All screenings will be shown with English Subtitles (not HOH).

The screening on Sunday July 14 will be followed by a discussion between Hester Yang and Emma Carleschi 

In this funny, uplifting tale based on an actual lie, Chinese-born, U.S.-raised Billi (Awkwafina) reluctantly returns to Changchun to find that, although the whole family knows their beloved matriarch, Nai-Nai, has been given mere weeks to live, everyone has decided not to tell Nai Nai herself. To assure her happiness, they gather under the joyful guise of an expedited wedding, uniting family members scattered among new homes abroad. As Billi navigates a minefield of family expectations and proprieties, she finds there’s a lot to celebrate: a chance to rediscover the country she left as a child, her grandmother’s wondrous spirit, and the ties that keep on binding even when so much goes unspoken. With The Farewell, writer/director Lulu Wang has created a heartfelt celebration of both the way we perform family and the way we live it, masterfully interweaving a gently humorous depiction of the good lie in action with a richly moving story of how family can unite and strengthen us, often in spite of ourselves.

Hester Yang, a London-based Chinese filmmaker and film programmer, focuses on alternative documentary storytelling. Collaborating with Chinese and East & Southeast Asian communities in the UK, her artistic and curatorial practice explores memory, historical erasure, migration, and complex diasporic experiences. Co-founding Sine Screen弦影像, an emerging screening collective, Hester aims to showcase independent cinema and moving image works from East and Southeast Asia, opening discussions on dominant representations of ESEA culture and history.

Emma Carleschi, a recent graduate from the NFTS Masters in Film Studies, Programming and Curation, is a multidisciplinary artist and film curator. Originally from Italy, she is particularly interested in transnational and queer cinema, as well as inclusive practises of film exhibition and curation. Her most recent project, The Art of Returning, explored themes of home, identity and belonging through film screenings, Q&As, panel discussions and poetry readings. She was also recently a featured artist at the British Museum as a part of their Michelangelo showcase.

The screening on Sunday 14 July, will be in partnership with Chinese Cinema Project.

Cast:
Awkwafina, Zhao Shuzhen, Tzi Ma, Diana Lin