1905 Film Network Special Article: The two new overseas films "Jin's Video Store" and "Crazy Monday" released in theaters on April 19 made their first appearances in China at the Beijing International Film Festival last year.
"Jin's Video Store" has a good reputation after being screened at the Beijing Film Festival, with a Douban score of 8.6 points. "Crazy Monday" is also one of the "hardest to grab tickets" films in the current exhibition, and it has aroused the interest of domestic creators and will be adapted into a Chinese version.
Before the Beijing Film Festival, these two films did not have a high reputation, how did the Beijing Film Festival select these two "potential stocks"? Secondly, the popularity of the film festival does not mean that it can also sell well after entering the theaters, at present, the box office of "Jin's Video Store" has just exceeded one million, and the box office of "Crazy Monday" is only more than 300,000.
With these questions, 1905 Film Network exclusively interviewed Sha Dan, the curator of the Beijing International Film Festival's "Beijing Screening", to uncover the secret of the Beijing Film Festival's popular foreign films entering China.
"Kim's Video Store", "Crazy Monday"
How does the Beijing Film Festival discover "unpopular treasures"?
The Beijing Film Festival held in April will pay attention to the new films that have premiered at major film festivals around the world in the past six months, such as the Sundance Film Festival in January and the Berlin Film Festival in March, to find excellent works suitable for screening at the Beijing Film Festival.
Shortlisted for the Future Innovation Award at last year's Sundance Film Festival, "Kim's Video Store" is a documentary that focuses on the untold story behind a New York-based video rental shop. The curatorial team led by Shadan found it very suitable for the Beijing Film Festival to be shown to fans, and sure enough, it was well received after the screening.
There are also many new films similar to the meta-film style of "Jin's Video Store" in the screening list of this year's Beijing Film Festival, including "Montage Master and Me", "Ghost Portrait", "Single8", "Next Shot" and so on.
Among them, "Single8" is full of Japanese special effects films, and the audience responded enthusiastically, with a score of 8.4 on Douban, which can be said to be a big dark horse in the unpopular new films screened at this year's Beijing Film Festival.
For "Crazy Monday" at last year's Beijing Film Festival, Sha Dan admitted that he was unexpected, and later recalled that the time loop structure of the film was very novel, and the theme of beating workers was also very close to the emotional topic of domestic office workers, which may be the reason why the film was popular at the film festival.
"Bringing movies to the audience" and "bringing movies to the audience" are the two major directions of the curatorial work of the Beijing Film Festival, Sha Dan introduced, "bringing movies to the audience" means to the audience's favor, bringing the latest restored versions, coinciding with the release of the commemorative node of the classic old films of film history to the domestic audience, and "bringing the film to the audience" tests the vision of the curatorial team of the film selection, and actively explores the latest films worthy of recommendation to the audience.
"The festival brings a new foreign film to the public eye, which has been highly praised by the audience, and then it may let domestic film buyers see the potential of the film," Shadan stressed, adding that the important role of the Beijing Film Festival is to empower the industry, contribute to the film trade, expand the attractiveness of the Chinese film market itself, and deepen exchanges and mutual learning among civilizations.
The film festival was popular and introduced to domestic theaters
Box office is not the only business!
"Crazy Monday" and "Jin's Video Store" were screened at the Beijing Film Festival to be released in domestic theaters, which confirmed the achievements of the Beijing Film Festival in "bringing movies to the audience". However, "Crazy Monday" basically belongs to "zero publicity", and "Jin's Video Store" follows the distribution model of the Art Federation, and the box office of the two films is very low after their release.
Stars with no appeal, niche genres, relatively unpopular schedules, limited distribution scale and publicity costs are all factors that make up the film not have a high box office. From the perspective of the filmmaker, they all hope that the film will be a box office hit, and how to play a combination of "breaking the circle" in publicity needs to be further explored.
However, the theatrical box office is not the only criterion for these films to consider their benefits.
"This is an actuarial calculation, and its value cannot be measured simply by the box office. Shadan took "Jin's Video Store" as an example, which itself does not have the basis to be a big hit in theaters, but the high reputation of this film has long-term release value. From the excavation of the front-end Beijing Film Festival, the introduction of screenings by the Art Federation, to the release of the film, it may be possible to carry out long-term screenings in the art theaters of the China Film Archive, forming a closed-loop industrial chain, and the introduction of film companies can also get more benefits from it.
They are not only aimed at the cinema side, but also various distribution channels such as streaming media, TV, and short video platforms can expand recycling, and the introduction of overseas masterpieces can also win the filmmaker's reputation in the industry.
Especially after these foreign films successfully land in theaters, it is equivalent to having a "pass" for domestic distribution, and then they will be broadcast on different platforms, which can save the time and money cost of filing applications to a certain extent.
In addition, domestic film companies attach great importance to "potential" directors who are popular with fans, such as the shortlisted film "Everything at Dawn" of this year's Beijing Film Festival "Temple of Heaven Award", from the young Japanese director Miyake Singing.
It is understood that the copyright of this film has been bought by the domestic filmmaker. Miyake's previous films "Your Bird Can Sing" and "Keiko, Gaze" have all been screened at the Beijing Film Festival and received enthusiastic support from fans, and last year he also came to Beijing, Wuhan, Chengdu and other places to hold a retrospective of his works, expanding his recognition among Chinese audiences.
These word-of-mouth accumulations have greatly promoted the landing of his films in the Chinese market in the future, and the quotation of the new work "Everything at Dawn" in China has doubled.
The Beijing Film Festival upgraded the "Premiere GALA" unit
These new overseas films are expected to be introduced
So, among the batch of new overseas films unveiled at this year's Beijing Film Festival, which ones have the opportunity to enter the Chinese film market in the future?
Shadan specially introduced the films in the unit that have been upgraded from the previous "surprise premiere" to "premiere GALA", and the film selection strategy behind it has revealed a lot of hidden information.
This unit includes the latest Chinese and foreign masterpieces such as "Dahomey", "Kitchen", "Brother", "Stunt Maniac", "Dead Grass", "I Am the Captain", "Departure", "Old Gun", "Perfect Day", "Evil Does Not Exist", etc., and came to the big screen in Chinese mainland for the first public screening.
In terms of foreign films, in addition to "Stunt Maniac", which has been scheduled to be released on May 17, the curatorial team of the Beijing Film Festival believes that other foreign films are very likely to be introduced into domestic theaters or streaming media platforms, and some domestic buyers have bought the distribution and sales rights in China, such as "Perfect Day", "Dry Grass", "Evil Does Not Exist", etc.
Take "Perfect Day" directed by Wim Wenders and starring Hiroshi Yakusho as an example, this high-scoring masterpiece that swept the Cannes International Film Festival, the Japan Academy Film Awards, and the Asian Film Awards for Best Actor, compared with other films in the same unit, only 2 screenings were scheduled at the Beijing Film Festival, and the venue was full. Sha Dan revealed that in fact, there are still a few more screenings, because the film team wants to strive for domestic theaters and retain more audience space for future screenings, so there are not too many screenings at the film festival.
The movie "Younger Brother" in this unit is worth paying attention to. This is the first feature film of Chinese director Wang Xiangsheng, starring Chen Chong, which won the Audience Award for Feature Film at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, and is scheduled to be released in North America on July 26, with Focus Pictures responsible for global distribution.
"In the past, it was extremely rare to screen a film that has not yet been released in North America at the Beijing International Film Festival", Shadan believes that "Younger Brother" can be screened in Chinese mainland before its release in North America, indicating that there is a great opportunity to introduce it to the domestic market in the future.
In addition, in recent years, in addition to focusing on the artistry and ideology of the film, the selection consideration of the main competition unit of the "Temple of Heaven Award" of the Beijing Film Festival is more inclined to choose films with more popular story expression and commercial selling points, such as "Speed and Love" and "Son of the Evil World", which were shortlisted for the first two "Temple of Heaven Awards", and then landed on the domestic theater screen.
The same is true for the selection direction of this year's "Temple of Heaven Award". Tymu Nikki, the director of the shortlisted film "The Man Who Faces Death", whose previous work "A Blind Man Who Doesn't Want to Watch "Titanic"" won three awards at the Beijing Film Festival "Temple of Heaven Award" for Best Film, Best Screenplay, and Best Actor, and he was shortlisted again this year with his new film. "Back to Alexandria" starring Nadine Labaki, director of "What is Home", "What is Home" has received 376 million box office in Chinese theaters, creating market surprises.
The connection between these "old friends" and the Beijing Film Festival has deepened, and the platform of the Beijing Film Festival has also enhanced the understanding of domestic audiences about them. If the shortlisted films receive a good reputation after being screened at the film festival, or win an award, the chances of being introduced for domestic screening in the future will also be high.
In Sha Dan's view, as the culture of the film festival becomes more and more mature and the audience group is getting larger and larger, there should be fewer and fewer old films and more and more new films to be screened, and there should be more and more new films that can enter the Chinese film market, which is an important development direction of the Beijing Film Festival in the future.