Chinese Feature ‘Big Little Things’ Turns a Real-Life Family Rift Into a Coming-Out Drama Now Headed for Venice Horizons (EXCLUSIVE)

By Jenny S. Li

Jenny S. Li

Latest

• Shanghai Film Festival Takeaways: Debut Directors Rule the Golden Goblet While AI Remakes the Industry Around Them 2 months ago
• Albert Serra and Bi Gan Debate Literary Adaptation and Why AI Will Never Have Innocence 2 months ago
• ‘Atlantic Rhapsody’ Takes Best Film at Shanghai’s Golden Goblet Awards 2 months ago

The director-producer duo Michelle Zhou and Chun Yu collectively incubated “Big Little Things,” a lesbian coming-out story inspired by a real-life family rift during a New Year holiday amid the COVID-19 pandemic in Harbin, a snowy city in northern China.

Zhou notes that the film was selected for the Venice Days first but was later invited by the Horizons. “We had to turn down the Venice Days even though we really love [ANAC and 100autori, the groups behind the section],” says Zhou. “It was a happy dilemma.”

Related Stories

Mark Ruffalo Called Out Over 'Extremist and Antisemitic Messaging' by Simon Wiesenthal Center, Creative Communities For Peace