The Chinese Independent Film Archive (CIFA) is established with the support from the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), the British Film Institute (BFI), and Newcastle University.
CIFA is the major outcome of the AHRC-funded research project titled ‘Independent Cinema in China: State, Market and Film Culture’ (2019-2024), led by Principal Investigator Professor Sabrina Qiong Yu (Newcastle University), with Professor Chris Berry (King’s College London) and Dr Luke Robinson (University of Sussex) Co-Investigators, and Dr Lydia Dan Wu (Newcastle University) as Research Associate.The project investigates how the relationship to the state and the market has shaped Chinese independent cinema in terms of its production, circulation, and reception. More information can be found at https://research.ncl.ac.uk/chinaindiecinema/.
The archive collection is being further expanded through the BFI-funded project titled ‘Hong Kong Independent Cinema: Collecting, Archiving and Exhibiting’ (2025-2026). The project aims to enhance the preservation and accessibility of independent cinema from Hong Kong.
CIFA is supported by a multi-national Advisory Board comprised of prominent filmmakers, curators and scholars of Chinese independent cinema around the world, including Akiyama Tamako (Japan), Cao Kai (Mainland China), Tammy Cheung (Hong Kong), Kuo Li-Hsin (Taiwan), Shelly Kraicer (Canada), Wood Lin (Taiwan), Markus Nornes (USA), Luisa Prudentino (France/Italy), Wang Xiaolu (Mainland China), Wu Wenguang (Mainland China), Brian Winston (UK), Zhang Zhen (USA) and Zhang Xianmin (Mainland China).
CIFA aims not only to safeguard this film culture for future generations, but also act as an alternative record of social changes, historical traumas, and the lives of ordinary people in modern and contemporary China – a record not always easily accessible.
CIFA works closely with a large number of Chinese independent filmmakers and curators, as well as a range of industry partners and cultural institutions to raise the visibility of independent cinema in China and enhance the world’s understanding of China’s film industry and film culture in China. CIFA also works with scholars and universities around the world to advance the study of Chinese independent cinema and encourage the use of the collections at CIFA for research on, and the teaching of, modern and contemporary China.