2019-06-18

Film Festivals in Focus: Promote Exchanges, Support New Talents, and Attract Young Audiences

On the morning of June 18th, the "Belt and Road" Film Culture Roundtable Forum was held at the SIFFORUM of the 22nd Shanghai International Film Festival.

Andriy Khalpakhchi, the president of Kiev International Film Festival, Alessandro Raja, the founder and CEO of art film online VOD platform Festival Scope and Festival Scope Pro, Brillante Mendoza, a Philippine director and the founder of Singa Maynila Independent Film Festival, Francesca Via, the President of Rome Film Festival in Italy, Fu Wenxia, the director of Shanghai International Film & TV Center, Ilda Santiago, the executive chairman of Rio International Film Festival in Brazil, Marge Liiske, the principal of Estonia Black Nights Film Festival industry, Stefan Laudyn, the president of Warsaw Film Festival in Poland, Samuel Jamier, the executive chairman of New York Asian Film Festival in the United States, and other people attended the forum. As the host, with the theme of "What kind of film festival do we need?", director Hu Xuehua carried out in-depth discussion with the representatives of film festival on topics like the positioning of film festival, key point of operation, future challenges, etc. The data support of the forum was provided by Maoyan Entertainment and Maoyan Institute.

The site of "Belt and Road" Film Culture Roundtable Forum

Positioning of Film Festival:

Top Priority Is Still Promotion and Communication

In the views of representatives of the film festival, the film festival has developed to the present, and as a platform for gathering film and filmmakers, the attribute of promoting the diversification of film creation and the prosperity of film industry through display, promotion and communication has not changed.

Andriy Khalpakhchi, the president of Kiev International Film Festival, said that through the panorama in film festival, the audiences can be provided with a new perspective that could show the cultures of different countries. While popularizing films, the target audiences and target buyers suitable to the film can be found.

Andriy Khalpakhchi, the president of Kiev International Film Festival

Fu Wenxia, the director of Shanghai International Film & TV Center, believed that the first role of film festival was to promote the communication of international film cultures and promote more art films to the audiences. This was the consensus and the primary goal of film festival.

Fu Wenxia, the Director of Shanghai International Film & TV Center

"Our mission is to continuously share with audiences and continuously cultivate and expand our audience teams in both domestic and overseas, to attract media and buyers to participate in it." Said Francesca Via, the president of Rome Film Festival in Italy.

Francesca Via, the president of Rome Film Festival in Italy

Ilda Santiago, the executive chairman of Rio International Film Festival in Brazil, said that in some areas, the film festival carried the responsibility of making more films to be watched by more audiences. She emphasized that, enabling audiences to watch films on the big screen, cultivating audiences\' habits of watching films, promoting films and making audiences know the stories in the films were the task of film festival and it was also the enthusiasm of film festival practitioners.

Ilda Santiago, the executive chairman of Rio International Film Festival in Brazil

Advancement of Film Festival:

Discovering and Supporting New Talents Became a Key Point

On the basis of giving play to promotion and communication, more and more film festivals have taken the discovery and support of new directors as their own responsibilities.

Stefan Laudyn, the president of Warsaw Film Festival in Poland, said that more and more new talents\' films entered Warsaw Film Festival in the mode of feature film or short film. Keeping a certain percentage of participation for new talents has become the direction insisted by Warsaw Film Festival. Andriy Khalpakhchi, the president of Kiev International Film Festival mentioned that, some of the works of students who have not yet graduated have also become the object of focus in film festival.

Stefan Laudyn, the president of Warsaw Film Festival in Poland

Brillante Mendoza, a Philippine director and the founder of Singa Maynila Independent Film Festival, pointed out that the film festival should be able to help young filmmakers grow up, and on the basis of pursuing to make the platform bigger, it should give young people the opportunity to show their film works and talents, so that their works can be seen by the public.

Brillante Mendoza, a Philippine director and the founder of Singa Maynila Independent Film Festival

Marge Liiske, the principal of Estonia Black Nights Film Festival industry, said that the linkage between film festival platform and institutional sponsorship has prompted the festival to provide opportunities for more and more market subjects to discover young talents, so that young people can show on a larger and broader stage and open up spaces.

Marge Liiske, the principal of Estonia Black Nights Film Festival industry

Fu Wenxia, the Director of Shanghai International Film & TV Center, mentioned that after ten years of establishment of Shanghai International Film Festival, in 2004, the Asian New Talent Awards for promoting film talents was set up; in 2007, the SIFF PROJECT for discovering new film talents and new works was set up. These two units have been delivering new talents and new projects to Chinese film industry. In 2017, we set up the Short Film Unit of Golden Goblet Awards. This year, based on SIFF PROJECT, a new unit SIFF NEXT was set up.

Challenges of Film Festival:

How to Attract Audiences of the Younger Generation

Alessandro Raja, the founder and CEO of art film online VOD platform Festival Scope and Festival Scope Pro, pointed out that with the popularization of emerging technologies and smart devices such as streaming media, attracting audiences of the younger generation has become a challenge for film festival at the moment.

Alessandro Raja, the founder and CEO of art film online VOD platform Festival Scope and Festival Scope Pro

Ilda Santiago, the executive chairman of Rio International Film Festival in Brazil, pointed out that streaming media or other new media have been a new normality for practitioners in film industry. For the treatment of new technologies and new ways of watching films, her attitude was to integration, "As long as it can bring good viewing experience, we should try any kind of technology." Said Ilda Santiago.

Samuel Jamier, the executive chairman of New York Asian Film Festival, pointed out that it is very important to find the topics, life stories and film stories of interest to young people born in the digital generation when holding film festival at the moment. He said that for the younger generation, there are too many choices but it is difficult to guarantee the quality. Film festival should focus on improving the quality of film selection to solve the burden and confusion of younger generation in making selection and make supplement.

Samuel Jamier, the executive chairman of New York Asian Film Festival

Stefan Laudyn, the president of Warsaw Film Festival in Poland, believed that the interest of young people has formed a vertical market in the level of film consumption, so it is necessary to match the marketing strategy in line with the vertical market.

Fu Wenxia, the director of Shanghai International Film & TV Center, said that the form of film communication has become more and more abundant, but the value of offline communication is still irreplaceable. We should enrich the film festival experience of audiences and participants through high-quality, high-frequency offline activities.

As an important part of the Shanghai International Film Festival, the SIFFORUM of this film festival was held from June 16th to 22nd, with 10 forums and 5 SIFF MasterClass activities. The 22nd Shanghai International Film Festival will take the theme of tribute to 70th anniversary and of promoting China to transit from a big film country to a film power, go deep into all aspects of the film industry, focus on topics such as film industrialization, industrial chain, sci-fi films, film education, mainstream film innovation and other topics for wisdom collision. In the meanwhile, it also takes the deep and proper implementation of "Belt and Road" film exchange and the presentation of film art as major directions, fully demonstrates the vitality of Chinese films, fully implements the platform mission, and helps Chinese films to march toward a better future.