Venice: M-Appeal Picks Up Chinese Director Jie Dong’s ‘Zoom In, Zoom Out’ Ahead of Premiere (EXCLUSIVE)
Berlin-based sales company M-Appeal has acquired international sales rights to Chinese director Jie Dong’s debut feature, “Zoom In, Zoom Out”, before its premiere in Venice Critics’ Week. The deal gives the film a prominent international sales partner as it launches at the festival, while highlighting a new Chinese filmmaker whose work explores how digital life affects relationships and memory.
The story follows Shi as he searches for his missing flatmate Gao, joining Gao’s girlfriend YY to reconstruct clues across memories, chat logs and online spaces. Produced by Do Something Films, the film examines contemporary Chinese youth and the overlap between reality and virtual worlds; Dong previously worked as an editor on Cannes-premiered “Are You Lonesome Tonight?” in 2021.
- M-Appeal acquires sales rights to Jie Dong’s Venice-bound debut.
- The film explores disappearance, memory and digital relationships.
- “Zoom In, Zoom Out” premieres in Venice Critics’ Week.
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Venice Critics’ Week is a festival programme that presents first and second films by emerging directors alongside the main Venice Film Festival. International sales companies help films reach distributors and audiences in other countries; M-Appeal is a Berlin-based company that handles those sales.
Jie Dong is a Chinese filmmaker making his debut feature after working as an editor on the 2021 film “Are You Lonesome Tonight?”. “Zoom In, Zoom Out” follows Shi and Gao’s girlfriend YY as they look for Gao, using memories, chat records and online spaces to piece together what happened.
The film looks at how digital life shapes relationships and memory among young people in China, and at the boundary between online and offline experience. Its festival premiere and international sales deal bring a new filmmaker’s work to the attention of audiences and distributors beyond China.