Five Documentaries Vie for Golden Goblet at Shanghai
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- The 28th Shanghai International Film Festival has five nominees for the Golden Goblet in the Documentary category, with all five creative teams meeting the press in a single session.
- Spain's "Benigno," directed by David Baute, follows an elderly man through his final years, shot on 8mm; Baute said the small crew worked as "companions to record his life without any intervention."
- Chinese production "Notes Unheard," directed by Gu Yun, traces a father-son relationship across several years; producer Ruby Chen said the film's grounding in daily rhythms lets viewers identify with either figure, and Gu left the conclusion open for audience interpretation.
- "Ruins," directed by Elena Chemerska, follows her multi-year effort to restore a monument built by her father, framing collective freedom through her dual identity as visual artist and daughter.
- Chile's "The Tiger of the East," directed by Jorge Acevedo, documents musician Andres Contreras across an eight-year pursuit of a distinctive style; Contreras said watching the final cut felt like "an authentic reconstruction of my own life."
- "Wheels of Forgotten Dreams," directed by Danilo Lazovic, follows three Serbian truck drivers who relocated to the U.S.; Lazovic centered the film on spiritual and emotional resilience rather than material hardship, and producer Bojan Kanjera said watching Eastern Europeans leave stable careers for manual labor in America left a strong impression.
Why it matters: A Golden Goblet nomination gives these five films — spanning four continents and four languages — exposure inside one of Asia's most-watched festival competitions, and for the Chilean and Eastern European co-productions especially, the recognition signals curatorial reach beyond the European festival circuit where documentaries of this scale typically circulate.
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