With a better awards season campaign, Lulu Wang’s sophomore feature “The Farewell” could have ended up with more than one Golden Globe award. The film premiered to stellar reviews at last year’s edition of Sundance, which are usually enough to create a significant buzz. The decision to ship it off to wide distribution in late summer / early autumn and in anglophone countries first, led to a decent box office success ($22 million against the budget of $3 million) for an indie film, but it affected the film’s chances for the awards.

“The Farewell” is screening at Vesoul International Film Festival of Asian Cinema

The plot follows Billie (played by Chinese-American rapper/actress Nora Lum better known as Awkwafina) and her coming to terms with the fact that her beloved grandmother Nai Nai (Zhao Shuzhen) is dying at the opposite end of the world. She is diagnosed with a terminal lung cancer,...