Light Pillar brings flipped animation to Pingyao search for home
First-time director Xu Zao has brought his animated feature Light Pillar to Pingyao without a distributor in China.
The film is competing in Hidden Dragons, the Pingyao strand for Chinese-language films by emerging directors, and was still seeking Chinese distribution when reported on 29 September 2026 by Variety. That leaves a central piece of business open. The festival itself opened its 10th edition with an international lineup, according to China Daily.
Light Pillar, under the Chinese title Han ye deng zhu, had its world premiere in Berlinale Perspectives, the Berlin festival said in its lineup announcement. It completed a 14-film selection for the section. Berlin listed the film for 14 February 2026.
The film flips the usual blend of drawing and camera. The real world is entirely 2D animation. The game world inside the story is live action, led by Da Peng and Qing Yi.
Da Peng plays and voices the character Zha. He also co-produced the film. He met Xu at the CFDG Young Shoots Project in 2023, where Da Peng sat on the jury.
The live-action material was organised into a five-day shoot. Xu said the story drew on real cases of teenagers running telecom scams. Xu was born in 1991 in Anshan in Liaoning Province, China, Berlin notes in its programme entry.
Attention at Pingyao has also turned to what comes next. Xu's follow-up project Easy, My Friend has been selected for the HAF Film Lab, a development scheme for early-stage films. It is still at script stage. It centres on a skilled illustrator who rebuilds her life through rooftop gardening after AI takes her drawing skills and her job.
What makes this stand out is the simple swap at the centre of Light Pillar. Animation carries reality. Camera carries the game. For audiences new to either director or cast, that switch is easy to spot on screen.
