William Hong-xiao WEI

I am a filmmaker and art theorist based in Edinburgh, UK. I earned my PhD and Master’s degree with Distinction in Film Studies from the University of Edinburgh, where I have taught cinema. My (...) academic research interests are multifaceted, encompassing experimental cinema, essay film, arthouse cinema, queer cinema, film-philosophy, film aesthetics, and intermediality. Beyond academia, I am an active practitioner in avant-garde filmmaking. My debut short film, Green Thoughts (2020), premiered at the 31st FIDMarseille. My second short film Embers from Yesterday, Aflame.(2022), distributed by Collectif Jeune Cinéma, premiered at the 24th Festival des Cinémas Différents et Expérimentaux de Paris. My latest short documentary film Elegy for the Lost (2025) has been selected for the 66th Festival dei Popoli and the 28th Montreal International Documentary Festival. My short films have been showcased at renowned film festivals in Beijing, Buenos Aires, Florence, Glasgow, Hawick, İstanbul, London, Marseille, Montréal, Moscow, Paris, Rio de Janeiro, Thessaloniki, Toronto, and many others, furthering my exploration of the intersection between film theory and film practice. I am also the author of the upcoming monograph Poetic Cinema: Reframing Film Aesthetics through Traditional Chinese Poetics (Edinburgh University Press). My book proposes a decolonising approach to the poetics of cinema, expanding the scholarly horizons of film studies beyond the Euro-American discourse. By inquiring into various contemporary films' engagement with historical narratives, religious contemplation, romance, and cosmology, I formulate unique affective categories of poetic cinema that contribute to the nuances of cinematic expressions and experiences.