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2021-01-07

23rd SIFFORUM

To prevent the epidemic, there will be limited number of seats at the SIFF Forum this year, and the audience will only attend the forum under invitation. The forums and MasterClasses will be recorded on the site and broadcast with a delay, aiming to share high-quality film and TV resources with film and TV fans and industry insiders, and enable them to understand the dynamics of the film and TV industry.

Video broadcast platforms: Yangshipin app, Xuexi Qiangguo app, Wenhui app, Migu, Youku, BesTV, Tencent

Audio broadcast platform: Himalaya

The 23rd Shanghai International Film Festival Opening Forum

March Towards a Well-off Society, Build Dreams in a New Era—China Film Industry Summit Forum

Broadcast time | 7:00-9:00 pm, July 25, 2020 (SAT)

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Moderator

HUANGFU Yichuan | President of China Film News and Editor-in-Chief of Contemporary Cinema magazine

Topic 1

Faced with the epidemic, the film industry needs to use the long-lasting favorable conditions and environment to invigorate spirit and gather strength to stimulate creativity and production. Leading figures from domestic film companies will be invited to this forum to discuss how to actively and effectively resume work and production, improve the quality of filmmaking and the core competitiveness of the film industry, and create a good spiritual civilization environment for the building of a moderately prosperous society in all aspects.

Guest speakers (in alphabetical order of last name)

Edward CHENG | Vice President of Tencent, CEO of China Literature Limited, CEO of Tencent Pictures

FU Ruoqing | Vice Chairman and General Manager of China Film Co., Ltd., Chairman of Huaxia Film Distribution Co., Ltd.

Jerry LI | Vice President of Alibaba Group, President of Alibaba Pictures

WANG Changtian | Chairman of Enlight Media

WANG Jianer | Chairman of Shanghai Film Group

YU Dong | Chairman of Bona Film Group

Topic 2

Domestic films find it difficult to draw nutrients from traditional Chinese culture, display national characteristics, strengthen genre creation and artistic innovation, and combine mainstream ideas with commercial value. Always keeping in mind that “content is king”, filmmakers try to tell Chinese stories well, and constantly push Chinese films from “plateau” to “peak”. Three representative and renowned film directors will be invited to this forum to look forward to the future of China’s film creation.

Guest speakers (in alphabetical order of last name)

HUANG Bo | Director, Actor

JIA Zhangke | Director, Producer, Writer

WEN Muye | Director, Screenwriter

New Trends in Film Distribution and Screening

Broadcast time | 7:00-9:00 pm, July 27, 2020 (MON)

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Moderator

ZHANG Wenbo | Founder of Bole Marketing

Topic 1: A preliminary exploration of audience changes and content of the film market

After cinemas resume operation, the Chinese film market will face new problems and challenges. Will the enthusiasm of the audience for watching movies reduce due to epidemic containment and other factors, or will there be an explosion of demand for watching movies? Facing the changing consumption psychology of the audience, how should film companies reserve and select film projects? What will the reopening of cinemas impact films of different cooperation forms (domestic, co-produced, and imported)?

Guest speakers (in alphabetical order of last name)

JIANG Wusheng | Managing Director of Beijing United Entertainment Partners Culture & Media Co., Ltd.

LI Ning | Senior Vice President of New Classic Media and President of New Classics Pictures

Luca LIANG | General Manager of Production and Development at Emperor Motion Pictures

Sirena LIU | CEO of Legendary East

ZHENG Zhihao | CEO of Maoyan Entertainment

Topic 2: Cinemas and Streaming Media—The Future of Screens

Amid the epidemic, many theatrical films were distributed online and paid per view. In view of this new trend, how to coordinate the development of theatrical release and online distribution? How to use technology to maintain the attractiveness of cinemas to the audience and enhance the interactive and social attributes of films? All these have become new topics to which film industry insiders pay attention.

Guest speakers (in alphabetical order of last name)

Efe Cakarel | Founder and CEO of MUBI

Jack GAO | Founding Partner and CEO of Smart Cinema

CHEN Yuanpeng | CEO of IMAX China

HUANG Guoxian | President of KINO Interactive China

Documentary Filmmakers at the Pandemic Frontline

Broadcast time | 7:00-9:00 pm, July 28, 2020 (TUE)

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Documentary filmmakers on the pandemic frontline will be invited to this forum to share how they recorded this battle without gunpowder with images.

Moderator:

LV Xinyu | Scholar and Dean of School of Communication at East China Normal University

Guest speakers planned to be invited (in alphabetical order of last name)

FAN Jian | Documentary Director

FAN Shiguang | Documentary Director, Head of Studio of SMG Documentary Center

LIN Chen | Short Video Maker, Short Film Director

QIN Xiaoyu | Director, Poet, Literary Critic, Founder of MeDoc

Takeuchi Ryo | Documentary Director

Genre Filmmaking and Auteurist Expression—On the Creation of Genre Films

Broadcast time | 8:00-10:00 pm, July 29, 2020 (WED)

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As China’s film industry keeps expanding, the audience is increasingly asking for content segmentation, and the film types are therefore becoming more and more diverse. What new opportunities have genre films brought to Chinese filmmakers? How to establish distinctive personal styles in the production of genre films that have rules to follow? How to balance the genre attribute and the filmmaker attribute? Filmmakers will be invited to this forum to jointly interpret the attempts and explorations of Chinese films in the field of genre films.

Guest speakers (in alphabetical order of last name):

CHEN Qiufan | Founder of Thema Mundi Studio

LI Shaohong | President of China Film Directors’ Guild, and one of the fifth generation of female directors in China

QUAN Yongxian | Famous screenwriter, representative work: Impasse

WEI Shujun | Director, the first feature film Striding Into the Wind is shortlisted in the official selection of 2020 Cannes Film Festival

Creative Storytelling and Expression of Emotion in Animation Filmmaking

Broadcast time | 8:00-9:00 pm, July 30, 2020 (THU)

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Animation films tell stories in real or virtual spaces created by integrating various expression means such as photography, art, painting and technology.

How to draw creativity and inspirations from traditional culture and daily life? How to achieve perfect interaction between personal creation and animation narration?

How to improve the production technology of animation films? How to develop a sense of engagement and empathy among the audience? Outstanding animation filmmakers will be invited to this forum to share their experience in making animation films.

Topic 1: Stories of China with Colors of the World

Guest speakers:

Chris Appelhans | Director and screenwriter of Wish Dragon. As a senior in the film industry, he has participated in works including Fantastic Mr. Fox, Rise of the Guardians, Le Petit Prince, etc.

Aron Warner | Famous Hollywood producer. Producer of Wish Dragon. He once served as Vice President of Production for Twentieth Century Fox and participated in the production of films such as Independence Day and Titanic.

Topic 2: Creative Inspirations of Disney/Pixar’s Animation Films

Guest speakers:

Pete Docter | Oscar-winning director, Chief Creative Officer of Pixar Animation Studios. His representative works include Monsters, Inc., Up, Inside Out and Soul.

Dana Murray | Producer of Soul. She participated in the production of Finding Nemo, Up, Inside Out, etc.

Kemp Powers | Co-director and screenwriter of Soul.

Film Copyright Trading: Protection of Audiovisual Copyright in Service of the Industry

Broadcast time | 6:00-10:00 pm, August 2, 2020 (SUN)

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Representatives from famous film and TV production companies, film and TV copyright services, and financial and legal sectors will be invited to this forum to discuss how to improve the public service platform for film and TV copyright and trading, implement feasible solutions for film and TV copyright financial services, and provide precise services for film and TV companies, with attention paid to four aspects: how copyright services enter our life and support originality; promoting production and storytelling; financial grafting and copyright trading; extended authorization and cross-border development.

Guest speakers (in alphabetical order of last name):

HAO Hongying | Deputy Director of Fund Business Research Committee at Shanghai Bar Association, Partner of Co-effort law firm LLP

HUANG Chao | General Manager of Cultural and Entertainment Assets Service Business Department at Maoyan Entertainment

LIAN Sanyue | General Manager of Copyright Planning and Operation at China Literature Limited

LIU Lei | Director of Film and TV Industry at Far East Horizon

WANG Jian | Deputy General Manager of PICC Shanghai Branch

YU Zhiqing | Resident Vice Chairman & Secretary General of Shanghai Radio, Film and Television Production Industry Association, Director of Shanghai Film and Television Copyright Services Center

ZHU Huilong | Founder and CEO of Shanghai More Joy Pictures

MasterClass

SIFF MasterClass with JIA Zhangke

Broadcast time | 9:00-10:00 pm, July 25, 2020 (SUN)

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JIA Zhangke is a director, producer and writer. He was born in 1970 in Fenyang, Shanxi, and studied at the Department of Literature of Beijing Film Academy. His major works include Xiao Wu (1998), Platform (2000), Unknown Pleasures (2002), The World (2004), Still Life (2006), 24 City (2008), I Wish I Knew (2010), Mountains May Depart (2015), Ash Is Purest White (2018), Swimming out Till the Sea Turns Blue (2020), etc.

SIFF MasterClass with James Schamus

Broadcast time | 7:00-8:00 pm, July 26, 2020 (SUN)

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James Schamus is an American screenwriter and producer, and former CEO of Focus Features.

Schamus served as screenwriter and producer for films including The Ice Storm, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Lust, Caution, Hulk, Eat Drink Man Woman, The Wedding Banquet, Pushing Hands, etc. Of them, The Ice Storm won the Best Screenplay at the Cannes Film Festival. Schamus also produced films including Brokeback Mountain, Lost in Translation, The Pianist, Dallas Buyers Club and Milk. In 2014, Schamus headed the jury at the 64th Berlin Film Festival.

Schamus’ feature directorial debut Indignation, which was adapted from the novel of the same name by Philip Roth, premiered at the Sundance and Berlin Film Festivals in 2016.

Schamus has recently worked as a script consultant for Wuershan’s upcoming epic trilogy Fengshen. He is also a professor at Columbia University School of the Arts, where he teaches film history and theory.

Schamus’ New York based production company, Symbolic Exchange, cooperated with Beijing’s Meridian Entertainment to produce Kitty Green’s acclaimed feature documentary Casting JonBenet, which had its world premiere at Sundance and launched on Netflix in 2017, and Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire’s A Prayer before Dawn which premiered in Cannes 2017 and was released by A24 in summer 2018.

The company’s recent projects include Rhys Ernst’s trans comedy Adam (starring Margaret Qualley), which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and was released by Wolfe Releasing in summer 2019, and Noble Jones’s The Tomorrow Man (starring John Lithgow and Blythe Danner), which also premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and was released by Bleecker Street in May 2019, Andrew Ahn’s Driveways (starring Hong Chau and the late Brian Dennehy) which premiered at the 2019 Berlin Film Festival and was released by FilmRise in May 2020, and Kitty Green’s latest feature The Assistant, which premiered at the 2019 Telluride Film Festival and was released by Bleecker Street in January 2020.

SIFF MasterClass with Olivier Assayas

Broadcast time | 9:00-10:00 pm, July 27, 2020 (MON)

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Olivier Assayas, born in Paris on January 25, 1955, is the writer and director of some 20 features.

After studying art and literature, he made short films, wrote screenplays (notably for André Téchiné) and contributed film theory, journalism and criticism to French film magazine Cahiers du Cinéma.

His films have brought him international recognition, ever since his debut Disorder was awarded at the 1986 Venice Mostra. Personal Shopper won him the Best Director at the Cannes Film Festival in 2016, Something in the Air won him the Best Screenplay at the Venice Film Festival in 2012, and Clean won him the Best Actress at the Cannes Film Festival in 2004 (Maggie Cheung).

Assayas was one of the first Western filmmakers to pay attention to contemporary Chinese films. He published many articles about Hou Hsiao-Hsien, Edward Yang, and Wong Kar-wai, and shot the documentary Un portrait de Hou Hsiao-Hsien.

The most recent Un Voyage – Marseille-Rio 1941 resurrecting the war writings of his father and a series of missing photos of Germaine Krull is currently the subject of an exhibition at the prestigious Rencontres Photographiques d’Arles.

SIFF MasterClass with Naomi Kawase (Guest Speaker: BAI Baihe)

Broadcast time | 9:00-10:00 pm, July 28, 2020 (TUE)

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Born and raised in Nara, Naomi Kawase graduated from Visual Arts Osaka in 1989. Her films Embracing and KATATSUMORI received international recognition and awards at the Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival in 1995. With her first feature, Suzaku (1997), she became the youngest filmmaker to receive the Camera d’Or at the Festival de Cannes. At the Cannes Film Festival, she also won the Grand Prix with The Mourning Forest (2007), the Carrosse d’Or in 2009, and also served as one of the jurors for the competition in 2013. In 2015, Kawase was bestowed with the Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters by the French Minister of Culture. In 2017, Radiance was selected as one of the competition films and given Ecumenical Jury awards. She was appointed to direct the Official Film of the Olympics Game Tokyo 2020. Her latest film True Mothers has been shortlisted at the 2020 Cannes Film Festival and is scheduled to premiere in Japan on October 23.

Aside from being a filmmaker, she is the founder and Executive Director for the Nara International Film Festival.

Guest Speaker

BAI Baihe

Chinese actress. She has won Best Actress Award of Huabiao Film Awards, Hundred Flowers Awards, Changchun Film Festival China, China Film Directors’ Guild, Beijing College Student Film Festival, etc. Her representative works include Love Is Not Blind, Monster Hunt, Go Away, Mr Tumor, Chongqing Hot Pot, Women on the Verge, A City Called Macau, etc. In addition to acting, she has also founded the radio program Her as producer and host, discussing topics on women. She has also joined the world tour of Jonathan Lee Musical as the lead actress.

SIFF MasterClass with Lav Diaz

Broadcast time | 8:00-9:00 pm, July 31, 2020 (FRI)

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Lav Diaz is a Filipino director known as one of the key members of the slow cinema movement. Of his films, The Woman Who Left won the Golden Lion at the 73rd Venice Film Festival, From What Is Before won the Golden Leopard at the 67th Locarno International Film Festival, and A Lullaby to the Sorrowful Mystery won the Silver Berlin Bear: Alfred Bauer Prize at the 66th Berlin International Film Festival.

SIFF MasterClass with Denis Villeneuve

Broadcast time: 8:00-9:00 pm, August 1, 2020 (SAT)

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Denis Villeneuve is an Academy Award-nominated French Canadian filmmaker best known for having directed Blade Runner 2049, Arrival, Sicario, Prisoners and Incendies. Villeneuve is gearing up for the release of his highly anticipated film adaptation of Frank Herbert’s science fiction novel, Dune. The film stars Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac, Josh Brolin, Stellan Skarsgård, Dave Bautista, Zendaya, Jason Momoa and Javier Bardem.

SIFF MasterClass with Hirokazu Koreeda

Broadcast time | 8:00-10:00 pm, August 2, 2020 (SUN)

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Hirokazu Koreeda is a Japanese director. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, he mainly shot TV documentaries, and his works paid attention to society and were full of humanism.

In 1995, his feature film debut Illusion was shortlisted in the competition at the Venice Film Festival. In 2004, Nobody Knows adapted from real events helped the 14-year-old leading actor Yuya Yagira win the Best Actor at the Cannes Film Festival. In 2013, Like Father, Like Son won the Jury Award at the Cannes Film Festival. In 2018, Shoplifters won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival.