The 8th Beijing International Film Festival closes.
Directed by the Propaganda Department of the CPC Central Committee (National Film Bureau), sponsored by Beijing Municipal People’s Government and Central Radio and Television Station, and hosted by Beijing Press, Publication, Radio and Television Bureau, Beijing Huairou District People’s Government, Beijing TV Station and Beijing Beikong Real Estate Co., Ltd., the 8th Beijing International Film Festival, bathed in the mighty spring breeze of the new era and bearing the beautiful dream of the new century, came to a successful conclusion on April 22nd after eight days of grand exhibition and gorgeous blooming.
Looking at this Beijing International Film Festival, what have we seen and felt?
We are delighted to see that, on the basis of the successful hosting of the previous seven film festivals, this year’s Beijing International Film Festival focuses on the development and prosperity of China’s films in the past 40 years of reform and opening up, shows China’s enthusiasm and tolerance in embracing the world today, and shows China people’s firmness and confidence in creating and moving towards a better future.
We are proud to feel that with new expression, new style and new hope, she has presented the world with a brand-new style of Beijing and China in the new era!
First, the new expression: tell the story of China in the new era.
The report of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China pointed out that it is necessary to promote the construction of international communication capacity, tell the story of China well and show a true, three-dimensional and comprehensive China. General Secretary of the Supreme Leader also asked "literary and art workers to tell the story of China well" at the national symposium on literary and art work. Movies are the most easily accepted cultural media. How to tell the story of China in the new era with fascinating stories, internationally popular film language and narrative skills has naturally become the proper meaning and due duty of the Eighth Beijing International Film Festival.
one.Theme Exhibition: Focusing on the Historical Nodes of China
The highlight of this year’s Beijing International Film Festival is the multi-dimensional display of the unique charm of China films through the "40th Anniversary of Reform and Opening-up". In his 2018 New Year speech, General Secretary of the Supreme Leader stressed that it is necessary to "take the opportunity of celebrating the 40th anniversary of reform and opening up and carry the reform through to the end." The 40th anniversary of reform and opening-up is an important historical node in the development of contemporary China, and also an important milestone in the development of China film industry. In the past 40 years, the film industry in China has undergone tremendous changes, and the current prosperity of the film market is undoubtedly the cultural fruit of reform and opening up. To this end, this year’s film festival specially planned the "Special Film Exhibition to Commemorate the 40th Anniversary of Reform and Opening-up", which made a comprehensive and systematic review and combing of China films in recent years. This special exhibition covers "Focus Shadow Man: Zhang Yimou" and "Brilliant China Film — — Four sub-units, 40 films and a number of meeting and exchange meetings, which are featured in the 40th anniversary of the reform and opening-up, are connected in series with the idea of point, line and surface curation, and together form a cross-section of the social history of China films and even China in the past 40 years of reform and opening-up, and form a trace within their respective themes in contrast with the current reality. Among them, "The 40th Anniversary of Reform and Opening-up Boutique Exhibition"A collection of eight representative films can be said to provide a collection of the most recognizable and representative national portraits of China films.
2. Opening the closing ceremony: showing the cultural charm of China.
The charm of China’s story is rooted in the unique China culture, and the uniqueness of China culture is the calling card for China’s story to go global. The opening and closing ceremonies of the 8th Beijing International Film Festival show cultural self-confidence with Chinese style, Beijing sentiment, main melody, positive energy and international norms, and build a spiritual bridge of "sharing resources and winning the future together" on the night of China where filmmakers from all over the world gather. The back-pattern elements in the beautiful dance design of the opening and closing ceremonies express the beautiful meaning of a long history, endless life, and unity of 99 and 99 with "one of the eight auspicious patterns" in China. The opening song and dance "Gathering in Beijing" and the closing song "The Covenant of the Temple of Heaven" expressed their gratitude to the guests in the form of a ceremonial stage, extended invitations to filmmakers around the world, and interpreted the core values of the Tiantan Award "Harmony between Heaven and Man, Beauty and Beauty". Traditional elements such as martial arts, Peking Opera, calligraphy and Quyi are everywhere in the content of the program. The song Heroes on Earth pays tribute to China movies with a refreshing cross-border performance of Peking Opera and Rap. The large-scale action show True Hero leads the audience to relive the unique charm of China Kung Fu in the screen art. The ink, light and shadow instrumental ensemble Harmony between Heaven and Man is presented through the innovative use of visual technologies such as ice screen, turntable, floor screen and sky eye. The splendid presentation of these oriental aesthetics and China cultural elements not only emphasizes the harmonious coexistence between man and nature, but also has the spirit of the times of compatibility and integration;It not only advocates equal exchanges and complementary brilliance between countries and nations, but also conforms to the development trend of world ideology and culture and the common value orientation of all mankind, so that more people of different ages and with different film preferences can participate in the film festival and feel the endless charm of film art together.
3. Beijing Exhibition: Pursuing China’s Aesthetic Style
Beijing International Film Festival has been pursuing the aesthetic style of China’s films. Two films, Yellow Land and horse thief, are regarded as the important representative works of China’s fifth generation directors and occupy a unique position in the history of China films. After a lapse of more than 30 years, the 8th Beijing International Film Festival specially held the premiere of these two "4K" restored classic films independently completed by China Film Archive, which created powerful conditions for these classic films to return to public view and realize their re-release. Huang Shuqin, a famous fourth-generation director, created People, Ghosts and Feelings, which is one of the most outstanding feminist films in China. Dasheng Zheng, a literati director, recently filmed the latest masterpiece Village Drama, both of which used traditional opera elements, but expressed modern concept consciousness from a completely different perspective. In addition to the theme of the works, the two directors are still in a mother-child relationship. This film festival specially arranged for the two films to be shown in series, and invited director Dasheng Zheng to participate in the exchange. The multiple echoes inside and outside the play made the activities more interesting and more academic. The two domestic films shortlisted for the "Tiantan Award" this year are also excellent films with a strong sense of reality, times and distinctive national development imprint. Operation Red Sea has aroused the sense of identity and pride of countless people in the country, and the film has also won the best visual effect award of this "Tiantan Award"; "Eighteen-hole Village" is directly based on the reality, putting China’s poverty alleviation action on the screen.Let the world know a real China and understand the feelings of a responsible country. In addition, at the closing ceremony of this film festival, the appearance of the performing artist Li Xuejian became the only touching moment when the audience stood up and applauded, which showed the unchanging initial intentions of several generations of China filmmakers and carried forward the past.
Second, the new style: to convey the voice of Beijing in the new era
Beijing is the birthplace of China movies. Today’s Beijing is home to the largest number of film production, distribution, educational institutions and professionals in China, with the widest audience and the most dynamic film market. Therefore, since its birth, Beijing International Film Festival has been carrying the mission of promoting the right to speak in China’s film industry and leading the new development of global films, striving to convey the international, national and Beijing-flavored Beijing voice in the new era.
1. Profession is king, highlighting the top international standards.
After several years of exploration and growth, the influence of the main competition unit "Tiantan Award" has been rapidly improved, and this year it has even more demonstrated the master temperament and "international norm". First, the judges have a strong lineup. This year’s "Tiantan Award" is composed of seven famous international filmmakers. Wong Kar-wai, an internationally renowned film director, is the chairman of the international jury. The six judges are: Duan Long, a famous actor in China, Jan A.P. Kaczmarek, a famous Polish composer and producer, jonathan mostow, an American film director, screenwriter and producer, Karin Peter noetzel, a Romanian film director, a Swedish film director, a screenwriter Ruben Ostlund and an China actress Shu Qi. Second, a collection of excellent films. This year’s "Tiantan Award" collected excellent films from all over the world, and received a total of 659 films from six continents and 71 countries and regions, with rich themes, diverse types and different styles. Third, the awards are eye-catching. After five rounds of screening, 15 films from 19 countries and regions were shortlisted for this "Tiantan Award", including 13 overseas films and 2 domestic films. The quality of the films was greatly improved again compared with the previous ones, which was well received by the expert selection committee. The jury made a strict and careful selection of the above 15 films.Ten Tiantan Awards were finally selected: best film Panic Mom (Georgia/Estonia), best director Marianne Kaqiwani’s Mom (Georgia/Qatar/Ireland/Netherlands/Croatia), best actor joe cole’s Visual Juliet (Canada) and best actress Nata Mo Wen Naiz’s Panic Mom (Georgia/Croatia). Best Supporting Actor paul bettany’s End of the Journey (UK), Best Supporting Actress Mina Sadati’s Hot Summer (Iran), Best Screenplay Amichai Greenberg’s Testimony (Israel/Austria), Best Photography Konstantin Isadze’s Mom (Georgia/Qatar/Ireland/Netherlands/Croatia), Best Visual Effect Operation Red Sea ().
2. Each has its own beauty, realizing multicultural blending.
Beijing International Film Festival highlights the multi-country, multi-theme, multi-style film culture on the same stage, accepts filmmakers and film works from all countries and regions in the world with tolerance, and shows the openness of globalization in cross-cultural communication. The main competition unit "Tiantan Award" actively expands the channels for inviting films, and extensively collects outstanding new films from all over the world, regardless of the size of the country, regardless of the region and race, and is measured in full accordance with the value standard of "each has its own beauty, and the United States and the United States share it". 659 films from six continents and 71 countries and regions signed up for the evaluation, an increase of 235 films compared with the seventh film registration. Among them, there are 532 overseas films (including Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan) and 127 domestic films, with rich themes, diverse types and different styles. "Beijing Exhibition" has also become an important platform for exchanges and cooperation between China and the global film industry. It not only brings together many excellent works that have won awards and received high praise in various international film festivals in the past year, but also focuses on setting up national units such as Czech Republic, Canada, Japan and Poland, which not only makes Beijing audiences feast their eyes, but also promotes cultural exchanges and industrial cooperation among various countries. The diversity of exhibitors at this year’s Beijing International Film Festival has also been further enhanced, with 220 enterprises registered online, and international exhibitors from Britain, Australia, Japan, Ukraine, Israel, Mongolia and other countries. Adhering to "Sharing resources and winning the future ",Beijing International Film Festival has built an important platform for cultural exchange between China films and international films, and also demonstrated the vitality and charm of Beijing as a national cultural center to the world.
3. Culture benefits the people and creates a shared atmosphere of Beijing flavor.
"Spring, come to Beijing to see the best movies in the world", Beijing International Film Festival always adheres to the service concept of public participation and culture benefiting the people, strives to create a unique atmosphere of sharing among the whole people in Beijing, and introduces the best and best movies in the world to the fans and audiences in Beijing. This year’s "Beijing Exhibition" has nearly 80 pre-screening and post-screening exchanges and salon lectures, of which more than 40 domestic films have been exchanged, with an unprecedented scale. This year, a "Science and Technology Unit" has been added, so that citizens can walk into the Science and Technology Museum and watch special effects movies such as ball screen movies, image maximum movies and 4D movies. In addition to public welfare activities such as special effects film selection and popular science movies entering the campus, film carnivals, film concerts, red carpet fan recruitment and other activities also let ordinary people enter the film world. At the same time, this year’s film festival has also made many improvements in services, and the ticketing experience of the official ticketing platform has been further optimized to carry more user traffic; More offline cinemas and cinemas participated in this film festival, which brought more real convenience. The organizing committee’s continuous efforts and improvement in benefiting the people have promoted the participation of the whole people in the event, and the participation group of the Beijing International Film Festival has gradually expanded from a small number of "shadow circle" audiences to ordinary audiences, which is finally reflected in the box office level. According to statistics, this year’s film festival broke through 2 million box office within 1 minute and 9 million in 12 minutes.Popular films such as The Grand Budapest Hotel, Titanic and Chongqing Forest were sold out in just a few tens of seconds, which not only stunned the public, but also once again showed the world the potential of China film market and the cultural prosperity behind the film market.
Third, new hope: bloom the dream of a new era movie
Beijing International Film Festival should be born with the times and go hand in hand with the times. With the improvement of China’s national strength, people’s growing demand for a better cultural life and the rapid development of China’s film market, the spread and influence of film festivals are increasing day by day. Over the past seven years, more than 1,600 film and television companies and more than 7,000 people in the industry have shown, exchanged, promoted and traded here, which has not only become the most important exchange and cooperation platform for China film market, but also become a landmark event to lead the industry trend and promote industrial development. In 2017, the total box office of China film market entered the "50 billion era", and China has become the second largest film market in the world. In this context, the 8th Beijing International Film Festival continued to promote the work of the film market, with 38 key projects of 79 companies signing cooperation, with a total amount of 26.0825 billion yuan, up by about 49% compared with the previous year. The accumulated signing amount exceeded 100 billion yuan, totaling 101.036 billion yuan, which effectively promoted the resource integration and collaborative innovation of the whole industry chain in various activities, provided a good opportunity for the vigorous development of China films, and opened the door for China films to go global.
1. Push new people, new works and new projects.
The Beijing International Film Festival has always been committed to promoting the rapid development of the film industry in China and the world, striving to play the role of an industrial incubator and boosting new people, new works and new projects. This year’s film festival organized the main creative media meeting, new film release conference and premiere to build a publicity and promotion platform for newcomers’ new works; Discover, promote and support outstanding young people with market potential; Set up a "focus on the future" unit to capture the film trend and encourage film originality; Established "China New Filmmaker Fund Award" and "MPA Award" in cooperation with Cannes Film Festival and other institutions to support newcomers to participate in international exchanges; The "Special Award for Project Venture Capital" and "Most Commercial Potential Award" were established, which attracted representatives from hundreds of film production organizations around the world to discuss and exchange, and helped young filmmakers take the first step to the market. During this year’s film festival, a forum was held with the theme of "How to improve the support system for new directors and build a high-standard industrialized film road in China film market", where the directors from domestic film public welfare organizations and commercial film and television platforms exchanged their experiences and achievements in excavating and supporting young directors.
2. Cultivate a new mode of project incubation.
Project venture capital has always been an important platform for Beijing International Film Festival to incubate the film market and support talents. It is committed to selecting excellent film projects and fully docking the elements of the film industry chain to help incubate excellent film works with artistic value and market potential. This project venture capital has received 722 projects, and the number of declared projects has reached a new high. It is particularly worth mentioning that with the good reputation of supporting excellent Chinese films for many years, Beijing International Film Festival project venture capital has gradually become the most eye-catching film incubation and support platform in the global Chinese language. Judging from the film projects collected this year, the influence of Beijing International Film Festival project venture capital in pan-Chinese-speaking areas has become increasingly prominent, especially the number of works in Hong Kong and Taiwan Province has increased significantly compared with previous years, which has attracted the active participation of outstanding Chinese filmmakers from Malaysia, Singapore, the United States, France and other countries, and the international influence of the film market venture capital platform has become increasingly prominent.
3. Focus on the new trend of film technology
This year’s Beijing International Film Festival included "Science and Technology Unit" in related activities for the first time. With the theme of "Movies Make Science More Wonderful", the event focused on the promotion and promotion of special effects movies to science communication based on the exhibition of ball screen movies, image maximum, 4D movies and action movies, and set up five activity sections, including special effects movie exhibition, popular science activities, masterpiece selection, exhibition exchange and academic forum, which brought wonderful technology movie experience to the public, and at the same time created an industry exchange platform for special effects movies, showing the achievements of global special effects movies. In particular, in the special effects film screening section, about 30 latest special effects films at home and abroad were screened, among which 19 films landed in Chinese mainland for the first time, including 3 world premieres, 9 Asian premieres and 7 domestic premieres, and BBC image maximum’s Ocean appeared as the opening film. These multi-national and high-quality works provide a broad artistic and technical vision for China’s sci-tech film creation, which will certainly promote the improvement of production level.
4. Explore the new path of industrial development
As the most forward-looking communication platform in the film market, the industry dialogue section combines the latest development trends of the industry every year, pays attention to hot topics and discusses cutting-edge trends, providing a platform for people in the industry to collide with each other and share new knowledge, and has become the "wind vane" of the film industry. This year’s film festival invited world-renowned directors, producers, company operating officers and experts and professors as keynote speakers. Starting from the problems at all levels that need to be solved urgently in the Chinese and foreign film industries, and grasping the development laws and trends of the world film industry, four theme forums were held: the Chinese-foreign film cooperation forum mainly analyzed the successful cases of international co-productions, and studied and discussed topics such as market positioning and co-production of co-productions of films; The International Film Group Summit Forum mainly focuses on the hot topics in the current film distribution market in China and deeply analyzes the development status of the global film industry; The International Forum on Film Science and Technology discusses the deep integration and development of technology and film; The summit forum of "Exploring the Beauty of Film" deeply explores the creation law, aesthetic character, aesthetic value and social function of film art, and the aesthetic relationship between audience and film art, etc. These activities have cutting-edge topics and diverse perspectives, including policy interpretation, case analysis, cooperation strategies and resource sharing mechanisms, which have opened up new opportunities and new ways for all-round cooperation between Chinese and foreign films.
After the 8th Beijing International Film Festival was held as the victory of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, as the 40th anniversary of reform and opening up, the first major international cultural exchange activity held in Beijing was far-reaching, fruitful and influential, far exceeding the general international cultural exchange activities. What she shows people is not only the wonderful movies, but also the beautiful and vibrant Beijing, and more importantly, the charm of China in the new era and the elegant demeanor of the people of China.
As the theme of this year’s film festival poster "Climb the Peak Again" implies, under the call of Socialism with Chinese characteristics’s cultural mission in the new era, the Beijing International Film Festival will adhere to the style and characteristics of "master, mass, big market", not forgetting the initial value of "harmony between man and nature, beauty and beauty", and forge ahead step by step, looking forward to climbing new heights with China films next year.
