Stars Gathering in SIFFORUM, Brainstorming for Better Films

The SIFFORUM of the 12th Shanghai International Film Festival will take place from June 14 to 19, 2009. With the message of “Chinese Approaches with Universal Values”, the SIFFORUM will consist of 12 seminars in four sections, including “President Lecture”, “Keynote Seminar”, “Film Roundtable” and “Master Class”, in the hope of setting up a platform for industry people to exchange and cooperate, and providing a vision for industry development.

President Lecture
Being initiated by SIFF, President Lecture is specifically designed for the jury president who is regarded as the spiritual leader of the event and represents the interpretation and cognition of the prevailing cinema. The section will provide a platform for the jury president to share his perspective of cinema with industry professionals and amateurs.
Film making is a complicated endeavor, particularly in modern society where film production tends to get involved in more and more territories and channels of financing and marketing. After all these, film content itself seems to have been ignored to some extent. However, Danny Boyle, the jury president of this edition, has been renowned for his concern for reality and solicitude for life. He has set up a new sample for the world industry with his formula of low budget and high quality.

Keynote Seminar
WANG Xiaoshuai(Director)，LU Chuan(Director)，NING Hao(Director)，WEI Te-Sheng(Director)，YU Dong(President of Bona International Film Group,President of Beijing PolyBona Film Distribution Co., Ltd.)……The major element of the seminars is to gather industry expertise to have brainstorms about the hot topics of the industry. In the context of the global financial crisis of 2008, Chinese film market has, nevertheless, risen up against the downturn and aroused universal attention. This year’s Keynote Seminar will look at the challenges of Chinese film industry, which is now undergoing continuous expansion, from three aspects: interaction between market and productivity, capital operation mechanism of creative industry, and strategies for Chinese-foreign co-production with different budgets.

Film Roundtable
Designed to provide dialogue opportunities in equality, Film Roundtable focuses on professional operations and practices, sharing instructive experiences with the topic “Multi Approaches for Asian Regional Cooperation”. At the same time, it allows the participants to discuss film concepts and creative trends with insight on subjects like “Heritage and Deconstruction of New Wave”, “Special Perspective of Women’s Films”, and “Creative Choice of Commerce and Standpoint”. This section is designed to provide the most open platform for industry and content improvement.

Master Class
      This year\'s Master Class will be an occasion for living masters to pay homage to the late master and his epoch, under the name of “a retrospect of director Xie Jin”. It is also to train the masters-to-be with tailored session on financing and production of short films, and to get Quincy Jones to voice his perspective of film and music. Master Class aims to provide as many opportunities as possible for young talents from different countries to have conversation with masters.