Student film competition winners Sara Kojic, Haoxin Feng, and Yinan Wang pose with filmmaker Qiu Yang and festival organizers Erin Wilkerson, Travis Wilkerson, and Dylan Yu at Duke Kunshan University. (Photo by Xinyan Zhou)
Duke Kunshan University’s Cinematic Futures Lab organized the 2026 Cinematic Futures Film Festival on Feb. 6-7, bringing screenings, discussions and a student film competition to campus.
Travis Wilkerson speaks with filmmaker Qiu Yang during the film festival at DKU (Photo by Xinyan Zhou)
The special guest was filmmaker Qiu Yang, who studied film directing at the Victorian College of the Arts in Australia and is known for closely observed stories set in Jiangsu province. His first feature, “Some Rain Must Fall”, won the Special Jury Prize at the 74th Berlin International Film Festival and later received the Best Performance and Best Cinematography awards at the 2024 Tribeca Film Festival.
Ruixiang Hu, a student fellow for the Cinematic Futures Film Festival, leads a discussion during the festival at DKU (Photo by Xinyan Zhou)
Qiu’s 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. In 2015, his short “Under the Sun” was selected for the 68th Festival de Cannes Cinéfondation Competition. He is also a voting member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Erin Wilkerson introduces the student film competition during the festival. (photo by Xinyan Zhou)
The festival opened Feb. 6 with a workshop, “Gentle Cinema,” led by Qiu and Travis Wilkerson, associate professor of documentary filmmaking at DKU. Organizers received 39 submissions for the student film competition and selected nine films for screening.
Programming on the second day included a showcase of recent award-winning short films from international festivals, a retrospective of Qiu’s short films, and a closing ceremony with awards.
Haoxin Feng answers questions about her film, “Ballad of Eighteen” after a screening at the festival. (Photo by Xinyan Zhou)
In the student competition, Haoxin Feng won the grand prize for “Ballad of Eighteen.” Yinan Wang received the audience award for “One Circle of Light.” Sara Kojic’s won the Cinematic Futures Lab Prize for “Resistance measure,” which also received a jury special mention. Organizers said additional screenings of the student films will be announced.
