June 18, the second Sunday of the 25th Shanghai International Film Festival. Movie fans are still rushing to the scene, and popular films such as "City of Sadness", "Memories of Murder", "Volcano Love" and "Gone with the Wind" will welcome a large number of new audiences. The Golden Goblet awards go to various companies, and the new film that just won the honor the night before in the cinema has become a "sweet spot" on social media and fan groups asking for tickets that day. The night before, "Enthusiasm" as the closing film made a relevant summary of the finale of this film festival.

In Shanghai in June, it seems that the whole city is busy because of the movie. With 16 main units and 37 sub-units, nearly 450 films from 70 countries and regions were screened. A total of 1,490 screenings filled the lives of movie lovers in just ten days.

Chinese and foreign filmmakers and film masterpieces gather together on a broader international exchange and cooperation platform to participate in the grand festival of light and film. From the Jinjue Forum to the film market, there is an endless stream of activities, where practitioners discuss creation and industry trends...

People talk about movies, enjoy movies, think about movies, and look forward to movies. This long-lost excitement is a kind of beauty that is full of vitality.

Looking back on history, we can see the context and confidence of urban culture

After the 30th anniversary and the 25th session, the rounded numbers always make people nostalgic.

During the film festival, at the event to commemorate the centenary of director Xie Jin’s birth, Chen Dong, former deputy director of the Propaganda Department of the Shanghai Municipal Party Committee, said emotionally, “Shanghai International Film Festival is the benefit of filmmakers of Xie Jin’s generation for Chinese films.”

The commemoration of director Xie Jin's centenary birthday event

Looking at today, the endless flow of people in Shanghai Film City, the main venue of the film festival, and the world premiere of your debut, imagine that in the early 1990s, the older generation of filmmakers followed the experience of foreign inspections. The planning and design of "Following the Gourd and Painting the Scoop" involves inviting guests with a face-lifting and running-out, while overcoming all difficulties with full consideration of China's national conditions. I feel that the predecessors have made great contributions. And many memories about movies have reasons to be recalled because of this June.

A brand new Shanghai Cinema

Shanghai Film City, the home of the Shanghai International Film Festival after more than a year, overcomes all difficulties to reunite with movie fans as promised; the stairs of Da Guangming Cinema are printed with the best film of the Golden Goblet Award and the name of the chairman of the Golden Goblet Award jury of each film festival The road flag also awakens the memory of movie fans.

In the past 30 years, this China A-category International Film Festival has grown from scratch. The years experienced during the period, in the ever-longer and longer screening list, in the record-setting films, the number of viewers and the box office record. Ticket stubs, posters, citizen brochures collected by movie fans... The collection of "Shanghai Film Festival and Me for 30 Years" collected from more than 500 movie fans attracted more than 20,000 people to check in and watch the exhibition on site. The "affection" of the people living in this city.

Exhibits provided by movie fan Mei Haixing in "The Year of Light - Thirty Years Exhibition of the Founding of the Shanghai International Film Festival"

Director Du Mingli Di Ludi, who was shortlisted for the main competition unit of this year's "The Sound of the Piano", was deeply moved after the screening: "Shanghai audiences are amazing!" Power Generation" has developed a small program that includes asking for tickets, issuing tickets, and exchanging tickets, benefiting countless colleagues; from the audience actively advocating not to talk, not to screen, not to eat, to self-made ticket folders and peripherals for self-made ticket folders and peripherals for self-made promotion of civilized movies, and Various initiatives on civilized movie viewing have been launched on the Internet; from popular movies that are sold out at once, to documentary works by niche newcomers who are hard to find, the movie-watching culture that loves movies is also the inheritance of the cultural spirit of this city.

Mei Haixing, a long-time movie fan who has participated in the first film festival, said that his favorite scene is when thousands of people pour out of the theater when the hall is over. "

As the cradle of Chinese films, Shanghai has demonstrated its inclusiveness and diversity by hosting the Shanghai Film Festival with its profound historical and cultural heritage and geographical advantages. Looking back at the film festival, in addition to being grateful for the farsightedness and daring of the former cultural pioneers to create this "unique in China, first-class in Asia" category A film festival, we can also see the growth of this thriving cultural festival in the past 30 years. It has made positive contributions to the development of the Chinese film industry and cultural dissemination in history.

In the 1990s, the Shanghai International Film Festival, which was open to the world as a window, had a profound impact on the Chinese film industry, which was in a low period at that time, and opened the door to domestic and foreign markets, providing a multi-dimensional reference for the industrialization reform of Chinese films. Department; in the booming film scene, the film festival has also become a huge platform, directly and efficiently promoting the birth of a large number of high-quality film projects, and at the same time providing professional voices for the industry through its own aesthetic and evaluation standards; In the difficult stage of "winter" and the impact of the epidemic, the film festival has become a booster for the industry. From the persistence when most of the global film festivals were closed in 2020, to the reopening and opening up to embrace the world in 2023, the movies are back, and the excitement is back. Here The reunion made the attendees really feel the recovery of the industry.

Director Li Fei, who walked on the red carpet at the closing ceremony with his new project "His Gift", said, "My biggest feeling at this film festival is that Chinese films have regained their festive brilliance. Every filmmaker I met The face of the film is also shining again. This makes me feel strongly that everyone’s love for movies and confidence in the future of Chinese movies has always been there. This in turn gave me a lot of confidence and strength.”

With 30 years of accumulation, many of the current backbone of Chinese films have emerged from here. Adhering to the festival orientation of "based on Asia, focusing on Chinese, and supporting newcomers", the Shanghai International Film Festival has continuously strengthened the talent training link of the film industry chain, and has formed short videos, Jinjue short films, venture capital training camps, film project venture capital, gold The "6+1" ladder-shaped talent training system of the Jazz Award Asian Newcomer Unit, the Golden Goblet Award and the SIFF YOUNG Shanghai Youth Filmmaker Support Program.

This ladder-shaped talent training system is organically connected to each link, which not only helps newcomers gradually grow from beginners to filmmakers who have truly devoted themselves to the film industry, but also creates various opportunities for projects and filmmakers at different creative stages in terms of industry connection. At the Asian Newcomer Awards ceremony, the host introduced that Zeng Ning Hao's "Green Grassland", Wanma Caidan's "Quiet Mani Stone", and Cao Baoping's "Glorious Wrath" all went to the world from this stage ; "Street Baby" launched on the venture capital platform went all the way to Cannes, and was officially released nationwide during the Shanghai Film Festival 6 years later; "Cloud", this year became the opening film of the "Belt and Road" Film Week; director Peng Fei, who was shortlisted for the main competition unit of the 23rd Shanghai International Film Festival Golden Goblet Award with "Meet Nara Again", brought his new film "Wake Up Feeling Love You" 》Come to Project Venture Capital to look for investment opportunities... Newcomers are growing, and talents are still circulating in this system.

Group photo of venture capital unit

Yuan Gen, a young director who came to Venture Capital with his new project "See You on Our Planet", said, "In this extremely introverted film industry, Venture Capital has given young directors like me who lack resources and experience the opportunity to be accepted by the industry. I saw an opportunity." And the mature directors chose to come back here because of the profession here. Going all the way from venture capital to experience various aspects of the Shanghai Film Festival, and this year he was selected as a candidate for the SIFF YOUNG×Shanghai Young Filmmakers Support Program. Li Xiaofeng, a filmmaker who has gone through many film festivals, believes that the support of the Shanghai Film Festival is very important. Two points benefit him particularly, "One is duty, and the other is honesty. It's not a star-making factory, nor is it to backfire."

Make friends with movies, see the world and yourself in movies

At the opening ceremony of this year's film festival, director Chen Kaige said: "The gift to the film festival can only be movies."

Therefore, filmmakers from all over the world jointly brought a luxurious "big gift package" to this thirty-year-old film festival and Chinese movie fans. Golden Goblet Award main competition, Asian newcomers, documentaries, cartoons, short films, five units, 53 film crews from 26 countries and regions, all gathered in Shanghai, in the name of Shanghai International Film Festival, to communicate with Chinese filmmakers and audiences An unforgettable exchange ensued. The quality of this year's Golden Goblet Awards, on the one hand, is the hard-core data of 36 world premieres and 12 international premieres, and on the other hand, it is rich in themes, diverse perspectives and diverse themes.

The 91-year-old Japanese famous director Yoji Yamada came to Shanghai in person with his 90th directorial work "Hello, Mom". His fate with the Shanghai Film Festival began with his old friend Director Xie Jin. Every time I come to Shanghai, I will go to Xie Jin's cemetery to worship. "This may also be the last time I will participate in an overseas film festival."

Yoji Yamada

Paolo Genovese, the director of the Italian film "First Day of Life", came to the Shanghai International Film Festival for the fourth time. He once served as the judge of the main competition unit of the Golden Goblet Award, said: "Shanghai International Film Festival is a very good opportunity to showcase films. , Bringing the movie here, I can feel the feedback and emotions of the Chinese audience.”

Too many good films make the competition fierce, and Wen Yan, the judge of the main competition unit, said: "Shanghai International Film Festival is a window for world filmmakers to communicate. Although it has the function of competition, the essence of art is not competition, but communication."

Making friends through film is a consistent tradition of Shanghai Film Festival, and it is also a good scene that can be seen everywhere in this film festival.

Wang Baoqiang, who participated in the screening of the upcoming new film "In the Octagonal Cage", turned his premiere into a "joint promotion conference" for good friends. The films of good friends who came to support and watch movies, including "The Missing She" produced by Chen Sicheng, "Enthusiastic" produced by Chen Zhixi, and "Learning Dad" directed by Su Liang, all worked hard to promote them. Therefore, classic scenes such as "Tang Detective crew in the same frame" and "Thailand drama crew in the same frame" are screaming, but it is the wish and determination of the filmmakers to bring the audience back to the cinema. Producer Chen Zhixi said, "The more difficult it is, the more filmmakers have to stick together, and everyone has to use good content together to bring the audience back to the cinema."

"In the Octagonal Cage" meeting

This is true for those who make movies, and the same is true for those who watch movies.

For Ding Ding, a movie fan who came to Shanghai from Shandong, the experience of participating in the Shanghai Film Festival for the first time was like a "graduation trip exclusively for movie fans". The experience of applauding the film with the audience at the end of the film screening for the first time made him very excited and moved. He also felt particularly excited and moved by the easter egg-like post-screening meet and greets of some films premiered at this year’s Shanghai Film Festival. surprise. "The online ticket exchange and ticket issuance made me feel a kind of friendship and mutual assistance among the fans. The whole process can be easily completed with a few simple exchanges."

In this way, he also met some new friends, and everyone agreed to share their feelings about watching the film after the screening, which made him feel very happy. During the entire film festival, he completed his viewing plan of 20 films. Not only classic films such as "City of Sadness" and "The Last Emperor" let him experience the joy of "the king of ticket grabbers", but also the unexpected surprise of falling in love with the sub-unit's "Long Days" and "Diary of a Teenager" after watching the film. unique magic. He said, "When we were children, we didn't know how to communicate and how to express our hearts. It was not until more than ten years later that we grew up that we could empathize with the kid on the big screen and the boy in our youth through these movies." Myself, belatedly sharing my childhood emotions.”

Classmate Ding Ding's movie ticket

For film fans, it is a "high-end restaurant" to "enjoy" the feast of excellent films; It is a "super platform" to feel the development trend of the world's film industry and to seek business opportunities both at home and abroad.

Taking advantage of the overall recovery of the film industry and the overall positive economic development, the film market of this year's Shanghai International Film Festival has fully returned to offline. Established in the film market of Shanghai Longemont Hotel, gathered more than 100 exhibitors from 29 countries and regions, covering production and distribution, shooting base, content production, post-production, film and television schools, investment and financing, technical support And other links in the film industry chain.

The innovative "International Film and Television Cloud Market" in the past few years has been retained after the film market returned to offline this year. Content, Content Thailand, TBS, MBS, France TV Distribution, Vienna Film Commission... All kinds of overseas exhibitors "cloud" gathered in the "International Film and Television Cloud Market", displaying nearly 300 film and television projects, looking for overseas high-quality content for domestic buyers, It also builds a bridge for domestic exhibitors to communicate with overseas buyers.

A significant change that the official organizing committee has noticed is that Chinese and foreign exhibitors come to the film market not only to seek product copyright transactions, but also to promote film policies in various countries and regions and demonstrate the effect of industrial development agglomeration .

movie market

Including "Silver Screen", "Variety Show" and "Hollywood Report", which are regarded as the "Big Three" in the industry, many overseas media have focused on this year's Shanghai International Film Festival. Its holding marks the renewed momentum of China's business and film industries."

Meeting friends through filming is also to create a "circle of friends" for cultural exchanges between people from different countries. The "Belt and Road" Film Week, which has entered its fifth year, will further improve and improve the long-term development mechanism through exchanges and mutual learning. Since the establishment of the "Belt and Road Film Alliance" in 2018, in the past five years, countries have established an information sharing mechanism and a mutual recommendation mechanism for filmmakers. 55 member institutions in 3 countries. During this year's film festival, guests from 20 member institutions of the alliance from 18 countries and regions gathered together to share achievements, exchange experiences, and put forward suggestions for further strengthening cooperation and jointly promoting the high-quality development of film culture.

Screening scene of the opening film "Snow Cloud" of the "Belt and Road" Film Week

During his tenure as the Consul General of Greece in Shanghai, Xi Shishi attended the "Belt and Road" Film Week screening as a guest. After resigning as a diplomatic envoy, he became a film director and screenwriter. With the support of the Shanghai International Film Festival, the filming started in Shanghai in 2019. During this year's film festival, this Chinese-Greek co-production film came to Shanghai for a special screening of the debut film "One Day and One Day", which realized the light and shadow dream of this new director to draw a circle, form a relationship, and entrust a wish.

The "Belt and Road" Film Week screened 20 excellent films with local characteristics from countries along the "Belt and Road" in Shanghai, Nanjing, Suzhou, Hangzhou, Ningbo, and Hefei. By the end of this film festival, a total of 111 new works by 115 directors from 49 countries had been screened during the "Belt and Road" Film Week. During the film week, the newly established "Light and Shadow Leads the Way" workshop, as a new section, invited industry experts from film festivals and film companies to communicate with filmmakers to discuss practical strategies for integrating content creation with international production and distribution. Share experience and look forward to the future of the industry. This may become a new breakthrough for the future development of this platform. This year, the Shanghai Film Festival and Huaxia Film have reached a "strategic cooperation", which will effectively promote the exchange of film production and distribution among alliance member institutions. In the future, films with local characteristics from countries along the “Belt and Road” will be disseminated on more international platforms to expand the influence of diverse civilizations.

Looking to the future, technology drives industry innovation

If we say that the Shanghai International Film Festival of "30 Shining" is different, it is probably because this film festival is the most "technological" one in history. Interested industry professionals and enthusiastic audiences will surely find that "technology" as a key word has never been mentioned so frequently in previous film festivals.

Corresponding to the popular sci-fi film unit in the ticket grabbing session, the topics discussed by offline filmmakers are closely related to the changes brought about by technology. Fresh words such as "AIGC", "digital film and television", and "metaverse" have become the theme keywords of many forum activities. Practitioners gathered together to exchange technological development and future possibilities. Creators discussed new opportunities, production models and creative ideas. There is no doubt that the future of science fiction movies is not limited to types such as "The Wandering Earth" and "Lonely on the Moon". The box office is a big hit, and the creation of artificial intelligence that continues to amaze people in real life has enough case materials to discuss.

Some people are excited about the great technological change of "the future has come", while others sincerely express their anxiety about not being able to keep up with technological iterations... The film festival has become a space where ideas collide with sparks, and many brand-new "crab-eating" innovations Also start practicing here. Even the "Green Onion Project", which continues to output domestic literary and artistic films, the theme of this year's master dialogue is director Guo Fan's current thinking and application of new technologies. Before the creation of "The Wandering Earth 3", they will spend more time evaluating new technologies. Whether these applications can be transformed into content on the big screen in the future, and whether there will be new carriers outside the traditional distribution channels are new issues that Guo Fan and his team must face.

Digital Film and Television Experience Exhibition

The "Digital Film and Television Experience Exhibition-Super Sensation Test Site" held in Putuo District, through 360 cinema panoramic view, three-dimensional interactive experience, virtual reality (VR) drama, extended reality (XR) devices, etc., allows the general public to meet cutting-edge technology. At the same time, the novelty it brings will stimulate more young people's interest in film and technology, and participate in the team of developing China's film industry and building a powerful film country.

Over the years, with its professionalism and authority, the Shanghai International Film Festival has provided a platform for filmmakers at home and abroad to exchange new trends, new trends, and new trends in the development of the industry. At the moment when Shanghai is promoting urban digital transformation in an all-round way, the concept of Metaverse has also been applied to this year's Shanghai Film Festival - the Shanghai International Film and Television Festival Metaverse Experience Roadshow Center established in "Metafilm" has attracted nearly ten people during the film festival. Tens of thousands of professionals and ordinary movie fans went to check in and experience the infinite possibilities of future movies. Under the guidance of Shanghai's dual strategy of building a global film and television creation center and a global science and technology innovation center, the film festival has also created a novel immersive interactive scene for the film industry and fans by taking advantage of its rich offline scenes.

Lu Chuan, the director who came to the Shanghai Film Festival with the new work "749 Bureau" and the protagonist "Ma Shan" Sapiens image, this time cooperates with Ape Power and China Mobile Migu, taking "749 Bureau" as an opportunity to jointly explore the metaverse A new model of the film industry. Lu Chuan said that he saw a brand new device, as "the entrance to the metaverse, it may completely change the way of watching movies."

The sci-fi film week specially set up and held in Songjiang for the first time, domestic and foreign sci-fi film creators, scientific consultants, and industry representatives gathered together to explore the new momentum of Chinese sci-fi films. The exchanges between the guests were meaningful and dry. As the visual effects director of commercial blockbusters such as "Inception", "The Megalodon 2: The Abyss", and "Batman", Peter Bebb gave pertinent advice to young science fiction film creators: "On the one hand, embrace Existing technologies, such as machine learning and artificial intelligence, can allow us to achieve the desired results more quickly, and can achieve a quality level similar to that of a large production. On the other hand, we still have to make movies by ourselves, because The origin of movies does not lie in technology, new technologies cannot create movies, and people still need to create stories.”

The Shanghai Science and Technology Movie Metropolis Film and Television Co-production Industry Alliance was established

In addition to the collision of ideas and the display of new technologies, Shanghai's emphasis on the development of science fiction films is more "grounded" and "pragmatic". From a series of official activities, it can be seen that this government-led film festival has consciously changed System construction, resource support and other aspects promote the development of this type of film. "Several Regulations of Songjiang District on Promoting the High-Quality Development of Shanghai Science and Technology Movie Metropolis Film and Television Industry" has been upgraded again on the basis of the 2.0 version of Songjiang District Film and Television Industry Support Policy in 2020, expanding from the original 16 support measures to 18, and adding " Specific support measures for key links in the film and television industry, such as "supporting the listing of film and television companies", "supporting emerging film and television formats", and "encouraging the introduction and training of film and television talents", have increased the intensity of some policy support, expanded the scope of some policy support, and adjusted some terms. Key projects are coming. At the event site, the Shanghai Science and Technology Movie Metropolis Film and Television Co-production Industry Alliance was established.

Wang Hongwei

The famous producer Wang Hongwei encouraged today's young sci-fi filmmakers to "look further than the real world". The "technical atmosphere" of the Shanghai International Film Festival is so rich and lively, and the future of Chinese films that emerge from this film festival also has more possibilities.

"Shanghai Film Festival is a microcosm of the rapid development trend of our Chinese films in the future. I hope that in the next 30 years, Shanghai Film Festival will maintain this momentum and will always bring together good films and good creators to jointly serve China The movie adds bricks and tiles." Director Zhang Mo said. For the Shanghai International Film Festival that has gone through 30 years, filmmakers have deep feelings and a future-oriented outlook. Director Li Xiaofeng said, "30 years is actually still very young. In the past 30 years, many of our standards, film language standards, production technology standards, are not so mature. In the next 30 years, I hope that Shanghai film Energy saving has become the most solid film base in Asia."