The Chinese animated feature Han ye deng zhu (Light Pillar) from director Xu Zao, has been picked as an 11th-hour entry to the 2026 Berlin International Film Festival. It will have its world premiere in Berlin‘s Perspectives section as the 14th and final entry in the lineup, Berlin festival organizers unveiled on Thursday.
The film, which mixes live action and animated sequences, is set in a distant future where space travel is commonplace. A lonely janitor tends the grounds of a dilapidated bankrupt film studio with only a former cat actor for company – until he embarks on a romantic journey with a female character in a beautiful virtual world.
Light Pillar was produced by Xu and actor/director Da Peng for Fengduan Film. Xu, also referred to as Xu Jingwei or Jingwei Xu, won the DOK Leipzig’s Golden Dove in 2023 for his animated documentary short No Changes Have Taken in Our Life.
Light Pillar is the second feature animation in Berlin’s main line-up this year. Yoshitoshi Shinomiya’s feature anime, A New Dawn, will premiere in competition at the Berlinale this year.
Among the other standouts in this year’s Perspectives section are A Prayer for the Dying, from U.S. director Dara Van Dusen, a Western featuring Johnny Flynn, John C. Reilly, and Kristine Kujath Thorp; Animol from British actor-turned-director Ashley Walters (Top Boy); and Take Me Home from Korean-American filmmaker Liz Sargent, which will premiere in Sundance.
