The 68th San Sebastian International Film Festival (SSIFF) announced a new batch of shortlisted films on August 20. "Having A Good Time" by new director Bell Zhong from Shanghai, China, is in the festival's innovative Zabaltegi-Tabakalera competition which will have its world premiere during the festival.

Following the COVID-19 outbreak, SSIFF is the second major international film festival this year that is truly open to international jury competition, according to The Paper. 

The arrival of new Chinese directors on the stage of this A-level festival is being seen as an inspiration to both the established Chinese film industry and newcomers.

Bell Zhong, also known as Zhong Baier, studied philosophy at Tsinghua University before receiving his master's degree in film from New York University Tisch School of the Arts.

His films have gained some traction in domestic and foreign film festivals. In 2016, he directed and starred in the short film "Blooming Night," and was shortlisted at the Shanghai International Film Festival, Lisbon International Film Festival and Sao Paulo International Short Film Festival. He is also the executive director of Chinese films "The Wild Goose Lake" and "Long Day's Journey into Night."

Diao Yinan, the director of "The Wild Goose Lake," once said that Zhong has "a pure love for movies."

Filming on "Having A Good Time" finished in Shanghai in 2019. The film tells the story of an idle young man wandering in the city all day. By chance, he learned a story about his mother from his father's mouth, so he began to follow his father's lover to explore the secret.

According to the official introduction, Zabaltegi-Tabakalera is the San Sebastian Festival's most open competitive section. There are no rules or limits of style or time; short, medium-length, feature-length, fiction, non-fiction, animation, series, audiovisual installations, future discoveries, and contemporary classics are all eligible. 

Participating films will compete for the Zabaltegi-Tabakalera Award, worth 20,000 euros in total, of which 6,000 will go to the director of the winning film and the remaining 14,000 to the distributor of the film in Spain.

A total of 10 feature films and 9 short films in the Zabaltegi-Tabakalera section have been announced, with Zhong in the running for the top prize.

The San Sebastian International Film Festival is an annual "A" category film festival held in the Spanish city of Donostia-San Sebastian in the Basque Country in September. The 68th SSIFF will be held from September 18 to 26.

(Cover: Posters of "Having A Good Time" [L] and the 68th SSIFF. /SSIFF)