It’s that time of the year again. On the New Year’s Eve of 2025, it’s time to look back at what we have done this year as a very small NGO.
I did not set out to build an organisation. I set out to build a bridge.
The UK–China Film Collab began in 2019 as a UK Research and Innovation–funded research project. As the world moved into 2020, the pandemic disrupted global exchange, the project funding came to an end, and I chose to continue the work by establishing a small, independent, and deliberately flexible NGO under the same name.
By then, “UK–China” had already become a complicated phrase—weighted with suspicion, politics, and misunderstanding. Film, however, continued to offer a shared language: not agreement, but curiosity; not consensus, but encounter. As both a personal passion and my research specialism, that was enough to continue.
Since then, the organisation has grown into something tangible. We have connected filmmakers who would otherwise never have met. We have enabled conversations that moved beyond surface diplomacy into creative risk-taking. We have supported emerging voices, translated between systems, expectations, and cultures, and created spaces where collaboration felt possible again—sometimes fragile, sometimes imperfect, but real. These achievements rarely announce themselves loudly. They live in emails that say “thank you,” in projects that quietly continue, in students who suddenly see a future that had not previously included them.
We have created something that is one and only, unique in the world — an organisation without direct equivalent elsewhere. We are a product example of the UK’s dynamic research and development environment, one that remains ahead of many other contexts in its ability to support experimentation, cross-sector thinking, and cultural risk-taking. Yet none of this has been easy to sustain.
Running this NGO has meant navigating pressure from all sides: political unease, institutional caution, funding precarity, cultural misunderstanding, and the quiet but constant labour of explaining—what we are, what we are not, and why we still matter as a grassroot collective. It has meant being questioned not only about feasibility, but about legitimacy; not only about outcomes, but about intent. There are days when continuing would seem irrational by any conventional measure of success.
And yet, I continue.
I continue because collaboration, when practised with integrity, is not a luxury but a responsibility. Because cultural exchange is not naïve optimism, but careful, skilled, and often uncomfortable work. Because walking away would be easier—and easier is rarely the same as right. Most of all, I continue because I have seen what becomes possible when the bridge holds: when mistrust pauses long enough for dialogue to begin, when young filmmakers feel recognised across borders, and when complexity is allowed to exist rather than being flattened for convenience.
As the 2025 highlights below will show, we remain deliberately independent in both what we do and how we do it. We have sustained a distinct voice shaped by years of academic inquiry alongside lived industry experience, and in doing so have carved out a space between theory and practice—mission-led rather than profit-driven. As we move into 2026, we will continue to engage stakeholders across the UK and Greater China on our own terms: contributing insight, sharing knowledge, and remaining unafraid to stand by the values and advocacies that shape our work.
We believe in engagement that is effective yet open, distinct from both closed-door diplomacy and high-volume antagonism. We have seen tangible shifts in both countries—changes we helped initiate, shape, and sustain. These experiences have given us a clear understanding of what we are able to inspire when space is deliberately created for trust and collaboration.
Highlights of 2025
January – Onboarded the 2024–2025 cohort of the Future Talent Programme, comprising seven members. Led the BAFTA campaign for The Sinking of the Lisbon Maru in competition for Best Documentary.
February – Attended the Berlinale as an accredited media delegate. Supported two emerging talents in gaining first-hand experience at the festival.
March – Organised a high-level UK premiere of the WWII documentary The Sinking of the Lisbon Maru and led its UK theatrical distribution. Attended FILMART in Hong Kong, supporting three emerging talents to gain experience at Asia’s leading entertainment expo.
April – Participated in an in-depth interview conducted by the British Council, contributing to their new policy report on arts and culture in mainland China.
May – Attended the Cannes Film Festival 2025 as both an accredited media and industry delegate. Supported seven emerging talents in navigating the festival.
June – Attended the Shanghai International Film Festival as an accredited media delegate, supporting three emerging talents in gaining industry experience.
July – Served as a jury committee member for the 30° Ningbo Short Film Festival in China.
August – Attended the VJ Day 80 Memorial Service at the National Memorial Arboretum as the UK distributor of The Sinking of the Lisbon Maru. Supported the first official UK Film Season held in China across multiple cities.
September – Presented the fifth edition of Odyssey, our annual flagship film festival, showcasing over 60 films both online and in person. The festival opened with the Hong Kong documentary Four Trails. A new award recognising UK–China co-production was introduced. The British Council report to which we contributed was published.
October – Attended the London Film Festival as an accredited media delegate. A major co-production development was announced by Variety: the first-ever biopic of British philosopher Bertrand Russell.
November – Led the UK theatrical distribution of the Hong Kong documentary Four Trails. Co-presented the fourth edition of Electric Shadows: Leicester Chinese Film Festival, stepping in to stabilise and deliver the festival during a period of organisational crisis.
December – A further major co-production development was announced by Variety: a UK remake of the Hong Kong romantic comedy My Indian Boyfriend (opening film of Electric Shadows 2022), to be set in Leicester. Selected the 2025–2026 cohort of the Future Talent Programme, comprising six members. Led the BAFTA campaign for Four Trails in competition for Best Documentary.
