Mulan International Film Festival 2026: Lives Between Places

Written by Fête Chinoise Editorial team
Images Courtesy of Mulan INternational Film Festival

November 21–December 3, 2026 | Innis Town Hall, Toronto

A familiar language spoken far from home. A family history that becomes clearer when we return to it. An older film that meets us differently as our own lives change. For many in the Chinese diaspora, cinema offers a way to reflect on experiences that can be difficult to put into words.

Returning to Toronto for its seventh edition, the Mulan International Film Festival runs from November 21 to December 3 at Innis Town Hall. This year’s programme brings contemporary pan-Chinese cinema into conversation with earlier works, spanning regions, languages and generations of storytelling.

From women’s perspectives and stories of migration to intimate documentaries and emerging voices, the lineup offers different ways to consider memory, belonging and the expectations that shape our lives. For Fête Chinoise readers, it is an opportunity to revisit familiar filmmakers and discover new voices expanding the conversation around Chinese culture.

Scroll down to explore this year’s featured films and the directors behind them.

Closing Night: Mother Bhumi《地母》

The festival closes with Chong Keat Aun’s Mother Bhumi, starring Fan Bingbing as a widowed farmer raising two children near the Malaysia–Thailand border. Set in the late 1990s, the film brings together land disputes, village life and spiritual practice, tracing the ways unresolved histories enter daily existence.

For readers interested in the relationship between cultural traditions and contemporary life, its meeting of the material and spiritual offers a compelling point of entry.

• Mother Bhumi《地母》— December 3 (Thursday), 8 p.m.
  Director: Chong Keat Aun

Mother Bhumi Still. Image Courtesy of Mulan INternational Film Festival.

Lili vs. Leviathan

Recognising women’s contributions on screen and behind the camera, Lili vs. Leviathan brings together films by Clara Law, Mabel Cheung, Sylvia Chang and Stanley Kwan. This year’s selection turns towards migration and life abroad—subjects that may hold particular resonance for Canadian diaspora audiences.

The opportunity to encounter these works together invites a conversation across generations of viewers. For some, they will be discoveries; for others, revisiting them may reveal how our understanding of displacement, independence and belonging changes with experience. Farewell, China and Siao Yu are presented in 2K restorations.

Farewell, China Still. Image Courtesy of Mulan INternational Film Festival.

• Farewell, China《愛在別鄉的季節》— November 28 (Saturday), 5:40 p.m.
  Director: Clara Law

• The Illegal Immigrant《非法移民》— November 29 (Sunday), 2:45 p.m.
  Director: Mabel Cheung

• Siao Yu《少女小漁》— November 30 (Monday), 5:30 p.m.
  Director: Sylvia Chang

• Full Moon in New York《人在紐約》— December 1 (Tuesday), 9 p.m.
  Director: Stanley Kwan

Siao yu Still. Image Courtesy of Mulan INternational Film Festival.

Yin and Yang

Yin and Yang explores gender, sexuality and the relationships through which people come to understand themselves. Its features move between the intimacy of a brief encounter, love across different stages of life, and the experience of gender transition.

Tracy Choi’s Girlfriends follows a woman’s romantic life at three ages. Jiang Shan’s Ephemera centres on a connection formed during a young woman’s final days in Shanghai, while Chen Kuan-Chun’s documentary Second Round accompanies Birdy through transition and changing expectations within his family. Together, they invite attention to the personal choices behind broader conversations about identity.

• Ephemera《浮浮游游》— December 1 (Tuesday), 7 p.m.
  Director: Jiang Shan

• Girlfriends《女孩不平凡》— December 2 (Wednesday), 8:30 p.m.
  Director: Tracy Choi

• Second Round《一生二命》— December 3 (Thursday), 6 p.m.
  Director: Chen Kuan-Chun

The programme also includes The Sun That Remains: Works by Lai Yuqing on November 22 at 3 p.m., featuring Whisperings of the Moon, Love Is a Book and Two Suns, alongside Daphne Xu’s Notes of a Crocodile.

Girlfriends Still. Image Courtesy of Mulan INternational Film Festival.

On Canvas, On Stage: Qiu Jiongjiong Retrospective

Artist and filmmaker Qiu Jiongjiong’s work moves between painting, theatre, performance and cinema. Rooted in Sichuan’s vernacular culture, his films offer another approach to recording lives and histories: through distinctive visual worlds shaped by family, local memory and performance.

The retrospective began with screenings in October. Its remaining November presentations offer an opportunity to spend time with this body of work, including A New Old Play and the documentary portraits that sit alongside it.

• My Mother’s Rhapsody《萱堂閒話錄》— November 23 (Monday), 5:30 p.m.

• The Moon Palace《大酒樓》— November 24 (Tuesday), 8:50 p.m.

• A New Old Play《椒麻堂會》and Ode to Joy《彩排記》— November 28 (Saturday), 1 p.m., double feature

• Madame《姑奶奶》— November 28 (Saturday), 8 p.m.

• Mr. Zhang Believes (Director’s Cut)《痴（導演剪輯版）》— November 29 (Sunday), 4:50 p.m.

A New Old Play Still. Image Courtesy of Mulan INternational Film Festival.

Documentary

The documentary programme moves from the concert stage to the family home and the changing life of a village. Lorna Tucker’s Yuja turns towards pianist Yuja Wang as a person working within the pressures of an international performing career. Ballad of the Warm Grave, by Zhou Junsen and Dai Kun, approaches wider social wounds through a family portrait, while Liu Chunyu’s The Last Tribe of China follows a Wa community confronting questions of relocation and cultural continuity.

For readers drawn to cultural preservation, these films offer different questions to consider: how a public figure is seen, how families live with difficult histories, and who determines the future of a community’s traditions.

• Yuja《羽佳》— November 28 (Saturday), 11 a.m.
  Director: Lorna Tucker

• Ballad of the Warm Grave《東方花園》— November 30 (Monday), 7:40 p.m.
  Directors: Zhou Junsen and Dai Kun

• The Last Tribe of China《翁丁》— December 2 (Wednesday), 5:30 p.m.
  Director: Liu Chunyu

Yuja Still. Image Courtesy of Mulan INternational Film Festival.

Fountainhead

Fountainhead introduces emerging filmmakers through both features and shorts. This year’s six features travel across China, Japan, Spain and Argentina, with stories that include living between languages, tracing a parent’s past and returning to a familiar hometown. The screenings are listed with filmmaker Q&As, offering audiences a chance to hear more about how these works took shape.

Mei Mei Still. Image Courtesy of Mulan INternational Film Festival.

• Another Green World《小洞天》— November 22 (Sunday), 6:10 p.m.
  Director: Wang Kejing

• Mei Mei — November 22 (Sunday), 8:30 p.m.
  Director: Su Yu-Chun

• The Half-Finished Heaven《米點雲山》— November 24 (Tuesday), 7 p.m.
  Director: Liu Huizhi

• From Dawn To Dawn《昨夜的歌》— November 25 (Wednesday), 5:30 p.m.
  Director: Xisi Sofia Ye Chen

• Shanghai Daughter《上海女兒》— November 26 (Thursday), 6 p.m.
  Director: Agnis Shen Zhongmin

• Street Wanderers《漫遊者》— November 26 (Thursday), 8:20 p.m.
  Director: Juan Martín Hsu

The Fountainhead shorts screenings take place on November 23 at 8 p.m. and November 25 at 7:50 p.m. Titles include The Girl Next Door, Dear Kankan, Homecoming and Going, Other Side of a Seesaw, Delay, Caught in the Stream, Won’t be Here, Selection and Green Lake.

Shanghai Daughter Still. Image Courtesy of Mulan INternational Film Festival.

Plan Your Visit

Whether revisiting an earlier film or discovering a filmmaker for the first time, the festival offers space to encounter the range of experiences within pan-Chinese cinema. For our community, it is also an invitation to keep looking beyond a single account of Chinese identity, and to make room for the many voices that give it shape.

Screenings take place at Innis Town Hall, 2 Sussex Avenue, Toronto. Visit the official festival website for tickets and the latest schedule.

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