In Theaters 03.14.2025 or Watch at Home 06.20.2025

An Unfinished Film

Directed by Lou Ye
Film Movement
2024
107 Minutes
Singapore, Germany
Chinese
Drama, Asian
Not Rated
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In January 2020, director Xiaorui reunites his cast and crew to complete a film that was abandoned during production ten years earlier. However, the team is suddenly placed into lockdown together during the onset of COVID-19. Confronted with the challenges of the pandemic, Xiaorui and his crew are forced to determine how to move forward in a rapidly changing world.

From acclaimed director Lou Ye (Suzhou River, Summer Palace), An Unfinished Film is “an utterly unique and very important movie about Covid, the crisis that affected all of us,” (The Guardian). Combining fiction and documentary footage together, Lou Ye both commemorates those lost to the virus and creates “one of the most thoughtful, truthful and tactful depictions of the pandemic ever put to screen.” (The Wrap).

Director & Cast

  • Director: Lou Ye
  • Starring: Qin Hao
  • Starring: Mao Xiaorui
  • Starring: Qi Xi
  • Starring: Huang Xuan

Where to Watch

Fandango At Home Apple TV Apple TV Canada

Trailer

Photos

Reviews

  • "Critic's Pick! Life gets in the way of art all the time, and art can be made out of life. What matters, the movie suggests, is hanging onto one another for dear life."
    Alissa Wilkinson, The New York Times
  • "Boldly dramatizes the outbreak of COVID in China by way of its impact on a movie shoot…an elaborately self-reflexive blend of fiction and nonfiction… [The film] becomes a tense thriller, an experiential tick-tock account of the ramp-up from rumors and fears to a total transformation of daily life and Chinese society at large."
    Richard Brody, The New Yorker
  • "By entwining reality with dramatization to such an inseparable degree, “An Unfinished Film” runs the emotional gamut, with a pulsing naturalism that few films about the recent pandemic (or any real disasters) have ever managed to achieve."
    Siddhant Adlakha, Variety
  • "Limber and thought-provoking, An Unfinished Film is an absorbing portrait of an unfinished era."
    Lee Marshall, Screen Daily
  • "Out of agony and chaos, Chinese film-maker Lou Ye has created something mysterious, moving and even profound.... This is an utterly unique and very important movie about Covid, the crisis that affected all of us."
    Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian
  • "It is one of the most thoughtful, truthful and tactful depictions of the pandemic ever put to screen, eschewing easy categorization as it fully captures the event from ground level."
    Chase Hutchinson, The Wrap
  • "An Unfinished Film is... powerful and thought-provoking... a work that disrupts the boundaries between fact and fiction and... a taut lockdown thriller."
    J Paul Johnson, Film Obsessive
  • "A fascinating formal hybrid that deals with censorship, COVID and civil courage. It’s the work of a group of fearless artists that gives you rare insights into the challenges faced by creatives in China today."
    Zhuo-Ning Su, Awards Daily
  • "[A] poignant and uplifting tale about the Covid pandemic from a Chinese perspective."
    John Bleasdale, Next Best Picture
  • "Director Lou Ye delivers both a powerful rebuke of excessive state intervention into private lives, and a celebratory ode to the resilience of the masses."
    Clarence Tsui, South China Morning Post
  • "This is a return to form for one of the most talented, and least celebrated, of Chinese filmmakers working today, often at his own risk. "
    Mehdi Achouche, Asian Movie Pulse
  • "[A] riveting, highly inventive mid-career oeuvre masterstroke."
    Eric Lavallée, Ion Cinema
  • "An Unfinished Film is the COVID-19 film we’ve all been waiting for since the pandemic started. It’s gripping, reflective, dramatic, and even a bit humorous. [T]his could well be the director’s grand opus."
    Bobby LePire, Film Threat
Winner
Best Narrative Feature
Golden Horse Awards
Winner
Best Director
Golden Horse Awards
Nominated
Golden Eye
Cannes Film Festival
Nominated
Best Narrative Feature, Best Director, Best Editing
Golden Horse Awards
Official Selection
Toronto Int'l. Film Festival

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