Pay Tribute to the Promising New Era and Start the New Journey of the New Era--The 24th Shanghai International Film Festival Kicks Off Today

At the Golden Goblet Ceremony, film performance artist Tian Hua, director Zhang Yimou, actor Zhang Yi, and actress Zhou Dongyu shared their indissoluble bond with film art with the theme “Our Era”, “Although we are at different ages and have different experiences, as filmmakers, we have the same wish, that is to make more fine films, to live up to the expectation of the audience, and to pay tribute to the great era!"

Golden Goblet Ceremony of the 24th SIFF

Later, the Juries for each unit of the Golden Goblet Awards appeared collectively. Huang Jianxin, Jury President for the main competition, recalled with emotions the scenes of attending SIFF since its birth in 1993. Facing the upcoming judging work, he expressed his expectation that the juries can speak freely and fully exchange ideas, “We will definitely give each entry the greatest respect and the most objective evaluation.”

Golden Goblet Ceremony of the 24th SIFF

Golden Goblet Ceremony of the 24th SIFF

The centennial Communist Party of China in its prime to forge ahead for the great cause through all eternities. It is precisely a century of grace to have a great career in the future. The main actors of the opening film “1921” of this year's SIFF sang the song “Youth” at the ceremony. The film’s creator representatives Huang Jianxin, Zheng Dasheng, Ren Ning, Yu Xi, Huang Xuan, Yuan Wenkang, Liu Haoran, Wang Renjun, Zhang Songwen, Zu Feng, Dou Xiao, Liu Jiayi, Hu Xianxu, Li Chen, Zhang Youhao, and Wang Yixuan made a collective appearance and shared the mental journey of creating this film.

Golden Goblet Ceremony of the 24th SIFF

After the Golden Goblet Ceremony, the audience and guests enjoyed the opening film “1921” together.

The 24th SIFF, held with the theme of the centenary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, is dedicated to create a genuine celebrating ambience and recollect the century of glory to build up a festive vibe. Among them, a special unit of “A Hundred-Year Journey · Red Film Art” will screen 12 new and old films including the “Song of Youth”, “Heroic Sons and Daughters”, “The Wandering Earth”, “Sacrifice”, “Days and Nights in Wuhan” and “Liuqing”, which will revisit the great journey of revolution, construction, reform and revival of the Chinese people led by the Communist Party of China to allow the audience know the original aspiration of the Communist Party of China embodied by the heroes, and gain more spiritual power to move forward from these red classics.

Golden Goblet Ceremony of the 24th SIFF

SIFForum, through exchange of ideas, presentation of concepts, and sharing of experiences, inspired each other and reached a consensus, boosting the confidence and responsibility of filmmakers to explore new opportunities amidst challenges. From tomorrow on, China Film Industry Summit Forum: Make True the Dream of a Century and Set Sail on a New Journey, and forums themed “Marketing Strategy of Mainstream Cinema” , “Virtuality And Reality - New Changes in Film Production”, and “Yangtze River Delta Film Cooperation Forum”, etc. will be held. Chinese and foreign film masters will also exchange ideas on film development and the experience of film creation with industry colleagues in MasterClass through online and offline dialogues.

At the SIFF Market held at Shanghai International Exhibition Center, the film poster exhibition themed “Red Film Art · Tribute to the 100 Years’ History of the CPC” will showcase the major works celebrating the centenary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, and key works with the same subject created by film institutions from three provinces and one city in the Yangtze River Delta region this year. These film works exhibited in the form of huge posters are clear in subjects, rich in themes, vivid in storytelling and diverse in contents. Echoing the poster exhibition, the crews of “The Battle at Lake Changjin”, “Sniper”, “Chinese Doctors” and other works appeared on the opening red carpet, interpreting the glory and dreams of the Chinese Communists in a dynamic, static and vivid way.

The 24th SIFF is a film event with extensive international influence held under the background of regular epidemic p control. Under the guidance of relevant authorities, this SIFF has adopted a series of more sophisticated and complete epidemic control measures to ensure the safe and orderly running of offline activities. At present, the attendance rate of cinemas maintains at the upper capacity of 75%, and there are also many epidemic control measures at cinemas including temperature measurement, information registration, disinfection and cleaning; at the entrances to the SIFForum and the SIFF Market, integrated equipment combining health code check, identification and temperature measurement are placed to ensure that there is no hidden dangers while registering the information for epidemic control.

With sound and refined epidemic prevention measures, the main sections of this year's SIFF, such as selections, panorama, forums, and markets, have been fully presented. The innovative model of safe festival has also won the trust of the global film industry. This year, SIFF received 4443 registered films from 113 countries and regions. Among them, 13 Chinese and foreign feature films will compete for the Golden Goblet Awards in main competition, 5 will compete for the Golden Goblet Awards for animation, 5 documentaries will compete for the Golden Goblet Awards for documentary, and 15 films will compete for the Golden Goblet Awards for short film. During SIFF, juries for the Golden Goblet Award, composed of Chinese and foreign filmmakers, will select twelve awards including the best film, the jury award, the best director, and the best actor and actress. On the evening of June 19, the winners will be made public at the Golden Goblet Awards Ceremony.

Red carpet at the opening ceremony of the 24th SIFF

Among the more than 400 films screened at the 24th SIFF, 73 were world premieres, 42 international premieres, 89 Asian premieres, and 99 Chinese premieres. In addition to the “A Hundred-Year Journey · Red Film Art” unit, these films were divided into 16 units, including “Premiere Ceremony”, “Tribute to Masters”, “SIFF Classics” and “Multiple Perspectives” to be shown in theaters.

In 2015, SIFF launched SIFF World Express. As one of the 15 non-specialized competition international film festivals recognized by the International Federation of Film Producers Associations, it carefully selected the Chinese film candidates for competition and Panorama, introduce them to more international film festivals, and at the same time, import the world's best works from international film festivals. The 15 films at this year's Panorama, including “Heart of Gold”, “My Rhythm”, “Eye of the Storm”, “Wolfwalkers”, “Good Land Rebellion”, “Deadly Cuts”, are all from SIFF World Express.

The SIFF has been trying to improve the value of “Golden Goblet” and actively seeking new breakthroughs. Based on many-year cooperation with the Cannes Film Market, this year, the two major international category A film festivals reached a substantive new cooperation on SIFF YOUNG X. This project, directed by the Shanghai Film Bureau, and jointly initiated by SIFF and the Cannes Film Market, will be announced at the SIFForum on June 12 after a year and a half of deliberation and steady progress. It will take full advantage of the platform influence of SIFF and the Cannes film Market to provide Chinese young filmmakers with broader development space and smoother growth channels.

Red carpet at the opening ceremony of the 24th SIFF

At this year’s SIFF, the offline SIFF market and the “International Film and TV Online Market”held simultaneously supplemented each other. There are nearly 200 registered exhibitors for SIFF Market, and 402 exhibitors registered for the “International Film and TV Online Market” from 45 countries and regions. The “International Film and TV Online Market”held virtually facilitates offline business negotiations to follow up business cooperation, and also provides international film and television resources for Chinese film and television companies aiming to promote overseas. The dual-platform mechanism featuring doubled function and mutual empowerment online and offlinewill help exhibitors at home and abroad to effectively improve the communication efficiency.

Tonight, the Golden Goblet Ceremony will be broadcast live on Tencent Video, Tencent Weishi, Migu Video, BesTV, CCTV and other platforms, and 4K ultra-high-definition live broadcast will be available through CCTV 4K channels and Migu Video. Audiences can also enjoy the exclusive VR perspective on Migu Video and experience the rich visual experience brought by this SIFF.