2019-06-21

"The Belt and Road" Film Festival Alliance │ Members Stronger, Exchanges Deeper, Films Better

The 22nd Shanghai International Film Festival opened today. In the afternoon, "the Belt and Road" Film Festival Alliance held a press conference, with 26 film festival representatives from 23 countries jointly announced the launch of a new round of cooperation. This also signals that this film festival alliance established last year is going further on the film culture road of exchange and mutual learning by the way of joint development and sharing.

Haixiong Shen, Deputy Minister of the Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China and Director of the China Media Group, Huilin Zhou, member of Standing Committee of the Shanghai Municipal Party Committee and Minister of Shanghai Publicity Department, Ming Zong, Deputy Mayor of Shanghai, Jinjun Hu, Deputy Minister of the Publicity Department of the Shanghai Municipal Party Committee and Director of the Shanghai Film Bureau attended the press conference.

Jinjun Hu said in his speech: "The Belt and Road" film week activity series of the Shanghai International Film Festival will be further upgraded. First, the members has grown stronger, "the Belt and Road" film festival alliance has added 7 new members. At present, the alliance has 38 film festival members from 33 countries; The second is more in-depth exchanges, Belt and Road filmmakers will deeply participate in the film market screening and creation, have more opportunities to know Chinese buyers, have extensive dialogues with Chinese filmmakers, and get to know the latest Chinese film circumstances; The third is that the film is better. This year’s Belt and Road film week will show 24 outstanding films from 24 countries.

Among the 24 films, 8 films will be shortlisted for the awarding of three honors of "Film Focused by the Media", "Filmmaker Focused by the Media", and "Most Popular Film Among Audience" of Belt and Road film week on Wednesday. Árpád Bogdán, director of the Hungarian film GENESIS, one of the shortlisted films, said in his speech that GENESIS was exactly a film introduced to the Shanghai International Film Festival for showing through the Hungarian Film Festival, member of "the Belt and Road" Film Festival Alliance. He also revealed that GENESIS has already found a Chinese distributor and hopes that more Chinese viewers will be able to see the work in cinema.

With the implementing and deepening of "the Belt and Road" film culture exchange, the influence of the Shanghai International Film Festival has continued to grow, and "the Belt and Road" Film Festival Alliance has become an important platform for cooperation and exchange between different members. The representatives of the four Chinese and foreign co-produced films respectively talked about the support and assistance from "the Belt and Road" Film Festival Alliance, the four are: PRISONERS, co-produced by China and Pakistan, LOVE YOU, SUNDAY, co-produced by China and Dominica, THE KING OF GRAPES, co-produced by China and Australia and ONE DAY EXPECTATION co-produced by China and Greece. Among them, ONE DAY EXPECTATION will also choose to film some scenes in Shanghai.