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29 Jan – 8 Feb 2026

Pema Tseden

Pema TSEDEN (1969, China) was educated at the Northwest University for Nationalities where he majored in Tibetan Language and Literature. Afterwards Tseden became the first-ever Tibetan student at the prestigious Beijing Film Academy. Besides filmmaking, Tseden pursues a career as a writer and translator. He has published more than 50 novels in both Chinese and Tibetan. He is considered to be the leading figure in Tibetan Cinema and his films have won awards at festivals in Venice, Brooklyn and Shanghai.

Filmografie

The Grassland (2004, short), Lhing vjags kyi ma ni rdo vbum/The Silent Holy Stones (2005), Xunzhao zhimei gengdeng/The Search (2009), Khyi rgan/The Old Dog (2011), Wu cai shen jian/The Sacred Arrow (2014), Tharlo (2015), Zhuang si le yi zhi yang/Jinpa (2018), Qiqiu/Balloon (2019)

More info: Wikipedia, Pema Tseden

Pema Tseden at IFFR

  • Balloon

    Cheerfully melancholic story of Tibet in the 1980s, as China’s one-child policy encroaches on Buddhist traditions and condoms can become ball

  • Old Dog

    Third feature by the front runner of Tibetan cinema, whose first short film was screened in Rotterdam. Without raising the tempo, he gets better an