Beijing film festival wants to be No.1 in Asia
- By Zhang Rui
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E-mail China.org.cn, April 15, 2015
Organizers said they hope to establish the Beijing International Film Festival as the biggest in Asia in the next three to five years at a press conference in Beijing on Tuesday.
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Organizers introduce general information about the Fifth Beijing International Film Festival on April 14, 2015. [Photo/China.org.cn] |
Zhao Zhiyong, the executive vice secretary-general of the festival committee, said this year's festival is more international than previous ones as more Chinese and foreign film agencies, enterprises and institutes are participating than before. He estimated that more than 1 million visitors will attend the festival's various activities.
The organizers set a new goal for the next three to five years to "establish the Beijing International Film Festival as the No.1 festival in Asia, and make it stand as tall as the Cannes Film Festival in Europe and the Toronto International Film Festival in North America."
But the relatively young Beijing festival will face competition from heavyweight veteran rivals such as the Shanghai International Film Festival, the Hong Kong International Film Festival and the Tokyo International Film Festival.
Largely due to the Beijing government's support, the Beijing International Film Festival has grown much larger in the past five years as China has become the second-largest film market in the world. The number of registered exhibitors at the festival has increased to 275, among which 140 are from 25 countries and regions outside of China, including the United States, Canada, France, Germany and Russia. A total of 455 projects have been collected for this year's Film Market "Project Pitches," a program that supports future filmmakers and movies with great potential. The number of submissions to the program has gone up more than 100 percent year on year for two consecutive years.
Ten projects – "Gate," "Instant love," "Age of Roses," "The Wife," "The Bell Flower," "Last Love In Antarctica," "A Man Vanishes," "The Architect Of Paradise," "Mission to Steal Time" and "The Space" – will compete for the "Project Pitches" program's major awards, and 11 additional projects will advance to the negotiation stage.
Action star and former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger will walk the red carpet on April 16 at the festival's opening ceremony, and French director Luc Besson will head the jury voting on which of the 15 nominated films will receive the 10 Tiantan Awards. Critics panned the previous Beijing festival, saying that the jury only voted for older movies in the competition, so most of this year's nominees are brand new movies that will also hold their world premieres in Beijing. This move will help the Beijing International Film Festival enhance its uniqueness, forward thinking, authority and authenticity.
According to organizers, one of the festival's key events, the Film Market, will take place at The China Millennium Monument from April 17 to 20. Domestic and foreign exhibitors will host 30 activities during the film festival. A united documentary booth will also be set up for the first time.
This year's film festival will host the Hollywood Film Master Class again. Senior filmmakers, experts and scholars will gather at this forum to share their expertise and ideas and offer advice for the expansion and improvement of the Chinese film industry.
The Film Market will work closely with the Central and Eastern Europe film markets, focusing on the distribution of three Central and Eastern European films including "Ida," which received the 2015 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
The "Forward Future" International Screening Unit, which aims to find film newbies and stimulate the vitality of filmmaking, received applications from 182 registered films, 16 of which have been confirmed for final screenings. The unit will also host a forum of new international directors on April 19 to discuss how to set up a system to foster new directors through effective cooperation between film education institutions and professional film organizations.
The Documentary Sector will also host eight meetings and forums addressing the development of the documentary industry. This division of the festival has received 411 entries, most of which are new works produced in 2014. Among these works, 256 are international works and 155 are Chinese works (including co-productions by Chinese and foreign filmmakers).
The Beijing film festival's activities also include the Beijing Film Panorama (where more than 300 selected films from all over the world including Oscar-winner "Birdman" will be screened in various local theaters), the Film Carnival, the Film Forums and more. The opening ceremony will be held on Thursday, and the festival will run from April 16 to 23.
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