The Film Handbook published a routine list of "Top Ten of the Year" in the last issue of the magazine in 2020, with Chinese director Gu Xiaogang's debut film "Spring River Plumbing" shortlisted and ranked seventh, and South Korean director Hong Sang-so has two works shortlisted, the first work being the documentary "Boston City Hall".
The Film Handbook, a well-known French film critic magazine, announced the top ten films of the year in 2020 in the December issue of the magazine. Among the selected films, Chinese director Gu Xiaogang's "Spring River Plumbing" ranked seventh, while South Korean director Hong Sang-so had two shortlists, namely "Riverside Hotel" and "The Runaway Daughter", which won the best director award at this year's Berlin Film Festival.
The Film Handbook is a publication that "created the history of cinema", which became the main position of the "French New Wave" movement in the 1950s and 1960s, and many of the main directors of the movement, François Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard, Eric Houmai, etc., worked for the magazine as film critics.
It is customary for the Film Handbook to select the top ten films of the year in the last issue of each year, which also represents the position of the magazine: more focus on art films, preferring author-oriented directors. For art films, the list is an important compliment from the film critics.
The last issue of the 2020 Film Handbook Image source: The Official Website of the Film Handbook
The ranking of this list is in order, which also means that the higher the list, the higher the quality of the film in the editorial department of the Film Handbook.
The list of the top ten films of the year in the 2020 Film Handbook is in order of the following:
1. Boston City Hall (Frederick Wiseman)
2. "The Woman Who Ran Away" (Hong Shangxiu)
3. "Original Diamond" (Ben Safdie / Joshua Safdie)
4. Malmcrog Manor (Kristi Puyou)
5. "What Is Said and Done" (Emmanuel Murray)
6. "Riverside Hotel" (Hong Shangxiu)
7. "Spring River Plumbing" (Gu Xiaogang)
8. Salt of Tears (Philip Garrell)
9. "Fantastic" (Sophie Le Thunour)
10. "The August Virgin" (Jonas Truba)
Boston City Hall, which ranked first, is a 275-minute documentary directed by the 90-year-old master of direct cinema Wiseman. The documentary focuses on Boston City Hall and uses images of Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh and his team on a daily basis. The film explores not only how city halls operate, but also the role of government in urban governance, as well as issues such as racial justice, housing policy, and environmental protection.
The film that was named the Top Ten Film of the Year by the Handbook of Motion Picture is Frederick Wiseman's Boston City Hall Image source: The Internet
"Spring River Plumbing" previously won two awards for Best Feature Film and Best Director at the 13th FIRST Youth Film Festival in 2019, becoming the focus of that year's FIRST Youth Film Festival. Later, he was shortlisted for the 10th Beijing International Film Festival Temple of Heaven Award, the 32nd Golden Rooster Award for Chinese Film, and the 23rd Shanghai International Film Festival.
Gu Xiaogang, the director of "Spring River Plumbing", was born in 1988, the film is his debut film, he focuses on his hometown of Hangzhou, with the preparation of the 2020 Asian Games in Hangzhou Fuyang as the background, telling the story of a family of four brothers in the process of caring for their mother who suddenly lost his mind at a birthday party. "Spring River Plumbing" uses a lot of long shots, Gu Xiaogang pointed the lens at the Fuchun River, and the imaginative shot scheduling was impressive.
The last Chinese film to be shortlisted for the annual top ten list of the "Film Handbook" was Jia Zhangke's "Destiny of Heaven" in 2013, and the film was also shortlisted for the main competition unit of the 66th Cannes Film Festival that year, and won the Best Screenplay Award. Gu Xiaogang also became the tenth Chinese-language director to be shortlisted for the film handbook of the year, the other nine being Hou Xiaoxian, Wong Kar-wai, Yang Dechang, Cai Mingliang, Wu Yusen, Xu Ke, Jia Zhangke, Wang Bing and Li An.
In 2013, Jia Zhangke's "Heaven is Destined" was the last Chinese film to be shortlisted for the "Film Handbook" annual top ten Image source: Network
2020 has a huge impact on the film industry around the world, due to the suspension of filming by many foreign crews affected by the epidemic, many high-profile films such as "Dune" and "Avatar 2" have been postponed to 2021. The Cannes Film Festival, which is the vane of the three major international film festivals and art films, finally decided to suspend its operation, and only announced the shortlist of 56 films.
After the publication of the Film Handbook magazine in April 2020, the original editorial team left The image source: The official website of the Film Handbook
2020 is also not a peaceful year for the Film Handbook. On February 5, The Film Handbook announced that it had been jointly acquired by 20 fans, officially changed owners, and would set up a company called "Friends of the Manual" to manage and run the magazine.
On February 27, the former editorial board of the Film Handbook issued a joint resignation statement, saying: "There are 8 film producers among the new shareholders, which constitute a conflict of interest with the critical publication." The original team left in April 2020 after publishing the last issue of the magazine with the cover of "What is Film Criticism".
Succeeding former editor-in-chief Stéphane Delorme as the new head of the Film Handbook is Marcos Uzal, a 47-year-old former Free Newspaper film critic. Before taking over the Film Handbook, the critic worked at the French Film Archive and several film magazines, and shot four short films.
————
Please WeChat search to pay attention to the public account "all now", the world of the circle of friends will be different.