Student Film Competition Winners Sara Kojic, Haoxin Fang, and Yinan Wang with filmmaker Qiu Yang, and Cinematic Film Festival organizers Prof. Erin Wilkerson, Prof. Travis Wilkerson, and Media Arts Lab Head Dylan Yu. (photo by Xinyan Zhou)
On February 6th and 7th, Duke Kunshan University’s Cinematic Futures Lab organized The 2026 Cinematic Futures Film Festival. This ambitious event brought together cinephiles for two unforgettable days of movie screenings and enthralling conversations about this beloved medium.
Prof. and festival organizer Travis Wilkerson in discussion with Filmmaker Qiu Yang (photo by Xinyan Zhou)
The special guest of this event was filmmaker Qiu Yang. Qiu was born and raised in Changzhou, Jiangsu Province, and later studied film directing at the Victorian College of the Arts in Australia. He has built an internationally recognized career through filming quiet stories of people in Jiangsu Province, work that has been accoladed with a plethora of the top cinema awards: His first feature film, “Some Rain Must Fall”, won the Special Jury Prize at the 74th Berlin International Film Festival. The film also won the Best Performance and Best Cinematography awards at the 2024 Tribeca Film Festival.
Cinematic Futures Film Festival Student Fellow Ruixiang Hu leading audience discussion (photo by Xinyan Zhou)
His short film “She Runs” won the Leitz Cine Discovery Prize for best short film at the 58th Cannes Critics’ Week. “A Gentle Night” was awarded the Short Film Palme d’Or at the 70th Festival de Cannes. Both of which were filmed locally and seize on this moment of globally rising recognition of Asian cinema. He is the only director to receive both awards in the world. In 2015, “Under the Sun” was selected for the 68th Festival de Cannes Cinéfondation Competition. Qiu has also participated in the prestigious Cinéfondation Résidence of Festival de Cannes in Paris. And he is a voting member of the Oscars (Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences).
Festival director Prof. Erin Wilkerson introducing the student film competition (photo by Xinyan Zhou)
After the opening ceremony on Friday the 6th, participants got to participate in a “Gentle Cinema: workshop” conducted by Qiu Yang and Prof. Travis Wilkerson. For the student film competition that followed, out of 39 submissions from universities in China, only 9 films were chosen. The second day of the festival consisted of a global shorts panorama of short films that took top prizes in elite intentional film festivals in the past two years, a retrospective of Qiu Yang’s full short film catalogue, and the closing and award ceremony.
Grand prize winner Haoxin Fang answering questions about her film, “Ballad of Eighteen” (photo by Xinyan Zhou)
Our students, as always, excelled in the art of filmmaking. Haoxin Feng’s “Ballad of Eighteen” won the Grand Prize. Yinan Wang won the Audience Award with “One Circle of Light.” Last but not least, Sara Kojic’s “Resistance measure” won the Cinematic Futures Lab Prize for the film that best utilized the peer and faculty support in the monthly film salon meetings for production and post-production assistance. Sara’s film also won a Special Mention given by the jury. Further festival screenings for these impressive student films will be announced soon.
Student film competition posters for the 2026 Cinematic Futures Film Festival (photo by Xinyan Zhou)
The event was a success in bridging people from different corners of the world for a common passion: film. We congratulate Duke Kunshan University Cinematic Futures Lab for their work and effort. We also congratulate Haoxin Feng, Yinan Wang, and Sara Kojic for their wonderful achievements in the film competition. The event could not have been organized without the help of festival director Prof. Erin Wilkerson, Prof. Travis Wilkerson, Media Arts Lab head Dylan Yu, Prof. Seth Henderson, Global Fellow Dingyi Xu, and the Cinematic Futures Film Festival Student Fellow Ruixiang Hu. Sponsorship and Support was given by dKunst: Arts on Campus, Humanities Research Center, Film Society, the Vice Chancellor’s Office, and the Division of Arts and Humanities.
Arts and Humanities Chair, Zach Fredman, speaking on his support for filmmaking at DKU (photo by Xinyan Zhou)
Humanities Research Chair, Selina Lai Henderson, speaking on her dedication to fund and support arts on campus (photo by Xinyan Zhou)
