Set amid the early COVID pandemic lockdown in January 2020, in An Unfinished Film, filmmaker Lou Ye (Suzhou River) and his film crew reunite near Wuhan, China to resume the shooting of a film halted ten years earlier.

Using outtakes and on-set footage from Suzhou River and other films (Spring Fever, Mystery, The Shadow Play), and casting real actors from these films to play themselves, Lou ends up creating an intense yet playful “release” for filmmakers, artists and everyone.

Starring in the film are Qin Hao, Mao Xiaorui, Qi Xi, Huang Xuan, Liang Ming, and Zhang Songwen

The film had its world premiere at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival in the Special Screenings section and was an official selection at the Toronto International Film Festival, Melbourne International Film Festival.

An Unfinished Film opens in US theaters at NYC’s Film Forum on March 14, 2025 with additional markets to follow.

While the COVID pandemic may be behind us, filmmakers are still working to make sense of our collective trauma. From Chinese director Lou Ye (Suzhou River, Summer Palace), comes the poignant and powerful An Unfinished Film, which had its World Premiere at Cannes this year, blending fiction with real footage for a hybrid docudrama recalling the early days of the Chinese lockdown.

Set in January 2020, An Unfinished Film follows director Xiaorui who convinces his cast and crew to resume the shooting of a film abandoned ten years earlier. With the shoot almost complete, rumors regarding an illness begin to circulate. Some of the cast and crew manage to leave before the hotel is locked down by security guards, everyone left on set is confined to their hotel rooms, and the director must decide whether to halt the filming once again as Wuhan is locked down in the early days of a terrifying pandemic. Relevant and moving, deeply personal yet universally resonant, An Unfinished Film is a haunting but ultimately life-affirming chronicle of the early days of lockdown, revisiting footage from the past and bringing order — through intelligent, unconventional filmmaking — to the flood of memories and mobile-phone images that overwhelmed us during the COVID years.

Acclaimed director Ye, previously in Competition at Cannes with Purple Butterfly (2003), Summer Palace (2006) and Spring Fever (2009) which captured the best script prize, is one of China’s most controversial filmmakers who has previously received numerous bans from the Chinese government for producing dramas like Summer Palace and Suzhou River without official approval.

Watch the official trailer for An Unfinished Film.