BEIJING, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) -- Compared with previous years, this year's Beijing International Film Festival is a bit deserted. The number of films screened has shrunk from nearly 500 last year to more than 300 this year, and the activities are not as lively as in previous years.
However, the enthusiasm of fans is still high, and 72% of the movie tickets have been sold out within ten minutes of ticketing. In addition to grabbing tickets, what are the highlights of this year's North Film Festival?
The Beijing Film Festival screened part of the film online
Watch point one: 250 online movies can be watched at home
This year's Beijing Film Festival screening is divided into four parts: online screening, television screening, cinema screening and open-air screening, and more than 300 Chinese and foreign films will be screened.
Among them, 12 units are set up for online screening, about 250 films are online, and about 50 new films at home and abroad are launched at one time. During the May Day period, the Beijing Film Festival cooperated with iQiyi to hold a spring online film festival, screening "Marriage Story", "Judy", "Spring Tide", "Breaking News" and other films. Next, iQIYI will also set up a special area for the North Film Festival, where the audience can buy tickets online.
The online screening will last for one month, and 27 films in three units have been announced, including "Hope Gully", "Spring River Plumbing", "Helena: Life on canvas", "We Are X", "In the Name of Flowers", "Apostles of Death" and many other new films that have attracted the attention of fans, many of which are meeting the audience online for the first time.
Some movie posters were screened on television
The TV screening, which includes 10 domestic films and 10 overseas films, will be broadcast on a loop for 10 days on beijing satellite TV, BTV film and television and BTV youth channels, which is also the first time that domestic film festivals have opened up TV screening channels. Most of the domestic films are masterpieces in recent years, such as "Wolf Totem", "Chinese Partner", "A Generation of Grandmasters", etc., and overseas films include "Margarita", "Little Harbor", "Ice Mother", etc., most of which are broadcast for the first time on domestic television.
The open-air screening is the highlight of this Beijing Film Festival, when 24 Chinese and foreign films such as "Lushan Love", "Paradise Cinema" and "Wendy" will be screened in outdoor venues such as the Middle Art District of Haidian District. The cinema screening will be held in 18 theaters in Beijing, screening about 100 400 Chinese and foreign masterpieces.
North Film Festival ticket sales war report
Watching point 2: The classic film "Second Nothing" screened in the theater
The annual theater screening unit is the most concerned link for film fans, and the degree of ticket snatching is comparable to that of the Spring Festival. Although the list of films screened in theaters this year has shrunk, the quality has not declined. As in previous years, paying tribute to film masters is still an indispensable part, this year coincides with the 100th anniversary of the birth of French film master Eric Houmai, and the North Film Festival has set up a special "Houmai's Covenant" unit, which will show 6 films such as "Female Collector", "Mudder's Night", "Green Light", etc., and these 6 films have all been sold out on the day of ticketing.
In recent years, the re-screening of classic films has become a trend, and the recent box office of "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" and "Interstellar" has exceeded 100 million yuan. The classic re-screening of the North Film Festival has also become the most popular part of this year, with Apocalypse Now, War and Peace, Cinema Paradiso and the Matrix trilogy all making it into the top 10 fastest-selling films.
Screenshot of the official website of the North Film Festival
This year, women's theme works have attracted attention, and the North Film Festival has also set up a new "Women's Voice" unit. The unit contains 9 works, including last year's hit movies "Jin Zhiying born in 1982" and "Tropical Rain", as well as the old film "The Next Girl", and the domestic documentary "Water Moon in Hand" has also been shortlisted for the Golden Jubilee Award documentary unit. Among them, the movie tickets for "Water Moon in Hand" and "Tropical Rain" have been sold out.
This year's Beijing Film Festival also has no shortage of domestic films, commercial blockbusters include "My Motherland and Me", but more are the works of young directors, such as "Spring River Plumbing" directed by Gu Xiaogang, "Auspicious Ruyi" directed by Dapeng, and "Back to the South Heaven" directed by Gao Ming.
List of films screened at the North Film Festival Cinema
Highlight 3: Ang Lee and Zhang Yimou gathered together
Film festivals are not only a carnival for movie fans, but also a gathering of filmmakers. In order to support the recovery of the film industry, the big names of this year's North Film Festival are not inferior than in the past.
Different from the opening ceremony of previous years, this year's Beijing Film Festival will adopt a special "on the cloud" launching ceremony, Zhang Yimou, Chen Daoming, Huang Huilin, Sun Xianghui, Cao Yin, Fu Ruoqing, Yu Dong, Wu Jing and other 8 representatives from different fields of the film industry will attend and give speeches on the development of film. At the same time, Wu Jing also served as the image ambassador of this film festival.
Some guests of the North Film Festival
This year's film master class has also caused a hot discussion on the Internet, with Ang Lee, Guan Jinpeng, Austrian director Jessica Hausna and others will serve as the main speakers. The theme of Ang Lee's master class is "Oriental Expression and Digital Technology", and the theme of Kwan Kam Peng is "Hong Kong Cinema: Traditional Inheritance and Development Beyond". In addition to offline, the film master class will also be broadcast on the online platform.
North Film Festival Film Master Class
The theme forum is the most essential part of the annual film festival, where filmmakers exchange views and collide. This year, the Beijing Film Festival will hold 8 theme forums, including the "Ten Years of Ruying - 10th Anniversary Theme Forum", "China Film Industry Development Summit Forum", "Exploring the Beauty of Film Summit Forum" and so on. Xu Zheng, Chen Sicheng, Lu Chuan, Iwai Shunji, Zhang Yibai, Wen Muye, Guo Fan, Rob Minkov and other large wave of film directors will be present, in addition to Bona, Huayi Brothers, iQiyi, Guangguang Media and other film and television company owners, as well as Yao Chen, Li Zhiting and other actors.
Part of the Forum of the North Film Festival
In addition, the "Beijing Market" section of the Beijing Film Festival has also attracted much attention. Among them, the project venture capital is an incubator for young filmmakers, "gold medal producer" Chen Guofu will serve as the chairman of the jury of the project venture capital, and actors Yongmei and Deng Chao will serve as the final judges. The Beijing Film Festival also jointly held a film promotion meeting with China Film and Huaxia to promote foreign films to be released in the second half of this year, and films such as "On the Cliff", "Pioneer", "Arriving Home at One Point", "My Hometown and Me", and "Jiang Ziya" will also appear at the screening meeting. What movies we can see in the second half of the year, we can spy a little bit of it. (End)
Source: China News Network