The 5th Pingyao International Film Festival officially ended on October 19. The relevant creative teams of the films "Street Baby", "Yong'an Town Story Collection" and "Day and Night River" won many honors including "Best Actress", "Best Director", "Youth Jury Honors and Directors" and "Best Actor". These three films are all from the Shanghai International Film Festival and Film Project Venture Capital, and after the completion of the film, they were shortlisted for the "Hidden Dragon" competition unit of this film festival.
Group photo of the winners of the 5th Pingyao International Film Festival
At this year's Pingyao International Film Festival, "Street Baby" (formerly known as "Crazy" and "Crazy Road") (SIFF PROJECT 2017, SIFF PROJECT WIP 2020) starred Huang Miyi, "SIFF PROJECT WIP 2020" starring Zou Tao won the "Best Actress" and "Best Actor", "SIFF PROJECT 2020" director Wei Shujun was awarded "Best Director" and "Youth Jury Honors· Director" two honors.
The scene of the award ceremony
The film "Street Baby" is directed by Na Jiazuo, starring Li Jiuxiao and Huang Miyi, supervised by Guan Hu, with Liang Jing as the chief producer and Seven Impressions as the producer. The film is the first feature film created by director Nagazzo. In 2017, the creative team came to the Shanghai International Film Festival for the first time with the script of "Street Baby" and won the honor of "Lemon Meng's Most Potential Vision Project". Filming then began, and in 2020, it came back to the SIFF PROJECT Production Project unit and won the honor of "Vivid Digital Special Attention Project". After the completion of the film, it was successively shortlisted for the "One Kind of Attention" unit of the 74th Cannes Film Festival, the "New Director Competition" unit of the 45th São Paulo International Film Festival in Brazil, and the "Hidden Dragon" unit of the 5th Pingyao International Film Festival.
Stills from "Street Baby"
Set against the backdrop of a migration wave from the north to Guangzhou, "Street Dolls" focuses on a group of young people in the Sichuan-Chongqing region at the beginning of this century who wanted to leave but did not leave their hometown. Relying on the most authentic appearance of the city, the film goes deep into the inner world of people step by step, exploring a unique mental state and life experience.
"Street Baby" director Nagazo at the 23rd Shanghai Film Festival venture capital negotiation site
"Yong'an Town Story Collection" tells the story of the crew who stayed in Yong'an Town to bring a little wave to this originally peaceful place, but after the waves, everything returned to tranquility. The whole film is composed of three paragraphs: "Waiting Alone", "Looking Beautiful" and "Pluto Moment", which jointly construct the context of daily life.
At this year's Pingyao Film Exhibition, "Yong'an Town Story Collection" received widespread attention and praise for its sad and witty unique temperament, and the premiere scene was applauded continuously.
Stills from "Yong'an Town Story Collection"
Yong'an Town Story Collection was selected for the 65th British Film Institute (BFI) London Film Festival, the 26th Busan International Film Festival "Spotlight" section, the 22nd Tokyo FILMeX Film Festival main competition unit, in addition to winning the 2021 Brussels International Film Festival International Competition Unit Jury Prize.
On the production team, the film was starred by Yang Zishan, Huang Miyi, Liu Yang, Kang Chunlei, and invited Liang Ming, Yang Jin, Yang Pingdao, Song Chuan, Zhai Yixiang, Geng Jun, Wu Zhongtian, Huang Xufeng and many other young directors and filmmakers to make cameo appearances.
The film is produced by Huang Xufeng and Liang Ying, and produced by Factory Gate Pictures (Shanghai) Film Co., Ltd., Qingdao Zhongchuang Convergence Film and Television Co., Ltd., And Co., Ltd. with Xiang Film (Guangdong) Co., Ltd., Tianjin Lianrui Film Co., Ltd., Beijing Muwei Film and Television Co., Ltd., and Shanghai Xingui Culture technology co., Ltd.
"Yong'an Town Story Collection" Director Wei Shujun (second from the left)
At the 23rd Shanghai Film Festival venture capital negotiation site
The movie "Day and Night River" tells a story about the Yangtze River. In a lonely boat, two people are squeezed into a corner by fate because of a shipwreck, they lose their loved ones at the same time, exchange identities, and must do what they have been avoiding all their lives. They replaced each other's fathers or sons and drank relatively on the Yangtze River.
Poster of "Rivers of Day and Night"
The film places the camera on a lonely boat, showing the struggle and breakthrough of the characters in the face of the difficulties in life, creating a unique image temperament and the expression of the lens language is remarkable. On the river, through the two changes of ownership of a boat, involving the entanglement of two families and two generations, and the director's understanding of the father-son relationship, the script story is solid, the character image is delicate, not only discusses the classic motif of father-son relationship and male growth, but also cleverly weaves four characters into three pairs of father-son relationships, which has a new meaning.
The film is directed by Zheng Peike, supervised by Liao Xi, written by Zheng Peike and Yi Chen, starring Liao Yufeng, Zou Tao, and assisted by Feng Jiamei, and produced by Emei Film Group.
"Day and Night River" director Zheng Peike (left) and producer Yi Chen
In addition to the above three films, SIFF PROJECT 2019, a feature film project that has been shortlisted for venture capital at the Shanghai International Film Festival, has also completed the production of short films and appeared in the "Pingyao Corner" short film unit.
The short film "Snow Cloud" is directed by young director Wu Lang and co-starring Li Kangsheng and Li Meng. In the film, a pair of former lovers do not explore each other's recent situation too much on the way back to Yinggehai, but choose to tacitly maintain everything in front of them. Director Wu Lang's concise and romantic audiovisual treatment shows the rich layers and charm of the story.
Stills from Snow Clouds
After being shortlisted for the 22nd Shanghai International Film Festival, the feature film project was awarded the "Special Recommended Project of the Jury". In the judges' view, the director uses characters and time as a carrier to try to express the beauty of the dislocation of psychological space and real space, providing imagination space for the presentation of new film language and aesthetics. At present, the feature film version of "Snow Cloud" has also completed the script creation and entered the preparatory shooting stage. It will extend the lost emotions of the short film and continue to tell a moving story about time and emotion.
"Snow Cloud" is produced by Shanghai Tuyan Film Co., Ltd., Beijing Infinite Freedom Culture Media Co., Ltd., Haikou Qinglan Visual Arts Development Co., Ltd., and is distributed overseas by Yilisoo Films. Tu Yan Pictures and Wulang Film Studio are jointly produced, and Don He and Zhao Ziming are producers.
"Snow Cloud" director Wu Lang made a presentation at the 22nd Shanghai Film Festival Venture Capital
It is worth mentioning that the works of the students of the Shanghai International Film Festival and Venture Capital Training Camp (SIFF NEXT) also performed well at this Pingyao International Film Festival. Zheng Quan(SIFF NEXT 2019) was selected for the "Developing Film Project" of this year's Pingyao Film Festival with the project "Linglong". Another production team member, Zhang Jing (SIFF NEXT 2020), as a producer, entered the "Hidden Dragon" competition unit of this year's Pingyao Film Festival with the film "Goodbye, Paradise", which won the honor of "Special Commendation", which is another important honor won by "Goodbye, Paradise" after winning the "New Wave Award" at the Busan International Film Festival.
The movie "Goodbye, Paradise" tells the life and life story of three generations of women in a three-paragraph structure, presenting the spiritual journey of a family and the changes of the times spanning 70 years, and has a distinct genre differentiation style in the current film market.
Stills from "Goodbye, Paradise"
The film is directed by Wang Erzhuo, produced by Wang Hongwei, and planned by Gu Zheng, and produced and produced by Xinzhou Jiaying Pictures (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. and Beijing Jingfeng Culture Media Co., Ltd. It is jointly produced by Mo Fei Film (Beijing) International Culture Media Co., Ltd. and Morning Pictures (Guizhou) Co., Ltd.
Producer Zhang Jing is a member of the production team at the 2020 Shanghai International Film Festival SIFF NEXT, and has served as an executive producer of "The Last Night on Earth" and a producer of "Goodbye, Paradise" and "Swimming in Whales". Among them, "Swimming in Whales" was shortlisted for the 8th Chongqing Youth Film Festival Project Venture Fair and Public Unit in 2021.
Since the film started in 2019, the filming time has spanned three years, and the epidemic has been experienced in the middle, and the shooting has been stalled for a while. Zhang Jing overcame many pressures and challenges to prepare to restart the machine again in November 2020, just in time to receive the news of being shortlisted for the SIFF NEXT. In the end, the film was successfully filmed.
"Goodbye, Paradise" producer Zhang Jing (third from left) and the main creator
Debuted at the pingyao premiere scene
"Linglong" is a documentary film. In the film, a chance, let the "porcelain doll" Linglong, into the life of the documentary creators Z &Z couple. They are impressed by this happy and carefree girl with congenital osteogenesis imperfecta, so they decide to follow Linglong and her family. During the follow-up, Z&Z had a child of its own. They began to learn to be parents and began to discuss what kind of life to give their children and what kind of world to let her see. Until suddenly one day, they happened to come to the mountain village with their children, and a 1-year-old girl met another girl who was 10 years old but still 1 year old. Z&Z suddenly realized that the growth of these two girls would be so different...
Stills from "Linglong"
Co-directed by directors Zhang Chi and Zhu Jie, with Zheng Quan as the producer, "Linglong" was selected for the 2019 Guangzhou International Documentary Festival "China Story" Proposal Conference and won the fifth place.
Producer Zheng Quan is a member of the production team of the 2019 Shanghai International Film Festival SIFF NEXT, focusing on young film creators and realistic dramas and documentaries, with many years of experience in film festival curation, international distribution and film production. In 2020, he was selected for the Fresh Pitch Fresh Producer Ten Program.
"Linglong" producer Zheng Quan (first from the left) and directors Zhang Chi and Zhu Jie
Debuted at the Pingyao Film Festival