A TOUCH OF TORINO AT CANNES JIA ZHANG-KE’S NEW WORK WILL HAVE ITS WORLD PREMIERE IN THE OFFICIAL SELECTION 2026

Starring Zhao Tao, the short unfolds between China and Turin, adding a new international chapter to Jia’s body of work while remaining anchored in the director’s signature attention to place, movement and contemporary social realities. The short film depicts the city of Torino and its cultural heritage, with sequences shot at Mole Antonelliana and the Mauto (museum of the automobile) and ends up on a warm love letter to cinema. 

Co-produced by the Museo Nazionale del Cinema and Jia Zhang-Ke Art Centre and represented by MK2, Torino Shadow is the latest instalment of Torino Encounters, an ongoing project of auteur short films. The project encourages filmmakers to use the museum, its archives, and its collections as material; engage with the city of Turin as a subject or setting; and experiment with cinema as an art and as a reflection on film history.

The first film, Heinz Emigholz’s ECCE MOLE, is a portrait of the building, and premiered at the New York Film Festival 2025, before going on to screen at festivals worldwide. The next film in Torino Encounters, TRAILER FOR DANTE’S “PARADISO” by Radu Jude, will premiere later in 2026. Currently in production is PARVENZA by Gianluca and Massimiliano De Serio, and in development are films by Jessica Sarah Rinland and Aleksandr Sokurov. 

“We are delighted that Turin and Piedmont are represented at Cannes Film Festival, but I am particularly pleased that our Torino Encounters project is achieving such brilliant results,” emphasises Enzo Ghigo, president of the Museo Nazionale del Cinema in Torino. “In his film, Jia Zhang-Ke has skilfully portrayed the Museo Nazionale del Cinema and Torino paying an original tribute to our institution and the city that hosts it” 

“I make films, but first and foremost I am a film lover,” said director Jia Zhang-Ke. “I’ve long wanted to make a film paying tribute to the art of cinema, but I never knew where to start. In 2025, Carlo Chatrian reached out to me with the idea of making a short film in tribute to the art of film. I immediately accepted his invitation, and I would like to use this short film to confess my love of cinema and the filmmakers I so deeply adore.”

“Jia Zhang-Ke had visited the museum in the past and enthusiastically welcomed the idea” underline Carlo Chatrian, director of the Museo Nazionale del Cinema. “In October 2025 we spent two days scouting some locations in Torino and exploring the museum in depth. I thought he wanted to shoot one or two sequences inside the museum as a tribute to our shared passion for the history of film, but when he sent me a first draft of the script, I was totally surprised. Reflecting his longstanding passion for the melodrama, Torino Shadow is a rich and complex narrative short revolving around geographical distance and elements that connect people, including cinema. This is an ideal way to promote the museum as place that not only preserves the memory of cinema but also inspires new creations.”