{"id":2421393,"date":"2026-05-18T07:03:20","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T07:03:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2421393"},"modified":"2026-05-18T07:03:20","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T07:03:20","slug":"berlinale-film-light-pillar-lands-at-greenwich-for-u-s-release","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/berlinale-film-light-pillar-lands-at-greenwich-for-u-s-release\/","title":{"rendered":"Berlinale Film ‘Light Pillar’ Lands at Greenwich for U.S. Release"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n

\n\tGreenwich Entertainment<\/a> has acquired U.S. distribution rights to \u201cLight Pillar<\/a>,\u201d the debut feature from Chinese director and screenwriter Xu Zao. <\/p>\n

\n\tThe Shanghai-based Fengduan Pictures production world-premiered in the Perspectives section of the Berlin Film Festival and will receive a theatrical release across the country early next year.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe 2D animated film incorporates live-action sequences featuring veteran actor Da Peng, who also served as executive producer. The story centers on Zha, a janitor at a bankrupt, long-shuttered film studio who retreats into a virtual world, cultivating an online romance and dreaming of a voyage to the Moon. When that digital existence falls apart, the studio\u2019s physical demolition is repurposed as the backdrop for a sci-fi production.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe film uses hand-drawn animation to portray the protagonist\u2019s mundane reality while live-action sequences depict the virtual realm to where he escapes.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe\u2019re glad that an independent hybrid film like \u2018Light Pillar\u2019 will meet U.S. audiences with Greenwich,\u201d said Xu Zao and Lu Xiaowei. \u201cWe hope the film touches their hearts with its humor and warmth. Our \u2018Old New East West Film Studios\u2019 welcomes everyone dreaming of soaring towards the stars.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tLu Xiaowei produced for Fengduan Pictures. The deal, which was unveiled at the Cannes Film Market<\/a>, was negotiated by Greenwich\u2019s Jasper Basch with Cercamon\u2019s Sebastien Chesneau representing the filmmakers.<\/p>\n

\n\tGreenwich Entertainment\u2019s recent releases include \u201cThe Critic\u201d starring Ian McKellen, \u201cBonjour Tristesse\u201d and \u201cClose to You.\u201d The distributor\u2019s upcoming slate also includes the animated film \u201cJinsei.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tXu holds a master\u2019s degree from the Beijing Film Academy\u2019s School of Fine Art. His 43-minute animated work \u201cNo Changes Have Taken In Our Life\u201d premiered at Rotterdam in 2023 and collected the Golden Dove for animated film at DOK Leipzig plus the Grand Prize at Japan\u2019s Image Forum Festival. Beyond directing, Xu also wrote the screenplay and created the storyboards for \u201cLight Pillar.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n

\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source variety.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Greenwich Entertainment has acquired U.S. distribution rights to \u201cLight Pillar,\u201d the debut feature from Chinese director and screenwriter Xu Zao. The Shanghai-based Fengduan Pictures production world-premiered in the Perspectives section of the Berlin Film Festival and will receive a theatrical release across the country early next year. The 2D animated film incorporates live-action sequences featuring […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2421394,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[326557,469395,351361,474420],"class_list":["post-2421393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-cannes-film-festival","tag-cannes-film-market","tag-greenwich-entertainment","tag-light-pillar"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Berlinale-Film-Light-Pillar-Lands-at-Greenwich-for-US-Release.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2421393","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2421393"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2421393\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2421395,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2421393\/revisions\/2421395"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2421394"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2421393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2421393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2421393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}