China’s Rediance Reveals First-Look Images For Cannes Un Certain Regard Selection ‘The Breaking Ice’

Beijing-based sales agent Rediance has revealed first look stills for Anthony Chen’s The Breaking Ice, which has been selected for the Un Certain Regard section of this year’s Cannes Film Festival.

Produced by China’s Canopy Pictures, the film is the first mainland Chinese production directed by Chen, a Singaporean filmmaker who won the Camera d’Or at Cannes in 2013 with his debut feature Ilo Ilo.

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Set in Yanji, a border city in the north of China, The Breaking Ice follows the blossoming relationship among three young adults in their twenties over a short few days of heavy winter snowfall.

The cast is headed by Zhou Dongyu (Better Days), Liu Haoran (Detective Chinatown franchise) and Qu Chuxiao (The Wandering Earth). Zhou previously starred in Chen’s segment of omnibus film, The Year Of The Everlasting Storm, which premiered at Cannes in 2021.

China’s Huace Pictures co-financed The Breaking Ice and is handling mainland China distribution, while Rediance will launch international sales in Cannes. Based in Shanghai, Canopy Pictures is a production outfit jointly set up by Chen and Rediance CEO Meng Xie.

Chen’s credits also include Wet Season, the second installment in his ‘Growing Up’ trilogy, which premiered in the Platform competition at Toronto, and his English-language debut, Drift, starring Cynthia Erivo, which premiered at this year’s Sundance. He first competed at Cannes with short film Grandma in 2007 and was honoured with a Special Distinction Prize.

As revealed by Deadline, Chen is also developing his first US-set project, Heartbeat: A New York Story, about the Asian gay community during the AIDS epidemic in 1980s New York. His next project as director is the third installment in his ‘Growing Up’ trilogy, We Are All Strangers, which is scheduled to start shooting this summer.

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