and deferred belonging.

TO LIVE 活著 (1994)  Directed by Zhang Yimou 張藝謀 (China) 
Program: Panorama of Chinese Film An adaption of Yu Hua 余華’s sweeping novel into an intimate epic of survival, tracing one family’s fate across decades of political upheaval. Led by a luminous performance from Gong Li 鞏俐, alongside Ge You 葛優, the film balances wry humour and devastating loss with emotional clarity and visual splendour. A landmark of Fifth Generation cinema and a deeply human portrait of endurance in the face of history.

BEAUTY OF BEAUTIES
西施 (1965)  Directed by Li Han-hsiang 李翰祥 (China) 
Program: Once Upon A Time In 華語 CinemaSet in the Warring States era, Beauty of Beauties follows the courtesan Xi Shi, whose grace becomes a political weapon when she is sent to seduce the enemy king. Director Li Han-hsiang 李翰祥 blends historical drama with operatic artifice, creating a film that epitomises mid-century Hong Kong studio spectacle. Beyond its romantic tragedy, Beauty of Beauties explores the timeless interplay of beauty, power, and sacrifice - themes central to Sinophone cinema, where personal desire and political fate often collide.
Sunday, May 3, 2pm

ACMI (Melb) tickets

THE LAST EMPEROR
末代皇帝 (1987)  Directed by Bernardo Bertolucci (Italy) 
Program: Once Upon A Time In 華語 CinemaTracing the life of Aisin-Gioro Puyi 愛新覺羅·溥儀, China’s final Qing dynasty monarch, this sweeping epic unfolds through memories of imperial splendour and the stark realities of Communist re-education. Moving between the gilded confines of the Forbidden City and a rapidly transforming nation, the film spans more than half a century of upheaval and reinvention. Monumental in scale yet intimate in psychological detail, it becomes a meditation on identity, privilege and loss — a universal portrait of humanity caught between memory and modernity.
Sunday, April 5, 2pm

ACMI (Melb) tickets
Address: Elsewhere Books
Level 3, 139 Franklin Street, Melbourne

CIFF acknowledges the Traditional Owners of
the unceded land on which we work and create,
the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung and Bunurong
peoples, and the wider Kulin Nations.