Belt and Road Film Week Concludes with Normalized Cultural Exchanges between Countries along the Route

The closing ceremony of the Belt and Road Film Week of the 25th Shanghai International Film Festival (SIFF) was held at the Museum of Art Pudong on the night of June 13. A number of honors were announced, including the Media Choice Award for Film, the Media Choice for Filmmaker, and the Audience Choice Award. The ceremony brought together renowned filmmakers from countries along the Belt and Road route to witness the highlight of the week. The new round of the Belt and Road Film Tour was launched by Ms. Jin Mei, Member of the Standing Committee of the Pudong New Area Committee of CPC, Secretary of the Party Leadership Group and Executive Deputy Director of the Administrative Committee of Shanghai International Resort, Mr. Huang Wei, Member of the Standing Committee and Head of the Publicity Department of the Pudong New Area Committee of CPC, and Mr. He Wenquan, Director of Shanghai International Film & TV Festivals Co Ltd, together with Promotion Ambassadors Zhao Tao and Lei Jiayin for this year’s Belt and Road Film Week.

 Star-studded closing ceremony

To mark the end of the Belt and Road Film Week at SIFF, the closing ceremony gathered many renowned filmmakers from home and abroad.

Attending the ceremony as guests of honor were: Hungarian director, screenwriter and producer Ildikó Enyedi, jury member of SIFF in 2018 and winner of the Golden Bear at the 67th Berlinale; Indonesian director Kamila Andini, winner of Media Choice for Filmmaker of the Belt and Road Film Week 2018; Italian film scholar Marco Müller; actress and producer Vivian Wu; and director and producer Zheng Dasheng, jury member of CineFest in Hungary in 2019; director and screenwriter Wang Lina, winner of Media Choice for Filmmaker of the Belt and Road Film Week 2019; Malaysian director Boon-lip Quah, director Su Lun and Promotion Ambassadors Zhao Tao and Lei Jiayin for this year’s Belt and Road Film Week. Also present at the closing ceremony were CAA China CEO Mary Gu, director Yan Yizhi, writer Hong Ying, actors Andy Friend and Xue Xuchun, among others.

After deliberations among the five media juries, Chinese director Wu Long’s ABSENCE and Croatian director Juraj Lerotic’s SAFE PLACE were selected as the best films of the Belt and Road Film Week for the Media Choice Award for Film. It is worth noting that both films are the debut feature films of the two directors.

Hungarian actress Katalin Román, who starred in the film SIX WEEKS, was chosen by the media as winner of the Media Choice Award for Filmmaker. This film, which was picked for the Belt and Road Film Week, was her first film, and her performance was considered by the media judges to be “the real soul of the film.”

Another winner of this honor was Israeli writer and director Michal Vinik. Her film VALERIA IS GETTING MARRIED was shot mostly indoors, but the script was concise and touching. The film also won the audience vote for Audience Choice Award at the Belt and Road Film Week.

The cinematographer of the film SIX WEEKS,

Katalin Román, in attendance on behalf of the cast

Actor Lei Jiayin and director Su Lun, who presented the Audience Choice Award, also have a special tie with Belt and Road Film Week. After their previous film FIVE HUNDRED MILES was released in the Spring Festival film season, it was promoted by the Belt and Road Film Tour of SIFF and had its international premiere at the 45th Moscow International Film Festival. Zhao Tao, who also awarded the Media Choice Award for Film, was invited by the Durban International Film Festival in South Africa, a member of the Belt and Road Film Festival Alliance, as a jury for its feature film section last July.

Director Su Lun and

promotion ambassador of the Belt and Road Film Week, actor Lei Jiayin

A door opened for filmmakers and audiences alike

The new round of the Belt and Road Film Tour was launched by Ms. Jin Mei, Member of the Standing Committee of the Pudong New Area Committee of CPC, Secretary of the Party Leadership Group and Executive Deputy Director of the Administrative Committee of Shanghai International Resort; Mr. Huang Wei, Member of the Standing Committee and Head of the Publicity Department of the Pudong New Area Committee of CPC; and Mr. He Wenquan, Director of Shanghai International Film & TV Festivals, Co Ltd, together with Promotion Ambassadors Zhao Tao and Lei Jiayin for the Belt and Road Film Week.

At the closing ceremony of the Belt and Road Film Week, held at the Museum of Art Pudong, guests from all over the world not only enjoyed the brightly lit Bund and the financial district of Lujiazui at night, but also visited the retrospective exhibition of works by renowned photographer Liu Heung Shing, titled “Liu Heung Shing: The Lens - The Times - The People.” Mr. Liu gave a personal tour of his works, allowing Chinese and foreign filmmakers to appreciate the traditional and modern landscape of Shanghai, as well as the unique perspective of Chinese artists and the changes and evolution of Chinese society.

Photographer Mr. Liu Heung Shing sharing the stories behind his works

with guests of the Belt and Road Film Week

The Belt and Road Film Week has allowed the public and film fans to experience in depth the customs, culture and art of countries along the Belt and Road route. Ms. Jiang, a HR, who was one of the “lucky audience” chosen by the festival to attend the awards ceremony, said that she had seen a lot of great films and enjoyed watching them. “Most of the films introduced to the market are commercial blockbusters, while documentaries with specific genres, lifestyle films and less popular art films are hard to come by outside the festival,” she said. Ms. Wang, from a cultural enterprise in the Shanghai International Resort, has been following her favorite productions during the Belt and Road Film Week. “We are an offline theatre company, and with this platform, we hope that in the future our own theatres can be transformed into IPs and films, to join the touring screenings or to compete in this arena,” she said.

Cinematic dreams ignited by cultural exchanges

The first edition of Belt and Road film workshop on June 12

Ms. Wang’s wish is also the dream of the director of the Greek film A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A TEDDY BEAR, which was selected for screening at the Belt and Road Film Week. A few years ago, when he was the Consul General of Greece in Shanghai, the director was a guest of honor at a film screening during Belt and Road Film Week and was struck by the charm of light and shadow. And so his dream of becoming a director was ignited. After leaving his post as diplomatic envoy, he returned to Shanghai this time as a film director and screenwriter.

In September 2019, Xi Luoshi’s film debut, A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A TEDDY BEAR, officially started filming in Shanghai. As a Chinese Greek co-production, the work tells of the romantic love story between a Shanghai girl and a Greek boy, with Shanghai as the soul. Xi told reporters that this cosmopolitan city of more than 20 million people has a quiet and gentle side to it, and that the streets and lanes of old Shanghai fascinate him. Through the cloak of love, he presents in the film the city’s unique human flavors and multi-dimensional culture. “It's an art film with commercial appeal, which is both joyful and weepy.” He said the work incorporates his deep thoughts on the differences between the lifestyles and cultures of China and Greece.

In fact, such cultural dialogue is the very reason why the Belt and Road Film Week and the Belt and Road Film Festival Alliance were established in the first place. After five years of development, this section of the festival has already achieved impressive results, with the capacity for cooperation between film festivals from different countries increasing year by year and the scope of cooperation in film exchange growing. In the five years since its inception in 2018, the Alliance has established a mechanism for information sharing and mutual recommendation of films and filmmakers, and its size has grown from 31 film festival member institutions from 29 countries at the beginning to 55 member institutions from 48 countries.

What is the next step? The new Belt and Road film workshop during the film week may be a new breakthrough. As a brand-new section, the workshop invites industry experts from film festivals and studios to interact with filmmakers, discuss practical strategies for aligning content creation with international production and distribution, share experiences and look into the future of the industry.

On June 12, the first edition of the Belt and Road film workshop featured as guest speaker Liu Lisha, Manager of the Cooperation Business Department of Huaxia Film Distribution Co Ltd. She introduced the two-way exchange between Chinese films and imported films, with a case study from Huaxia. This year, SIFF and Huaxia have entered into a strategic cooperation which will give a strong impetus to the exchange of production and distribution between the member institutions of the Alliance. In the future, films with local characteristics from countries along the Belt and Road route will be spread on more international platforms to expand the influence of diverse civilizations.

The workshop is just a small step in the development of the Belt and Road Film Week and the Belt and Road Film Festival Alliance. The new Belt and Road Film Tour, which was launched at the closing ceremony, is expected to grow in scale and make cultural exchanges within the alliance a regular practice throughout the year. On the same morning as the closing ceremony of the Belt and Road Film Week, renowned Hungarian director Ildikó Enyedi made an appearance at the SIFF MasterClass. As a member of the jury for the main competition of the Golden Goblet Awards in 2018, she joined us again as a master filmmaker invited by the Belt and Road Film Week, while Chinese director Zheng Dasheng, who was host of the event, was a jury member of CineFest in Hungary in 2019. This is what we know of the tacit understanding in cultural exchanges facilitated by the Belt and Road Film Week.

With such a norm, perhaps one day Ms. Wang will have her dream come true, like Director Xi Luoshi, to showcase her aspirations in more countries.