The Belt and Road Film Week | Geng Le and Guo Keyu Appointed as Belt and Road Film Tour Ambassadors

The new round of the Belt and Road Film Festival Alliance’s Belt and Road Film Tour will officially kick off this September, with a series of promotional and screening events to be held in Italy, Hungary, Mexico, Colombia, and other countries. As an important platform for promoting cultural exchange between Chinese and foreign cinema, this year’s tour will continue to advance Chinese films onto the international stage. Through the lens, it will showcase the charm of Chinese culture and deepen the artistic resonance among the countries involved in the Belt and Road Initiative.

Geng Le and Guo Keyu (listed in alphabetical order by surname) have been invited as ambassadors for the Belt and Road Film Tour. They will leverage their artistic influence to help promote Chinese films abroad and foster deeper exchange and collaboration between Chinese and international film arts.

Geng Le

The Belt and Road Film Tour Ambassador

Actor Geng Le is well-known for his unique charisma and solid acting skills. He rose to fame in 1993 for his role as “Liu Yiku” in In the Heat of the Sun. With over thirty years in the industry, he has portrayed numerous iconic characters on screen. In 2002, he won the Most Popular Actor Bronze Award at the Chinese Film Media Awards and a nomination for Best Actor at the Hundred Flowers Awards for his role in Spring Subway. In 2018, he was nominated for Best Supporting Actor at the Asian Film Awards for Angels Wear White. In 2025, he won the Best Supporting Actor award at the Beijing International Film Festival’s Tiantan Awards for his role as “Qu Maduo” in Trapped, marking his transformation from a talented actor to a celebrated award-winner.

Guo Keyu

The Belt and Road Film Tour Ambassador

Actress Guo Keyu has a profound connection with SIFF. In 1995, at just 17 years old, Guo made history by winning Best Actress at both SIFF and Hundred Flowers Awards for Red Cherry, becoming SIFF’s first Chinese Best Actress and the youngest ever to receive the Hundred Flowers honor. Recently marking her powerful return to the screen, her 2023 lead role in Brief History of a Family earned selections at Berlinale, Sundance, and Hungary’s CineFest Miskolc through the Belt & Road Film Tour, later winning the Jury Asian Film Award (NETPAC) at Cairo International Film Festival. In 2024, her transformative performance in Another Day of Hope secured a Golden Rooster Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress, opening an exciting new chapter in her career.

Since its inception, the Belt and Road Film Festival Alliance has facilitated 54 Chinese films reaching member countries for screenings and cultural exchange by 2024. Among these, 10 entries competed in main international sections, with 3 winning major awards - a testament to both the artistic merit of Chinese cinema and the Alliance’s role in fostering profound cinematic dialogue, vividly demonstrating the fruits of Sino-foreign film cultural exchange.

Over the past year, SIFF has actively promoted Chinese cinema globally, bringing acclaimed films like The Wandering Earth II, I Am What I Am, Moon Man, and Johnny Keep Walking! along with filmmakers to over a dozen Belt and Road partner countries. These screenings spanned prestigious festivals including the Dhaka International Film Festival (Bangladesh), CineFest Miskolc (Hungary), and the Moscow International Film Festival (Russia). The diverse, high-quality selection showcased China’s cinematic achievements while fostering cross-border professional exchanges.

The new round of Belt and Road Film Tour will further strengthen Sino-foreign cinematic collaboration. The participation of acclaimed performers Geng Le and Guo Keyu will not only energize the program but also expand cultural discourse through their artistic influence. Moving forward, SIFF will position these tour events as a key showcase for Chinese cinema’s unique appeal, weaving cultural connections across partner nations through the art of film and fostering mutual understanding.

The Belt and Road Film Festival Alliance was initiated by the Organizing Committee of SIFF and was established in 2018, currently consisting of 56 member institutions from 49 countries. Against the backdrop of the Belt and Road Initiative, the alliance focuses on reciprocal film recommendations and filmmaker exchanges, and aims to enhance the capabilities of film curation, promote mutual understanding among filmmakers, facilitate film cooperation projects, strengthen exchanges in film culture among countries, establish a close information-sharing mechanism, and explore future development models for film festivals.

Civilization thrives through exchange and mutual learning. Since the establishment of the Belt and Road Film Festival Alliance, SIFF, together with the Publicity Department of the CPC Pudong New Area Committee (District Cultural, Sports and Tourism Bureau), and the Administrative Committee of Shanghai International Resort, has teamed up to organize the Belt and Road Film Week, and created a mechanism with the Belt and Road Film Tour, effectively promoting two-way exchanges and mutual learning between filmmakers and film cultures along the Belt and Road route, and further enhancing cultural exchanges and people-to-people bonds among countries along the route.