On the morning of June 15, the launching ceremony of the 26th Shanghai International Film Festival "Belt and Road" Film Week was held at the Shendi Cultural Center of Shanghai International Tourism Resort. This year's film week will continue to hold a variety of activities including film screenings, roundtable forums, "Light and Shadow Leading the Way" workshops, etc. for global filmmakers, ordinary audiences, and the film and television industry, with both depth and breadth.

The opening ceremony of the "Belt and Road" Film Week

On stage, the increasingly expanding industry alliance of Film Week has opened up a new landscape for the film industry in Shanghai and even China; behind the scenes, the "Belt and Road" Film Week brand has settled in the Shanghai International Tourism Resort, and has also explored a new business model of integrated development of "commerce, travel, culture, sports and exhibitions", becoming a vivid footnote to the sustainable development of China's film industry.

The Belt and Road Film Week continues to play a bridging role

Since the Shanghai International Film Festival initiated the establishment of the "Belt and Road" Film Week Alliance and founded the "Belt and Road" Film Week six years ago, more and more young Chinese filmmakers have brought Chinese stories to major overseas film festivals through this platform, becoming a window for the world to gain a deeper understanding of China. In addition, more and more foreign filmmakers and works have been recommended to Chinese audiences or distributors through this platform, achieving remarkable results.

This year, more than 40 international filmmakers and more than 20 Chinese and foreign film institutions from 18 countries and regions along the Belt and Road gathered in Pudong for in-depth exchanges. Film activities such as the Belt and Road Film Culture Roundtable Forum and the "Light and Shadow Leading the Way" workshop will discuss topics such as the Belt and Road film industry cooperation, overseas film promotion, and youth film talent training from the perspectives of policy support, industry trends, and creative experience.

Dapeng and Yao Chen were invited to serve as promotion ambassadors for the "Belt and Road" Film Week

Director and actor Dapeng (Dong Chengpeng) and actor and producer Yao Chen were awarded the "Belt and Road" Film Week Promotion Ambassador Certificate at the launch ceremony. Dapeng said that he was very honored to be a promotion ambassador and hoped to introduce 18 films from different countries to all friends, so that the courage of the movie protagonists can bring strength to every audience to face life. Yao Chen said that the "Belt and Road" Film Week is a bridge, "The significance of the film week is to bring our films out and bring in films from other countries."

It is worth mentioning that the newly added "Latin American Style" Carnival this year was held at the Bicester Shopping Village in the Shanghai International Tourism Resort. Among the 18 films screened during the film week, four films from Mexico, Brazil, Colombia and Chile, with their unique film aesthetics and narrative styles, brought the moving stories of Latin America to the eyes of Chinese audiences. In response to this, the "Latin American Style" Carnival "broadened" and "lengthened" the extension of the film week - the content of the film was further and three-dimensionally presented to the audience.

Movie fans, citizens and tourists can experience Latin American culture by attending film screenings and cultural salons at the "Wangjiangyi" in many core areas of the Pudong New Area Binjiang District, and then take the "Latin American Express" tour bus from the city to the Bicester Shopping Village in the resort area to participate in the authentic "Latin American Style" carnival. There are passionate samba, tango and Latin American music, local traditional costume performances, Latin American cultural parades, and a glass of aperitif from a Uruguayan bartender. You can experience the joy of traveling around Latin America without leaving Shanghai and feel the unique local customs and charm.

"Latin American Style" Carnival and Parade

A new ecosystem of "business, travel, culture, sports and exhibitions": "Oriental Music City" will be built across the river from Disney

From the initial film screenings and industry exchanges to the current in-depth experience of "great integration", "from point to surface, to three-dimensional", behind the vertical and horizontal extension of the resort and even the Pudong New Area is a new situation of cooperation, integration and layout.

Since the opening of Shanghai Disneyland in 2016, the construction of Pudong International Film and Television Industrial Park has started. Two years later, the Shanghai International Film Festival initiated the establishment of the "Belt and Road" Film Festival Alliance and founded the "Belt and Road" Film Week. The cooperation between the two sides is timely. The "Belt and Road" Film Week for six consecutive years has introduced a large number of film industry resources to the resort. In the six years when the cooperation between the two sides has been deepening year by year, the resort has seized the opportunity, issued policies, deepened operations, and launched a series of policies in taxation, talent, technology incubation, and comprehensive governance. Gradually build an industrial ecology, arrange the full chain of the film industry, and explore a resort sample that is different from the traditional film industry development model.

With the integrated development of "commerce, travel, culture, sports and exhibitions" as its goal, the resort will hold the "Smart Cultural Tourism and Film City - 2024 Digital Empowerment of Happy Cultural Tourism High-Quality Development Forum" during the "Belt and Road" Film Week of this year's Shanghai International Film Festival. This is also the "signal light" that the resort has lit up - it will focus on the direction of digital industry.

In 2023, the resort will receive a total of 25.627 million tourists, a 44% increase from 2019. In the digital age, this is a valuable user asset and a "traffic" that outsiders envy. How to turn "traffic" into "retention"? Technology will play an important role in this. The construction of AIGC models requires a large amount of data training. The resort receives feedback data from tens of millions of tourists every year. Their likes, dislikes, needs, and expectations will promote the continuous updating and iteration of the resort in terms of industry, and use technological advantages to stimulate cultural innovation and awaken vitality.

The high-quality foundation has strengthened the resort's determination to empower digital and technological planning. More than a month before the opening of the "Belt and Road" Film Week of this Shanghai International Film Festival, the new "Oriental Music City" was officially introduced to the world in the southern area of the resort, across the river from Disneyland.

"Oriental Music City" renderings

It is estimated that the resort will attract 70 million tourists in the future, 2.7 times the current number. Among the veteran film industry leaders, Disney has developed a successful industry route. For Shanghai International Tourism Resort, it is more urgent and important to explore a new model that meets the new requirements and trends of the times.

Regarding the "Oriental Music City" with a total area of 2.77 square kilometers and a planned building area of 2.2 million square meters, Jin Mei, member of the Pudong New Area District Committee, Secretary of the Party Leadership Group of the Resort Management Committee, and Executive Deputy Director, said, "I hope it can realize three major functions - high-quality vacation and leisure, trendy activity experience, and international cultural creativity."

According to reports, the planned Oriental Music City has a clear positioning, with the central part being a cultural performance experience area, the western part being a health and fitness area, and the eastern part being reserved for an international cultural and creative industrial park with digital content creation as the leading direction. The film and television sharing space, which was officially completed and operated during the 2020 "Belt and Road" Film Week, has attracted a large number of well-known film and television companies in recent years, forming an industrial agglomeration effect. After the Oriental Music City builds an international cultural and creative industrial park, the existing companies will work with the newly joined digital industry peers to promote the in-depth application of technologies such as big data, artificial intelligence, and virtual reality in the field of film and television production, and empower the film and television entertainment content scenes that will soon blossom in the resort.

Jin Mei said that the integration of Disney and Oriental Paradise "will bring together film, television and cultural enterprises, forming a 'front store and back factory' pattern, and gradually forming a complete closed loop of 'creativity - R&D - production - display - commercial application' within the resort."

At the launching ceremony, Shanghai International Tourism Resort signed a number of new members, including 10 new film and television cultural and creative key enterprises introduced by the resort, 10 new film and television cultural and creative key projects launched by the resort, and 10 new film and television cultural and creative key projects and enterprises that the resort intends to cooperate with. In the future, through digital means, movies and the "Business Travel, Culture and Sports Exhibition" will be further integrated in the resort and Pudong, providing audiences around the world with a variety of forms and three-dimensional film experiences.