The inaugural IndieChina Film Festival (IndieChina电影节, IndieChina Diànyǐngjié), which was set to run from November 8-15 in New York City, has been forced to close due to what appears to be a coordinated transnational pressure campaign by the Chinese government. Citing intimidation and threats made against the families of Chinese organizers and volunteers, as well as unrelenting pressure on participating directors to pull their films from the festival, IndieChina curator Zhu Rikun issued a statement on November 5 announcing that for the safety of all involved the festival would not go forward.
Transnational repression at the IndieChina Film Festival: Transnational repression at the IndieChina Film Festival: open.substack.com/pub/donaldcl…
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— Donald Clarke (@donaldcclarke.bsky.social) November 7, 2025 at 8:13 PM
The organizer of the inaugural IndieChina Film Festival in New York said he was forced to cancel after facing a “relentless” pressure campaign, and that he may be unable to travel back to China.
“I did think it might be better here….It turns out I was wrong.”
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— Sarah McLaughlin (@sarahemclaugh.bsky.social) November 6, 2025 at 9:28 PM
At The Guardian, Amy Hawkins reported on the pressure campaign that forced festival curator Zhu Rikun to cancel 80% of the planned screenings because so many filmmakers had pulled out of the festival:
Zhu said the requests primarily came from directors based in China, who cited “personal reasons” for changing their mind about screening their films. Directors based outside China said their families back home had been contacted by the Chinese authorities, a common way of applying pressure to people beyond its borders.
Zhu, who is based in New York, said a colleague at his studio in Beijing had been taken away for questioning by the authorities and told not to work with him.
One of the festival’s venues received an anonymous letter claiming to be from a group of Chinese students living in New York who wanted the screening to be cancelled, Zhu said.
On Thursday, Zhu said he had been forced to cancel the festival. “Given the current circumstances, if I do not suspend this edition of the film festival, anyone involved in the festival – whether directors, forum participants, associated staff, volunteers, or even audience members – could potentially face threats or harassment,” he said in a statement.
“This situation places me in a difficult ethical position. As both an organiser and an individual, I have no intention of putting anyone in danger, whether such danger is real or fabricated as a means of intimidation.” [Source]
Nikkei Asia’s Pak Yiu reported on the film festival’s closure, and how the pressure campaign that shut it down resembles other efforts at transnational repression by the Chinese government:
The harassment Zhu reported echoes experiences reported by Chinese rights activists and major watchdogs. Hong Kong, Uyghur and Tibetan dissidents have raised concerns over the Chinese government’s efforts to repress or silence overseas activism, in what has been described as transnational repression. Other alleged incidents have included intimidation of family members in China.
The U.S. earlier this year sanctioned several Hong Kong officials for their role in such repression, saying they were involved in a campaign “to intimidate, silence, and harass” pro-democracy activists who had fled overseas. Last year, HRW issued a report on alleged Chinese government intimidation of Chinese nationals residing in Japan.
[…] The IndieChina Film Festival was to be the first grassroots Chinese film festival in New York, where filmmakers are free from censorship. It was to showcase more than 40 documentaries and short films on a range of topics, including LGBTQ identities and the Anti-Rightist Campaign in China in the late 1950s. Talks with directors were on the schedule.
[…] The ranks of Chinese independent filmmakers have been growing, despite the difficulty of finding places to show their documentaries and feature films. The New York festival was intended as an opportunity to screen contemporary films and have them seen by the Chinese diaspora.
“I did think it might be better here,” Zhu said. He recalled thinking that “it’s not like my event would attract a huge amount of attention.”
“It turns out I was wrong.” [Source]
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New York&\#x27;s IndieChina Film Festival, scheduled for November 8-15, has been abruptly cancelled over safety concerns. The Chinese authorities had targeted participants and even the organizer&\#x27;s friends and family with harassment and threats. Read the official statement: indiechina.org/%e5%85%b3%e4…\
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\— Human Rights in China (\@hrichina.bsky.social\) \November 6, 2025 at 1:18 PM\\
A statement from Human Rights Watch condemned the harassment of filmmakers and efforts to intimidate the festival’s curator and volunteers by threatening their families back in China. It also provided a brief history of the many independent film festivals that have been shut down in China:
“The Chinese government reached around the globe to shut down a film festival in New York City,” said Yalkun Uluyol, China researcher at Human Rights Watch. “This latest act of transnational repression demonstrates the Chinese government’s aim to control what the world sees and learns about China.”
Chiang Seeta, a Chinese artist and activist, reported that nearly all participating directors in China faced intimidation. Even directors abroad, including those who are not Chinese nationals, reported that their relatives and friends in China were receiving threatening calls from police, said Chiang.
[…] Independent film festivals in China have faced intensifying crackdowns over the past decade, Human Rights Watch said. The Chinese authorities have shut down all three major independent film festivals in China: Yunfest, founded in 2003; the China Independent Film Festival, founded in 2003; and Beijing Independent Film Festival, founded in 2006.
When the authorities shut down the last screening of the Beijing Independent Film Festival in 2014, they cut off electricity from the venue, confiscated documents from the organizer’s office, and forced the organizers to sign a paper promising not to hold the festival. Many festival organizers have tried without success to adapt, for instance by changing their format to screenings at multiple venues.
The 14th China Independent Film Festival was shuttered in 2018, the last time such a festival took place in China. [Source]
Chinese independent film has long been a target for various forms of censorship and intimidation by Chinese authorities. Domestic film festivals have been shut down; online censorship is frequent; filmmakers have been subject to harassment, fines, and confiscations, as well as arrests and detentions; and at least one overseas film festival suffered a Chinese government-backed cyberattack.
