Chinese young filmmakers, from labels that emphasize more personal expression, such as "marginal", "individual" and "chasing dreams", have continuously taken over the baton from the older generation and gradually become the backbone of Chinese film creation. Being seen, paid attention to, and supported has become the topic context of young Chinese filmmakers in this Cannes film.
Author: Liang Xiang
Editor: Blue Two
Format: Wang Wei
In the past, when talking about top international film festivals such as Cannes, it seemed that only the top leaders in the Chinese film industry could reach them; In fact, the pattern has quietly changed, showing the power of Chinese people on the international stage, shuffling in the new generation.
At this year's Cannes, the absurd realist literary film "Mistake by the River" directed by post-90s director Wei Shujun made filmmakers at home and abroad praise it with its stylized visual images, and was called "the golden film of the century" by international media person Gowtham Rajj. Directed by post-80s director Chen Zheyi and starring Zhou Dongyu and Liu Haoran, "Burning Winter" was also recommended by David Rooney, chief film critic of The Hollywood Reporter, as one of the "Ten Must-See Films" at Cannes.
The four films "Walking on the Moon Alone" in the universe, "Where to Grow" about youth growth, "Roof Football" which presents girls chasing football dreams, and "Umbilical Cord" that tells the farewell in a poetic way are also shortlisted in Cannes because of the global promotion plan of Chinese youth films, and the main creators are also young filmmakers.
Chinese young filmmakers, from labels that emphasize more personal expression, such as "marginal", "individual" and "chasing dreams", have continuously taken over the baton from the older generation and gradually become the backbone of Chinese film creation. Being seen, paid attention to, and supported has become the topic context of young Chinese filmmakers in this Cannes film.
Wu Yanyan, director of the Wu Tianming Youth Film Special Fund of the China Film Foundation, also stressed that in the future, more master teaching should be provided in cultivation, actively open up international vision, and let Chinese young filmmakers stand on a larger world stage.
This is not only the moment when Chinese films are seen, but also the white night when young Chinese filmmakers are seen.
Discover the potential and tap into the possibilities
China produces more than 1,000 films a year and is now the world's largest box office. Looking back at 2022, films produced by young filmmakers such as "Love Myth", "Walking on the Moon Alone" and "Life Events" have gained high reputation or high box office, and more and more young filmmakers such as Shao Yihui, Zhang Qiyu, Liu Jiangjiang and others have been given the opportunity to emerge in the market.
Inheritance and innovation are the footnotes of young filmmakers today. In addition to these two words that are actually more traditional, youth creation may bring greater surprises to the film industry. Whether it is stylized author expression or digging new sparks on inherent themes, good ideas, good shots, and good stories are always the source of living water for young filmmakers to attract to the market.
Shōzo Ichiyama, director of the Tokyo International Film Festival in Japan, and director Ning Hao held a dialogue with young filmmakers in Cannes, and cast a firm vote for the idea of "creating a good story of youth films".
As early as 1994, he began to cooperate with Hou Xiaoxian and served as the producer of many of his films, and has always been interested in young filmmakers. After meeting Jia Zhangke at the Film Festival in 1998, Ichiyama Shangzo became one of the biggest promoters behind Jia Zhangke's films.
Ichiyama said in the dialogue that in many types of labels such as "business", "literature and art", "stylization", young people should not speculate and do not be confused, and shooting good content is the biggest criterion for film selection.
"At the festival, I try to choose films with good content – not necessarily authors, not commercial or artistic – and the theme is the most important. For example, Jia Zhangke, who focuses his film lens on small-town characters to tell small-town stories, is unique and why his films are popular. But more deeply, he did not cater to the market or film festivals, but used his own perspective to tell a good story. ”
Art knows no boundaries, and only by being steady and steady can we travel thousands of miles. Dare to think and dare to do is the expectation of practitioners for young filmmakers. As a humanistic art, the film also reflects the true heart of the producer to a certain extent, "like Jia Zhangke, first of all, of course, he is very talented, but I finally chose to cooperate with him because I recognize him as a person."
Director Ning Hao also agrees that a young director, if he starts from writing his own script, experiences the creation of a film in an all-round way, and continues to grow in learning, he will be more favored.
"The need for money for projects is indeed the biggest problem, but young filmmakers still have to be relatively pragmatic. If there is no equipment, then use a mobile phone to shoot, if there is no resources, then find people around you to help, what to do, in this process, filmmakers can recognize themselves and recognize what kind of works they are suitable for. Many young directors struggle with their first film, but action is the most important thing."
This year's performance of Chinese filmmakers on the international film stage in Cannes is enough to show that the sound wave from young Chinese filmmakers is crossing the continent and being listened to by filmmakers and fans at home and abroad. Including at the Cannes Forum with the theme of "International Cooperation", representatives of the film industry from different countries around the world also focused on the new talents of young Chinese filmmakers.
Aton Sounmache, a French producer and father of The Little Prince, believes that China has changed dramatically in the past two decades and has become more active in the film industry. At present, China is in a very good era, young filmmakers have more opportunities to present richer film works, he suggested that young filmmakers seek more government-level financial support or cooperative filming, understand all the information around them that can be supported, and help bring Chinese culture to the international perspective.
Despite the improvement of the international environment, the volume of Chinese films in the international film market is still small. Zheng Jing, the producer of films such as "Little White Boat", "Floating City on the Sea" and "Don't Tell Her", when analyzing this situation, believes that the root cause is still cultural barriers, "from the content and characters, it is difficult to make different cultural countries empathize."
Ren Ning, CEO of Shanghai Sanyuan Film Co., Ltd., also agreed with Zheng Jing's view, "There are great differences between the underlying culture and social psychology of China and the West, even between Asian countries. But we have worked with screenwriters and directors who have returned from studying abroad and have cross-cultural backgrounds and experience in international cooperation to create works with an international perspective."
Ren Ning shared her joy after watching the movie "Past Life", a love story about middle-aged South Koreans reunited in New York, cleverly grafting Eastern stories onto the Western stage, making her feel that China's own young directors should be able to create similar film and television works, truly breaking cultural barriers, crossing cultural gaps, and resonating with Chinese and Western audiences.
"We now hope more to give young filmmakers such a possibility."
Funding, nurturing, and international standards
The Cannes Film Festival has made a good demonstration for paying attention to young filmmakers, and when young filmmakers gradually become the main words of the industry and carry more and more industry expectations, how to accompany them to grow and run together has become another difficulty that needs to be solved.
In the conversation between Ichiyama and Ning Hao, Ichiyama lamented that even in Japan, it is difficult to find money and investment in art films.
In fact, at a time when film venture capital is blooming everywhere in the country, the proportion of films that can really come out of venture capital, enter the shooting stage, and finally come to the big screen to face the audience is still very limited.
During the Cannes period, how to support the creation of young filmmakers has become a topic of heated discussion among practitioners. "Umbilical Cord" director Qiao Sixue mentioned the convenience brought to young filmmakers by major film festivals and venture capital platforms in the new era, "no need to sell houses and make films like post-80s directors in the past"; Long Lingyun, director of "Where to Grow", said that for young filmmakers, money, time, luck and people are crucial.
In addition to the pain point of funding, Huang Maochang, a filmmaker of the representative work "Hump", believes that the future of Chinese films lies in young directors, but the industry is also very important for the cultivation of young filmmakers, "A young producer with an international perspective needs to learn how to bring film to Cannes." We need to understand what the world is saying, and that's a key point."
Funding, cultivation, and international standards, Chinese young filmmakers need to cross these three mountains. In this Cannes Film Festival, four films, "Umbilical Cord", "Where to Grow", "Roof Football" and "Walking on the Moon Alone", were selected as shortlisted for the Chinese Youth Film Global Promotion Program sponsored by the Wu Tianming Youth Film Special Fund of the China Film Foundation. As early as 2014, when the special fund was established, director Wu Yanyan thought about and set out to solve this problem.
In an exclusive interview with Black and White Entertainment, Wu Yanyan said that for these three pieces, Wu Tianming's Youth Film Special Fund has been making continuous efforts in the past eight years: in 2014, it built a platform, investment platform, and financing summit platform for venture capital around young directors in the form of a summit, and produced excellent works such as Gu Xiaogang's "Spring River Plumbing"; Since 2015, the special fund has also invited screenwriters from Hollywood, France, the United Kingdom, Japan and South Korea from all over the world to open screenwriting classes for closed training every year; Since the establishment of the China Pavilion in the Cannes Film Festival International Village in 2016, young film creators have been brought to the Cannes Film Festival every year to promote their projects and works at the China Pavilion.
Wu Yanyan also believes that the training of producers is also very important compared to the training of directors and screenwriters - "In the United States, producers have a system and will have more say. Although China is also developing, it is still not complete, and I hope that through our efforts, the Chinese producer system can be aligned with the world."
Even for such a relatively systematic special fund, when it comes to the important issues faced, Wu Yanyan bluntly said that it is still funding, "We will select every year to know which directors are talented." If we have more funds, we can avoid the problem of financing young directors and support their creations more vigorously. I hope to see this day."
Recalling the first fund raised by Wu Tianming's Special Fund for Young Films, Wu Yanyan was serving as vice president of Ivanhoe Pictures China, which produced "Crazy Rich Asians". Ms. Wu approached Ivanhoe's boss, Robert Friedland, to describe the need for the special fund.
"I asked if you would like to donate as the first tranche of money from our special fund. He said he worked in mining and for him, Chinese cinema was an untapped gold mine worth mining. So he gave us 1 million yuan. ”
This 1 million yuan has become the spark of Wu Tianming's youth film special fund, which has been burning until today's Cannes night. In her opening speech at the "Chinese Youth Film Night" in Cannes, Wu Yanyan had a moving remark at the scene: "I love movies, love those who work in film, and love this film festival that has high respect for film." This may be the initial germination of our global promotion plan for Chinese youth films. We want more young filmmakers to broaden their horizons and lift their spirits at international film festivals like Cannes, and we want their young and energetic films to be seen and watched in the world's largest film market. ”
It is foreseeable that this spark will surely burn into a more distant galaxy in the hands of young Chinese filmmakers.
THE END
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