China’s Auther Zia Chanke took the stage at the Venice Film Festival for his extensive masterclasses that span his career, his parallel work as a distributor, and his thoughts on the future of films in the age of AI.
Jia, who first attended Venice in 2000 with her second feature, “Platform,” and later won the Golden Lion for “still life,” spoke openly about his expanded role in the Chinese film industry. In early 2025, he co-founded photos of unknown Pleasures with veteran distributor Tian Qi, bringing international art films to the Chinese market.
“I have no knowledge or experience with distribution, but I’m also a film fan,” Jia said, explaining that the venture has grown out of both passion and need. “China has over 80,000 screens. To fill them, we need more great films. It’s very important to bring productions from different cultures to our Chinese audiences, because films are a universal culture. We need to not only focus on our own films, but also share the emotions of people around the world.”
Jia pointed to the success of the release of “Memoria” by Apichatpong Weerasethakul, the world’s most-selling territory, as evidence of China’s powerful audience base for international films. Since then, Unknown Pleasures Pictures has distributed 4K restorations of Paola Cortellesi’s Italian hit “There Be Beers Tomorrow” and Charlie Chaplin’s “The Gold Rush,” which toured eight Chinese cities. “China hasn’t actually shown quiet films since the 1980s. It made a lot of sense for a younger audience to see Chaplin again, a hundred years after the ‘Gold Rush’,” Jia said.
The director also reflects his role as the founder of the Pingyao International Film Festival, and is now approaching the ninth edition. “I have limited personal strength, but festivals are platforms,” says Jia. “Young directors will be seen by audiences, critics and industry. Almost half of the films seen in Pingyao each year are later featured for distribution in China.”
Turning to his own films, Jia traced how each stage of his career was shaped by technical and social changes. He pointed out that “platforms” were deeply personal based on my sister’s experiences, but the editing led me to recognize the greater power of political and economic transformation in China in the 1980s. In “still life,” he incorporated surreal images of buildings floating like spacecrafts, capturing the speed of orientation in three Gorges Dam projects.
Jia also praised the embrace of digital filmmaking, starting with shorts like “In Public” (2001) and “The Condition of Dogs,” before moving completely digitally in “Unknown Pleasure” (2002) and “The World” (2004). “Every change in technology brings new opportunities,” he said. “Digital cameras allow you to shoot more freely in real spaces, follow the actors closely, and capture performances continuously in ways that are impossible in films.”
Recently, JIA has experimented with AI filmmaking and worked with Chinese companies to produce a five-minute short. “I feel like I’m playing chess at home, but taking a picture with a camera is like climbing a mountain outdoors,” he observed. “Different directors choose different tools, but I’m still drawn to the camera and the real world.”
Asked about plans for the future, Jia reveals that after closing a long span drama cycle with “The Mountain May Depart” (2015), “Ash Is Pure White” (2018), and last year’s “Crassed in the Tide”, he intends to return to the immediacy of modern life. “After being ‘attended in the tide’, I’ll be back to current filming,” he says, adding that he hopes to start filming new story features this fall or winter. He is also working on a documentary about Cai Guo-Qiang, an artist known for his Pyrotechnic Works, featuring an AI-created counterpart named “Ai Cai.”
Jia acknowledged the pressure on young Chinese filmmakers, but encouraged persistence. “I sometimes worry about distribution, festivals, platforms, etc., that fans think I’m overdoing, but it’s all related to the film,” he said. “If you see that there is a possibility, don’t wait for others. Do that. Even small efforts can work.”
Looking back at the moment of frustration, Jia said she found her motivation by going back to the director’s job he admired. “When I want to give up, I watch a movie like “Rome” and it registers my passion with re,” he said. “A good movie reminds me why we do this.”
