Speaking about the project, Jia, who serves as the executive producer, says the decision to form an all-woman team was born at the Pingyao International Film Festival, an annual event launched by Jia in his hometown province of Shanxi, a place consistently depicted in his critically acclaimed films.

Explaining how the idea took root, he says: "We saw an interesting phenomenon there: three of the total four prizes were bagged by female directors, whose movies were very dynamic and creative. So we were thinking we can feature feminism as the theme of the second coproduction, and the idea received warm response from BRICS countries."

The movie's title is based on Chairman Mao Zedong's statement in the 1950s: "Women hold up half the sky."

Jia also says female directors have a good eye when it comes to capturing emotion and change.

The new movie will be an anthology like the first one, and will consists of five short stories-all about women-each respectively directed by the five filmmakers.