Xi Feng is a film editor based in Montreal. Having lived in China, Canada, and France, she has cultivated a unique blend of cultural and artistic sensitivity. Feng has worked as an editor on award winning films including Clebs, Cette Maison, Caiti Blues and most recently Universal Language, which won the inaugural Audience Award at the Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes in 2024 and shortlisted for the Oscars in 2025. Her filmography includes films premiered at prestigious festivals such as Berlinale, Cannes, Sundance, TIFF, Vision du Réel, and HotDocs. She also served as an editing mentor for multiple film festivals and is currently a board member for the Canadian Cinema Editors. Dive into the spotlight below!
If we can start at your first moments of inspiration – what sparked your interest in editing and what did the early stages of understanding the craft look like for you?
Like many film editors, I landed in this profession through a series of mysterious life events. As a lover of all forms of arts, I had been learning a few of them before realizing they all contributed to my passion for cinema. I studied design, made animation, and directed short films and video art in my formative years. It wasn’t until my first job as assistant editor on a feature documentary, Last Train Home, that I began to think of editing as a career choice. I credit my mentors Mary Stephen and Hannale Halm for introducing me to the craft and its possibilities. After a few years, it started to make more and more sense for film editing to be my career choice. Documentary editing has been a wonderful school to learn about storytelling, structure, and character building. The process was quite overwhelming with the amount of footage and options so there was a lot of “How” and “Why” in the early stages.
Xi giving the Lifetime Achievement award to her mentor Mary Stephen at the CCE Awards
You completed the Norman Jewison Film Program at the CFC in 2019, what was your experience like during the program?
After 10 years of working in documentary, I wanted to make the leap to editing feature narrative projects. CFC Editors’ Lab helped me understand the industrial workflow for fiction films and got me acquainted with the Toronto film industry. Besides the feature film exercise, I edited three short films by directors from the Directors’ Lab, which gave me confidence to work on more narrative projects. The residency also eventually led me to join Canadian Cinema Editors as a board member, thanks to fellow CFC alumni.
Was there a singular moment at the CFC that stood out to you?
I greatly enjoyed the feature film editing exercise in which all residents from the Lab each cut their own portion of an existing feature film. There were three of us that year, and we worked on the film Goalie, originally edited by Simone Smith whose work I admire. When we each showed our sections of the film, it was a defining moment for me to see how we had interpreted the material so differently to tell the same story. It made me realize that editors have a lot of creative potential, even though we are cutting to a script.
Have you gone on to work with anybody that you were in the program with?
Yes, I feel lucky we had a very strong year with some talented filmmakers. I went on to work with Roney on her short film Bee Problem, and with Teyama Alkamli on her short film I Never Promised You A Jasmine Garden. I also worked with Gillian McKercher on her short Rebecca’s Room and more recently her feature film Lucky Star, a CFC/Netflix Project Development Accelerator project. I also collaborated a few times with Iva Delic from the Slaight Music Residency.
Massive congratulations on Universal Language. How did you first get involved in the project and what was your reaction to the script?
I first discovered Matthew [Rankin]’s 20th Century when we were given a pass to attend TIFF in 2019, thanks to the CFC! Every filmmaker in my cohort was talking about this mind-blowing film! We even used the mother character played by the great Louis Negin as the thumbnail to our WhatsApp group. Years later, Matthew and I got to know each other after I edited This House (Cette Maison) in which he played a character, and he came to our test screening. We quickly realized we wanted to work together.
As an immigrant who lives in three languages, I appreciated the absurd humour in the script for Universal Language, which of course is written in Persian, French and English. Matthew discussed a few scenes with me with his hand-drawn storyboards and images of those “brutalist” beige buildings from his location scouting. I had zero doubt the visuals would be incredible!
Universal Language team at the Cannes Directors’ Fortnight (Left to right: Xi Feng, Matthew Rankin, Isabelle Stachtchenko, Sacha Ratcliffe)
Can you tell us a bit about your work on the film and what your approach was?
I’m always amazed at how certain projects can be such a dream to work on, with people I admire and trust deeply, with lots of fun and without much stress. As the film was cleverly conceived and precisely executed, it wasn’t a very difficult experience at all. After I built a first assembly, Matthew and I continued to experiment with comic timing and to find the best bits of performance for all the lines. Since the film was shot in 16mm, there was a precise but efficient coverage. With my documentary background, I did come up with a few structural suggestions, especially to clarify the mix of timelines in the story. We trimmed lines and even cut a few hilarious scenes that we cherished. But we also found some surprising moments such as the singing at the end, which was improvised by an actor on set. It was always a balancing act between emotion and logic. We wanted to preserve Matthew’s vision and bold cinematic language, but also to bring the audience along with us on this journey.
Now having the benefit of hindsight, is there anything you learned on Universal Language that you’ll apply going forward?
Even though we had our minds set on making the best film we could, Universal Language has had a greater reception than we could ever have imagined. It really does resonate with people universally! Something I learned is not to rush for film festivals. Matthew submitted the film to Cannes only after all the online and mix were completed. I think the experience also reminded me of all the right reasons we choose to participate in a project: the laser focus on crafting the film, the risks we take to be artistically bold, the support we provide for each other and the tight-knit film family that we are creating.
We recently chatted with fellow alum Anna Catley about the increasing pressure for quicker turnarounds in the industry. In your opinion do you think the external deadline pressure has affected the way editors approach their work?
The pressure for quicker turnarounds is indeed a common issue, largely due to a misunderstanding about our work as editors. While many decisions can seem easy or fast to make from the finished film, they are often not. I believe some stages of our work are like sketches, where we need to nail the first impression quickly, intuitively and get to the big structure faster. But there are other stages that feel like sculpting, which are more meticulous and detail-oriented. Problem solving can also take a lot more time than anticipated. I usually cut quite fast, and I develop strategies to prioritize footage. This allows me to manage stress to get work done on time. But when I can slow down during a project, I often come up with better ideas, which bring the film to a more nuanced place, with less obvious decisions or with deeper meaning. We also need time to review the film, especially during the fine cut stages to make sure we’ve made the right choices. Editors stay in the shadows a lot, and many are quite selfless people. But I think we should also learn how to negotiate work conditions. It’s like the old saying about any project: you often face a trade-off between cost, quality, and speed. Often, projects are years in the making until they end up with the editor. At that point, everyone is anxious to see the finished product, but it’s really a pity to sacrifice quality over speed.
How do you find collaborators in this industry? Any advice you could give to folks just starting out in their careers?
I have the luxury to focus my work on a niche of arthouse films, which is a small pool of pure hearted, kind and talented filmmakers. I started my career by having wonderful mentors. Then I naturally gravitated to filmmakers who are bold, visionary, and original thinkers. From Michka Saäl and Julien Elie in the documentary world, to Halima Ouardiri and Yung Chang for their docs and fiction, and then Miryam Charles and Matthew Rankin in more experimental films. With each of them, a profound friendship and trust were developed out of our collaborations. Editors who are starting out have to hustle and maybe take on projects to put bread on the table, but even so I would say they should not hesitate to reach out to people whose work they admire, and most importantly, who are good people.
What’s next for you? Can you tell us more about your upcoming projects and what types of films you’d like to work on in the future?
I have another project close to my heart that will be showing at Hot Docs later this month called Shifting Baselines with director Julien Elie. It has stunning black and white cinematography. Gillian McKercher’s feature film Lucky Star will have its Canadian theatrical release in May. I’m finishing another poetic feature documentary on hunting, with two arthouse feature films lined up this summer and fall. I feel lucky to be busy for the next while on feature films that I enjoy working on. As for the future, I hope to continue working with directors who have compelling visions.
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