Annual Top Films Lists

Top 200 Most Anticipated Foreign Films of 2023: #191. Anthony Chen’s The Breaking Ice

Published on January 5, 2023

The Breaking Ice

His Camera d’Or winning Ilo Ilo (2013) and TIFF Platform section preemed Wet Season (2019) followed by his contribution with the Cannes preemed The Year of the Everlasting Storm have essentially turbo-boosted Anthony Chen‘s workload in 2022 which means….a hearty 2023 is upon us. With Drift set to premiere at Sundance (also featured in our list), the Singaporean filmmaker also has first Mainland Chinese production The Breaking Ice to be unveiled this year. Production took place North of China in Yanji last February with players Zhou Dongyu, Liu Haoran and Qu Chuxiao. Canopy Pictures’ Meng Xie and Chen produced the film.

Gist: Written and directed by Chen, the film follows the blossoming relationship among three young adults in their twenties, set over a short few days in the winter snow.

Release Date/Prediction: Berlinale is a possibility, but this will be tied to the Chinese theatrical release and so Toronto in the third quarter is also possible.

Eric Lavallée

Eric Lavallée is the founder, CEO, editor-in-chief, film journalist and critic at IONCINEMA.com (founded in 2000). Eric is a regular at Sundance, Cannes and TIFF. He has a BFA in Film Studies at the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema. In 2013 he served as a Narrative Competition Jury Member at the SXSW Film Festival. He was an associate producer on Mark Jackson's This Teacher (2018 LA Film Festival, 2018 BFI London). In 2022 he served as a New Flesh Comp for Best First Feature at the 2022 Fantasia Intl. Film Festival. Current top films for 2022 include Tár (Todd Field), All That Breathes (Shaunak Sen), Aftersun (Charlotte Wells).