Taiyuan, October 20 (Xinhuanet) -- "Why I chose the film exhibition in a county, pingyao county has only more than 500,000 people, because I know how important those resources are to my hometown." On the 19th, in the open-air theater of Pingyao Film Palace, director Jia Zhangke had sincere exchanges with the audience. When talking about the original intention of founding the Pingyao International Film Festival, he said that he hoped to open the door of Shanxi in this way and let the beauty of Shanxi be understood by more people.
"Starting from Shanxi" will also "start to the future", the Pingyao International Film Festival, which has been held for five consecutive years, has transformed in continuous innovation, and this "small volume" film festival initiated by Jia Zhangke is setting off a "Shanxi wave" at home and abroad.
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"The Pingyao Film Festival has given more and more young people who love movies a reason to come to Pingyao, a thousand-year-old city." Fan Boyu, a student of drama, film and television literature at Shanxi University, came to the Fifth Pingyao International Film Festival as a volunteer, hoping to gain more observation and experience of film through this international platform.
Walking into the Pingyao Film Palace, young faces like Fan Boyu can be seen everywhere, and the opening ceremony with the theme of "New Youth, New Film, New Era" has made the focus on highlighting new young filmmakers and become the positioning of this year's Pingyao Film Exhibition.
"I have always wanted to come to Pingyao to appreciate the ancient culture here, and after I came here, I found that there is not only an ancient civilization here, but also a vibrant and youthful film festival, thank you, remind me that I am still a teenager, and my original intention has not changed." Director Xu Ke said.
"Towards the Future" highlights the attention paid to young filmmakers and explores the future of film from multiple perspectives. This year's film festival specially set up a "Youth Judging Honor" jury, which was judged by young director Gu Xiaogang, young actors Huang Yao, Qi Xi, Wang Junkai and Zhou You. It is reported that the total amount of awards given to young filmmakers in this year's film festival reached 3.5 million yuan.
In addition to focusing on the future power of film, we also have some thoughts about "what will future films look like" at this year's film festival. At the academic planning level, the contemporary artist Mr. Xu Bing and his team work "Artificial Intelligence Unlimited Film" were exhibited in pingyao for the world's first exhibition.
It is worth mentioning that this year's Pingyao Film Festival added the "Pingyao Venture Capital Drama Program" to the industry sector for the first time, selecting Chinese drama drama projects with the potential of satellite TV or online streaming media platforms, and taking the lead in paying attention to the creative integration between the two fields of film and drama, which is the first time in the Chinese mainland Film Festival.
In addition, this year's Pingyao Film Festival also brings together rich Shanxi elements, further increases investment in the "Starting from Shanxi" unit film project, and provides more industrial incubation opportunities for Shanxi's local film projects.
"With a new architecture, a new concept, and a new look, we are committed to creating an upgraded version of the new film festival." Wei Jiangfeng, secretary of the Pingyao County CPC Committee, said that the Fifth Pingyao International Film Festival, on the basis of maintaining the program structure, original direction and existing characteristics of the film exhibition, upgraded it from a mechanism to a provincial-level project and "started again" with a new attitude.
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"In many non-first-tier cities, movies for many people only mean a few blockbusters in the cinema every year." Liu Lan, a young director from Shanghai, said of the Pingyao International Film Festival that here, films not only provide entertainment, but also let us see the exploration of Chinese films and the progress of Shanxi films.
"To make Shanxi's cultural industry active, we can see this change from the increase in the number of films we select every year." Jia Zhangke said that the level of films shortlisted for the "Starting from Shanxi" unit has been continuously improving, and the types have been continuously enriched. The Pingyao International Film Festival has become a bridge to graft Shanxi's excellent cultural resources and film industry.
In 2019, Pingyao County won the "Film City of the Year" award from the "Golden Film Youth" Award, and the total annual box office of Pingyao increased by 550% month-on-month, making it the largest increase in China that year. It has to be said that the Pingyao Film Festival has laid a solid foundation for this amazing growth rate.
The 5th Pingyao Film Festival, which lasted for eight days, featured 46 films from 32 countries and regions screened in the ancient city of Pingyao, with a 100% Chinese premiere rate for the official unit finalists.
According to Jia Zhangke, first-line and first-class film investment companies, distribution companies, and publicity companies at home and abroad have all sent representatives to participate in the Pingyao International Film Festival. Several of the films premiered at the previous Pingyao International Film Festival sold Chinese rights, and several domestic Chinese-language films sold international rights. The two-way industrial transaction has made the Pingyao International Film Festival begin to become a film festival that can boost the industry.
Excellent films such as "The Last Emperor", "The Orphan of Zhao", "1942", and "Yellow River Love" have all been filmed in Shanxi. The 5,000-year history of Chinese civilization in Shanxi has made this land a natural set, and the pingyao film exhibition and the thousand-year-old city have once again injected new imagination into the "ancient" land of the Three Jins.
In the past four years, the Pingyao Film Festival has attracted many filmmakers at home and abroad to share their film experience, including Korean director Lee Cangdong, Philippine director Raf Daz, Chinese directors Zhang Yimou, Xu Zheng, Diao Yinan, Tian Zhuangzhuang, and Hong Kong directors Wu Yusen and Du Qifeng. The Pingyao Film Exhibition, which has been held for five consecutive years, has once again allowed the world to see China and Shanxi.
"The Pingyao International Film Festival has become a cultural brand, a symbol of friendship, a platform for communication, a symbol of civilization and a representative of industrial transformation." Wu Junqing, secretary of the Jinzhong Municipal Party Committee, said when summarizing the positioning of the Pingyao Film Exhibition.
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"Shanxi attaches great importance to cultural construction and the development of the film industry." Qian Jin, deputy director of the Propaganda Department of the Shanxi Provincial Party Committee, said in his speech at the opening ceremony of the Pingyao Film Exhibition that Shanxi has been implementing the strategy of strengthening the province with culture, continuously deepening reform, improving the industrial chain, optimizing the business environment, and stimulating the momentum of film development.
In 2017, the Pingyao International Film Festival was born in response to the situation, and is the fifth international film festival exhibition to be approved by the state after the Shanghai, Changchun, Beijing and Silk Road Film Festivals.
In recent years, Shanxi Province has vigorously implemented the strategy of innovation-driven, science and education to revitalize the province, and strengthen the province with talents, promoted the deepening reform of higher education, relied on the talent advantages of the college, built the whole film and television industry chain and industrial cluster, provided more development platforms for young filmmakers, and contributed to the all-round promotion of high-quality development.
Relying on the successful holding of the Pingyao International Film Festival, Shanxi's film education has also developed rapidly.
In April 2021, the Shanxi Film Academy of Shanxi Media College was inaugurated, and the college hired director Jia Zhangke as the dean, and specially hired 16 industry leaders as professional leaders or leaders of the film school.
The Shanxi Film Academy of The Shanxi Film Academy of Media and Communications joined as the organizer of this year's film festival, which made the Pingyao Film Exhibition more incubatable and also allowed the newly established Shanxi Film Academy to gradually realize the integration pattern of integrated development of "industry-university-research-innovation exhibition".
The dialogue of "living, studying and creating in Shanxi" of this year's film festival, mainly experts from Shanxi Film Academy, invited Shanxi filmmakers such as Ning Hao, Han Jie, Yuan Yuan and other directors who studied in Shanxi to share film experience with the theme of "living, learning and creating in Shanxi". "After many of our experts come to the Pingyao Film Exhibition, they will also go to the Shanxi Film Academy to carry out academic activities, so that the academic atmosphere and academic quality of the Shanxi Film Academy will be further improved." Jia Zhangke said.
Guo Weidong, vice president of Shanxi College of Media, said that as a useful attempt and exploration of the reform of Shanxi's higher education field and discipline college, Shanxi Film Academy believes that it can provide a practical model for the construction of art disciplines and related fields of art colleges in Shanxi, and will also play a role in promoting the integration of the entire cultural industry and culture and tourism.
Source: Xinhua Net