The French Film Screening Event, organized by the French Film Alliance (UniFrance) and co-organized by the French Embassy in China, aims to bring more and better French films to Chinese film fans, and also introduce Chinese culture to French filmmakers.
Seventeen years have passed since the first French film show was held in 2004. Over the past seventeen years, filmmakers who have come to China through French film screenings include film stars such as Sophie Marceau, Jean Renault, Melville Popo, Virginie Ladoyan, famous directors such as Claude Lelouch, Lauren Guntai, Philippe Garrell, and important Leaders of the French film industry such as Jerome Saidu, President of EMI. They not only brought wonderful French films to Chinese film fans, but also introduced Chinese culture to France, so that the strategic partnership between China and France in the field of film has developed steadily year by year.
Due to the impact of the new crown epidemic, the 17th French film screening time in 2020 had to be postponed from the usual summer to winter. But this does not affect the excitement of French films, nor does it hinder the enthusiasm of Chinese audiences. From December 3, 2020 to early January 2021, the French film exhibition will tour Beijing, Shanghai, Xi'an, Kunming, Sanya, Dalian and other cities, bringing Chinese audiences a total of eight new French films, including "Truth", "Salt of Tears", "A Big Drama", "Southern French Sister", "I Lost My Body", "Happy Birthday to You", "Sibille" and "Good Dream Day Trip".
At this screening event, Mr. Huang Xiaoming, who won the Golden Rooster Award for Best Actor and the Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres des Arts et des Beaux-Arts, was invited to serve as an ambassador to promote French films for Chinese film fans.
Eight new French films Domestic fans are partying
From the official opening of the event on December 3, 2020 to the beginning of January 2021, the 17th French Film Festival will tour Beijing, Shanghai, Xi'an, Kunming, Sanya and other cities, selecting eight new French films for Chinese audiences, including "The Truth", "Salt of Tears", "A Big Drama", "Southern French Sister", "I Lost My Body", "Happy Birthday to You", "Sibille" and "Good Dream Day Trip".
The opening film of this year's French Film Festival is "The Truth" by the director of the Palme d'Or, Hirokazu Kore-eda, and two French goddesses, Catherine Deneuve and Juliet Binoche. In addition to "The Truth", French national treasure actress Catherine Deneuve and another "Happy Birthday to You" participated in the screening. Both films focus on the family, telling the rifts and cracks between the family and the preciousness of family affection.
French film master Philippe Garrel's "Salt of Tears" has just been selected as one of the top ten films of 2020 by the French Film Handbook. The film continues the director's creative attitude in recent years: obsessed with the exploration of modern love, to imitate the emotional trivialities of modern men and women in great detail - they love each other deeply, but they can't stand the fading of freshness and passion, as well as the attraction of other opposite sexes, and the erosion of the emotions of the two by worldly life, until they torture each other to the skin.
"A Big Drama", "Southern French Sister" and "Good Dream Day Trip" are the three comedy films participating in the exhibition. Emmanuel Kukol, the director of A Great Drama, tries to use the openness of the theatrical stage, the importance of freedom to people, and paradoxically or ironically, the protagonist of his play is a group of prisoners who have lost their freedom. In contrast, the comedic style of "Southern French Sisters" is more relaxed, and it shows the survival and emotional status of contemporary French youth in the sexual encounter journey of three men driving together, with a lot of laughter. Director Nicolas Bedos's "A Day trip to a good dream", which won the best original screenplay at the 45th César Film Awards in France, is a fantastic and star-studded romantic comedy.
Jehmi Crapan's "I Lost My Body" is the only animated film at the festival. This fantasy animation about a broken hand and a body reunited, won the 2020 French Film César Award for Best Animated Film, and has attracted much attention at major film festivals around the world. Directed by female director Justin Trier, "Sibyl" (exclusive online broadcast platform: Joy Premiere APP) is a female theme work shortlisted for the main competition section of the 2019 Cannes Film Festival.
This selection of eight recent films is the best time for audiences everywhere to enjoy French cinema on the big screen. I believe that while experiencing the French film screening, the audience can strongly feel the commonality of human emotions and destiny around the world, as well as the spiritual comfort given by art and literature to people of different languages and cultural backgrounds!
The Golden Rooster Award Film Emperor Huang Xiaoming assisted in the Order of the Chevalier de France
On December 3, the opening ceremony of the 17th French Film Festival was held at the Beijing Yachen Hotel, which opened the curtain for the events in Beijing and other screening cities. Mr. Luo Liang, French Ambassador to China, and Huang Xiaoming, the second film emperor of the Golden Rooster Award, attended the opening ceremony.
This is not only the opening ceremony of the French film screening event with the help of Huang Xiaoming, but also the ceremony of the Golden Rooster Award's second film emperor being awarded the "Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et de France" by the French government. The Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Arts et des Beaux-Arts de France was established by the French Government in 1957 to recognize French and foreigners who enjoy a high reputation in the field of culture and art, or who have made special achievements and outstanding contributions to the promotion of French and world culture.
Mr. Huang Xiaoming received this honor, which is truly deserved. Mr. Huang Xiaoming is the youngest grand slam winner of the best actor in China, since his debut, he has won many awards such as the Golden Rooster Award of Chinese Film, the Best Actor of the Popular Film Hundred Flowers Award, the Outstanding Actor of the Chinese Film Huabiao Award, etc. With many film works such as "No Questions Asked", "Chinese Partner", "Datang Xuanzang", etc., he has become the favorite good actor of Chinese audiences, and is committed to promoting the development of film newcomers, becoming a co-producer of the selected films at the Cannes Film Festival, and introducing high-quality film works to the world audience. At the same time, he is enthusiastic about public welfare and charity, serving as the image ambassador of the China Children and Teenagers Foundation, the children's fund of the Hong Kong Committee of the United Nations Children's Fund, the children's fund of the United Nations Children's Fund, and the establishment of the "Huang Xiaoming Tomorrow Love Fund", etc., and has made outstanding contributions in the field of film art and culture.
At the award ceremony, Mr. Luo Liang, the French ambassador to China, first praised Huang Xiaoming's opportunity to enter the film and television industry with "the newborn calf is not afraid of the tiger", and also praised his investment in charity since the film, with the improvement of influence. Huang Xiaoming used "flattered" to express his feelings when he was awarded the medal, and as the image ambassador of the new "knight" and the 17th French film exhibition, he called on Chinese audiences and film fans to walk into the cinema to support the screening activities.
This is actually the second time that Mr. Huang Xiaoming has served as an image ambassador for a French film screening. Speaking of French cinema, he praised "French cinema as the birthplace of world cinema" and hummed the soundtrack of the French film "Tiger's Mouth", saying that it was "the first French film he watched as a child". Mr. Huang Xiaoming also mentioned that he is looking forward to shooting French films and hopes to have the opportunity to learn French to better contribute to Chinese and French films and culture.
From 3 December 2020 to January 2021, the 17th French Film Festival, with Mr. Huang Xiaoming as the ambassador, will tour nearly 10 cities across China, including Beijing, Shanghai, Xi'an, Sanya, Kunming and Dalian, screening eight of the latest French film masterpieces, which is the best time for Chinese audiences to enjoy French films on the big screen.
This year's French film screening has been strongly supported by the Cai Guanshen Foundation and AVIC UNITA Insurance, and has in-depth cooperation with the Hainan Island International Film Festival, including Broadway Cinema, Lumière Cinema, Sanya Shengtang Era International Cinema, etc.