- Film
The 2026 Hangzhou Student Film Festival, hosted by Hangzhou International School (HIS), brought together young filmmakers from HIS, CIS Hangzhou and Nanjing International School for an inspiring evening of creativity, collaboration, and cinematic storytelling.
Guided by this year’s theme, ‘Stories Shape Perception’, the festival showcased how student voices can challenge assumptions, explore identity, and reflect the world around us through film, resulting in a record number of entries for this year’s edition of the awards.
The festival’s highest honor, the Golden Dragon Award, was won by Shah Mat, a stop-motion animation historical epic created by Jed Y, Diego C, and Tanmay G; while Silent Cry, with its powerful anti bullying message, emerged as a standout, earning Best Director (Julie B) and Best Female Actor (Emily A). Technical excellence was also celebrated with Best Cinematography going to horror movie The Knock (Melanie S) – which had the audience out of their seats – and Best Editing awarded to Hong Kong-set film Odd Transactions (Emily C). Agents – The Provenance won Best Screenplay (Lisa Y) and Best Male Actor (Rehan C).
The student films were evaluated by an accomplished judging trio: Canadian documentary filmmaker Graeme Kennedy, Shanghai-based FPV drone cinematographer Andrew Guillot, and filmmaker and educator Jeremy Hung, who runs Babel Film Workshop in Hong Kong.
This year’s festival also celebrated outstanding work from our partner schools. These guest film winners highlighted a wide range of creative voices, storytelling styles, and technical approaches, reinforcing the festival’s commitment to international collaboration and creative exchange across school communities. Best Guest Film was CIS’ Timeline 2698, and Best Guest Sound Design was won by Contemporary Punk Rockersfrom Nanjing.
Congratulations to all the students for an unforgettable celebration of talent, perspective, and the power of storytelling. We can’t wait until the 2027 Hangzhou Student Film Festival!