Bringing together the "highlight moments" of the documentary industry, the 2024 China Top Ten Most Influential Documentary Series Recommendation Event was held during the first China (Jilin) Real Image Conference on January 6, 2025. The event released the 2024 Top Ten Most Influential Documentaries, the Top Ten Documentary Nominees, and a number of recommended projects.

The event is guided by the Development Research Center of the State Administration of Radio and Television and the Radio and Television Planning Institute of the State Administration of Radio and Television, and co-organized by the China (Guangzhou) International Documentary Festival, the New Viewpoint Center of Radio and Television, and the China Documentary Network.

Event site

Since the launch of the "Annual China's Top Ten Most Influential Documentary Series" in 2016, the event has become one of the annual brand events in the documentary industry. After years of continuous exploration and gradual improvement, the event has formed a set of objective, comprehensive, fair and authoritative selection and evaluation standards.

Ten documentaries including "Mawangdui·Immortal Years", "Childhood in a Foreign Land (Season 2)", "The Eternal Fragrance of Materia Medica", "Red Album·The Story of Deng Xiaoping", "Letters from Both Sides of the Taiwan Strait", "Why China", "The Sinking of the Lisbon Maru", "Loyal Souls of Yuhua", "Front Wave", and "New China - Ordinary and Shining Footprints" were recommended as the top ten influential documentaries in China in 2024.

Poster of The Sinking of the Lisbon Maru

This year's series of recommendations are supported by China Audio-Visual Big Data (CVB), which comprehensively considers multiple dimensions such as online communication data and expert opinions. China Audio-Visual Big Data (CVB) shows that in 2024, documentaries are rich in themes and prosperous in supply, and the ratings continue to improve; current affairs documentaries show high audience appeal, and natural geography, history and humanities, social reality, food, and character documentaries have delivered impressive results; documentary IP communication capabilities are more radiant, which has effectively driven the growth of channel ratings; the broadcast volume of Sino-foreign co-productions has increased, and many overseas works have been introduced, further highlighting the important value of documentary cultural exchanges.

The works nominated for the top ten most influential documentaries of the year include "The Great Physician: Prescriptions Worth a Thousand Gold", "Feilai Peak", "Chinese Official Code", "Phoenix: Her Legend", "Exploring Civilization through Farming", "Meeting You in Words (Season 2)", "Protecting Jiefang West (Season 5)", "A Century-old Master: Education and Sports", "My Food Guide", "Li Shutong", etc., covering a variety of topics and bringing multiple visual enjoyments to the audience from different dimensions such as culture, ecology, social reality and food.

As the academic support organization for this event, Yang Chenghu, vice president of the Documentary Academic Committee of the China Television Association, vice dean, professor, and doctoral supervisor of the School of Art and Media of Beijing Normal University, introduced the review of the 2024 China's Top Ten Most Influential Documentary Series Recommendation Activities based on this year's works. Among them, content innovation and new media performance are important reference dimensions, focusing on highlighting communication power, influence, competitiveness and leadership. In combination with the development characteristics of documentaries this year, the event also added the producer of the most influential documentary of the year, Zhang Huali, vice chairman of the China Television Artists Association, former party secretary and chairman of Hunan Radio and Television Group Co., Ltd. (Hunan Radio and Television Station), Liang Hong, deputy director (in charge of work) of the Film and Television Documentary Center of China Central Radio and Television, and Ge Lai, party secretary and director of Jiangsu Radio and Television Station, were selected.

Expanding the breadth of vision in the face of reality, and constantly pioneering and innovating in diversified exploration, domestic documentaries in 2024 continued to burst out new energy driven by dual innovations in content and technology, and achieved gratifying ratings and handed in a brilliant report card. These works condense the imprint of industry development and also reflect the new stories of the development of the times. And broadcasting organizations, production organizations and creators have also opened up new space and a new future for the high-quality development of documentaries.

Literature and art are the clarion call for the advancement of the times. They best represent the style of an era and can best lead the trend of an era. The continuous emergence of excellent works is becoming a vivid example of the domestic documentary's adherence to the right path, innovation and high-quality development. I believe that under the guidance of the goal of high-quality development, Chinese documentaries will continue to explore new stories, expand new situations, and reach new heights.

【Recommended list】

Top 10 most influential documentaries of the year

Mawangdui: Immortality of Time

"Childhood in a Foreign Land" Season 2

《The Fragrance of Herbal Medicine》

Red Album: The Story of Deng Xiaoping

Letters from Both Sides of the Taiwan Strait

Why China?

The Sinking of the Lisbon Maru

"Loyal Soul of Yuhua"

The Front Wave

New China: Ordinary but Shining Footprints

The most influential documentary broadcasting organization of the year

CCTV-1, China Central Television

Jiangsu Radio and Television Station

Jilin Radio and Television

YouTube

The most influential documentary production organization of the year

China TV Drama Production Center

Anhui Radio and Television Documentary Center

The most influential documentary producer of the year

Zhang Huali

Liang Hong

Gray

Influential Documentary Producer of the Year

Wang Lijun

Takeuchi Ryo

Zhang Yuan

Zhou Xueming

Han Yun

The most influential international documentary of the year

Goodbye Yangtze River

Searching for the Most Beautiful Destination: Secret Guizhou

Nominees for the Top Ten Most Influential Documentary Films of the Year

"Great Chinese Medicine: Prescriptions of Thousand Gold"

"Flying Peak"

Chinese Official Code

Phoenix: Her Legend

Farming and Civilization

"Words from Meeting You" Season 2

"Guardian of Liberation West" Season 5

"A Century-Old Master: Education and Sports"

My Food Guide

Li Shutong