The Shanghai Film Festival has announced its competition lineup for its 25th anniversary edition on Monday, which will be the first time its borders have opened post-pandemic. While there are a variety of different countries that have submitted their works, both America and Korea have been barred from the competition.

Running June 9-16th, this year’s festival will be the first year since the pandemic to allow for other countries to enter. While the first two years allowed for the festival to run, it barred anyone outside of China from entering due to travel bans and strict hotel quarantines for those allowed to cross the border. With a combination of this and last year’s cancellation, the festival’s opening has been arranged to hopefully open up China to the world and promote Beijing’s “open for business” policy.

However, there are a few countries that have been barred from entry, including the United States and Korea, for a variety of political reasons. In America’s case, a combination of tensions between Washington DC and Beijing and the diminished earnings of US films in China have potentially blocked any American industry entries. Korea is also barred from participation thanks to old political feuds that have resulted in a de facto ban on Korean entertainment.

Even so, there are plenty of entries in the festival from a variety of other countries from Iran to Japan. According to some sources, they have received more than 8,800 entries from more than 128 countries and regions. 

As of now, there are no official announcements for the 2023 jury and how other sections of the festival, mostly crowd-pleasing films and Hollywood retrospectives, will be organized.