Since 2016, China Film Foundation has been turning it up a notch in terms of finding and training promising talents to produce arthouse films. In partnership with Cannes Film Festival's 'le Marché du Film', the foundation has sent more than 10 of its own producers to the ad hoc workshop. And its efforts are already paying off.

On April 12th, Thierry Frémaux, the General Delegate of Cannes Film Festival announced that "Long Day's Journey Into Night" would be selected for this year's Un Certain Regard programme.

THIERRY FREMAUX, GENERAL DELEGATE CANNES FILM FESTIVAL "Bi Gan, you remember he made a movie called Kaili Blues. This one is called 'Long Day's Journey Into Night'. It's a Chinese movie."

Bi Gan is a young director, just shy of 30 years old.  Having this film selected is quite a recognition for him. Meanwhile, for Shan Zuolong, the producing partner of Bi Gan's second feature film, this also brings quite a bit of pressure. 

SHAN ZUOLONG, PRODUCER LONG DAY'S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT "It's something else being compared to Kaili Blues. Such a big transformation in terms of production. This film's total cost amounted to about 7.5 million US dollars. It's already a medium-to-large project in the world of arthouse films. We have never handled a similar one this big before. It's quite a challenge."

Set to premiere on May 15th in Cannes, "Long Day's Journey Into Night" still holds its veil, with only a very brief synopsis being told. According to Shan, producing this film was actually much more complicated than anyone had imagined. However, the complexity of it all might just showcase a young Bi Gan's true talent, and also exhibit the vision and ambition of a young producer shaped by the Cannes workshop.

SHAN ZUOLONG, PRODUCER LONG DAY'S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT "When we started this project, we were already clear about the distribution, casting and production. But it's only when I came to Cannes that I realized what type of Chinese films the world market is expecting. I'm convinced that this has helped us expand our horizon."