An Unfinished Film
Available 1/31/26
Available 6/24/25
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).
Cast
- Qin Hao
- Mao Xiaorui
- Qi Xi
- Huang Xuan
DVD Features
Discs: 1
Blu-ray Features
Discs: 1
- "Limber and thought-provoking, An Unfinished Film is an absorbing portrait of an unfinished era."
- "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."
- "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."
- "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."
- "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."
- "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."
- "An Unfinished Film is... powerful and thought-provoking... a work that disrupts the boundaries between fact and fiction and... a taut lockdown thriller."
- "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."
- "[A] poignant and uplifting tale about the Covid pandemic from a Chinese perspective."
- "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."
- "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. "
- "[A] riveting, highly inventive mid-career oeuvre masterstroke."
- "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."
Awards & Recognition
Best Narrative Feature
Golden Horse Awards
Best Director
Golden Horse Awards
Golden Eye
Cannes Film Festival
Best Narrative Feature, Best Director, Best Editing
Golden Horse Awards
Toronto Int'l. Film Festival