UK Premiere
Jincheng Driving School 金城驾校
MINT Animation Short Strand: My Spectrum, My Shadow, and My Self
Year of Production 2025
Production Countries/Regions China
Duration 10 mins
Genres Drama Comedy Animation Family Animation
Dialogue Language(s) Mandarin
Subtitle Language(s) Chinese and English subtitles
Director(s) BingHao Jiao
Director’s Bio
Graduated from the Animation Department of China Academy of Art with a bachelor's degree. During his time at school, he won the 2024 National Scholarship, and the animated short film "Jincheng Driving School" won the China Academy of Art 2025 Graduation Creation and Lin Fengmian Creation Gold Award. The works were shortlisted for FIRST, Hishorts, Fenachi Animation Week and other film festivals.
Synopsis
Jincheng Driving School "is an animated short film that uses daily driving practice as a narrative medium. Through lifelike scenes and delicate character interactions, it showcases the warmth and conflict in ordinary life. The film revolves around five characters with vastly different personalities: Coach Suo from a near retirement driving school, retired woman Wang Xiufang who yearns for self driving tours, introverted social worker Song Tingting, and ambitious twin brothers from a vocational school named "Traffic Lights". The story revolves around a three subject exercise, interspersed with unexpected events such as pig transport accidents and car breakdowns on suburban roads, and ultimately ends with the subtle emotional connection between Coach Suo and his son (train driver).
Festivals & Awards
2025 3rd FIRST Fantastic Film Festival
2025 7th HiShorts! Film Festival - Animation Section
2025 7th Feinaki Animation Week - Short Film Competiton Program
Scriptwriter(s)
BingHao Jiao
Producer(s)
Executive Producer(s)
Key Casts
Voice performance by Xiufang Wang, Yan Shen and Lao Suo
Curators’ note
Jincheng Driving School looks at everyday life in China with a calm and assured eye, rendering a series of scenes rich in local texture: a girl wary of the sun, a lady keen on recording her life, roadside watermelon stalls, fields in full bloom, and trucks carrying livestock. These seemingly modest moments form a grounded, lived-in rhythm, allowing the ordinary itself to emerge as the quiet protagonist of the animation. （Jihan Huang, edited by Xiyun Li)
Director’s Statement
Based on the director's real experience of taking the driver's license exam, adapted the story from the real story in life, paying attention to the life trajectory of small characters, capturing the accidents and coincidences of life with realistic brushstrokes, and making ordinary highways a stage for observing society.
