Parallax Films, the international sales arm of Midnight Blur Films, has taken world sales on Qiu Jiongjiong’s Fuxi: Four Tales of Feasting, a Tokyo International Film Festival competition title, Deadline reported on Monday 26 October. Earlier the same day, Variety reported that DNEG, the visual effects company behind Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, has joined Francesco Lucente’s Sinbad as co-financier and producer, with Hong Kong’s Cappu Films selling it. Both deals were announced before TIFFCOM, the festival’s market, which runs 28–30 October.
Key facts
- Fuxi: Four Tales of Feasting: world sales to Parallax Films; Tokyo competition screenings on 29 October, 1 November and 2 November
- Sinbad: DNEG reportedly co-finances and produces; Cappu Films sells in parts of Asia, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East and Africa
- Sinbad starts pre-production in early 2027, with delivery set for March 2029
- No prices, new budgets or financing shares were disclosed for either film
Each deal was first reported as an exclusive by a single trade outlet. Parallax’s website separately lists Fuxi on its slate as an official selection for Tokyo’s competition.
Fuxi: a Sichuan fantasy built on painted sets
Qiu’s first narrative feature, A New Old Play, took Locarno’s Special Jury Prize in 2021, and Fuxi is his follow-up. Parallax already handles his seven earlier films, according to Deadline. The new film draws on Sichuan folklore and moves through four feasts set across four millennia, where the living share a table with the dead, gods and ghosts. Its title is a Sichuan phrase for the pleasure of a full stomach.
Qiu, an artist as well as a filmmaker, builds the film’s world from hand-painted scenic flats, handmade props and theatrical staging, as Parallax describes it. A solo exhibition of the paintings, sets and props, Fuxi: A Feast for the Universe, is running at the A4 Art Museum in Chengdu. Lee Kang-sheng, Tsai Ming-liang’s long-time lead actor, plays two grandmothers in different chapters, Deadline says, his first female roles. Lee Hong-chi, whose Love Is a Gun won Venice’s Lion of the Future, and Annie Chen co-star. The festival lists a running time of 135 minutes, in Sichuan dialect.
David Tang, Ding Ningyuan and Zhao Jin produce. The festival credits the film to Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, Saudi Arabia and Qatar; Parallax’s own page lists the first three. The Saudi and Qatari credits match the support Deadline lists from the Red Sea Fund and the Doha Film Institute, alongside the Hong Kong-Asia Film Financing Forum (HAF), the MPA APSA Academy Film Fund and the Bucheon festival’s NAFF market. We covered the Red Sea Fund’s latest round when it chose 30 projects from 916 submissions.
When Fuxi went to HAF as a work in progress in March 2025, under the working title Fuxi: Joy in Four Chapters, Variety reported a budget of $1.2m, with 70% of the financing then in place. No updated figure has been published.
The festival, Deadline and Parallax all list the Tokyo screening as the world premiere.
Sinbad: a VFX house as co-financier
Lucente is writing and directing a new screen version of the sailor tales. Cappu first showed the project to buyers at Busan’s market this month, Variety reported, and talks continue while the cast and wider package are assembled. The territory list includes mainland China, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, German-speaking Europe, Spain, Portugal, Turkey and Eastern Europe, plus the CIS, the Caribbean and some Pacific island markets.
Cappu and Lucente worked together on Starbright, his fantasy feature with John Rhys-Davies, Diego Boneta and Ted Levine, which Cappu took on just before Busan. Janice Woo of Cappu told Variety that DNEG’s involvement was “particularly compelling” for a film of this kind.
DNEG’s teams have won eight visual effects Oscars, according to Variety, and the company’s credits include Inception, Interstellar and both Dune films. The size of its investment, the budget and any cast have not been announced. For how buyers and financiers met in Busan, see our report on the ACFM’s investor agenda. Our festivals and markets coverage has the rest of Tokyo.
Our reading
The two deals sit at opposite ends of what a sales agent carries into TIFFCOM. Fuxi is a finished, low-budget auteur film whose value will be set by its competition screenings and reviews this week. Sinbad is a package more than two years from delivery, and DNEG’s role matters most as a signal that the effects budget, usually the hardest line to close on a fantasy, has a partner behind it. The next thing to watch is the first territory sales on either title, and whether Sinbad attaches cast before the European Film Market in February.
Sources
- Deadline (Parallax Films and Fuxi, 26 October 2026)
- Parallax Films / Midnight Blur Films, film page for Fuxi: Four Tales of Feasting
- Tokyo International Film Festival, film page and festival guide
- Tokyo International Film Festival, 39th edition line-up announcement
- Variety (DNEG and Sinbad, 26 October 2026)
- Variety (Cappu Films and Starbright, September 2026)
- Variety (Fuxi at HAF, March 2025)