The 2023 Shanghai International Film & TV Festival held a press conference in Beijing

The press conference for the 25th Shanghai International Film Festival (SIFF) and the 28th Shanghai TV Festival (STVF) was held today in Beijing. Organized by the China Media Group (CMG) and the Shanghai Municipal People's Government under the guidance of the China Film Administration, the 25th SIFF will be hosted from June 9 to June 18 this year. Organized by the National Radio and Television Administration, CMG, and the Shanghai Municipal People's Government, the 28th STVF will be hosted from June 19 to June 23 this year. The press conference also announced the full list of jurors for the Golden Goblet Awards of the 25th SIFF and the full list of jurors for the Magnolia Awards of the 28th STVF, released posters for this year’s SIFF and STVF, and provided general information about 2023 SIFF and STVF.

Drive better international cooperation across the board with a bigger vision

The 25th SIFF will be an in-person event again across the board. Chinese and foreign jurors for the Golden Goblet Awards will do their job face-to-face. The jury president and some members will also showcase their films and share their creative experience at the festival. The SIFFORUM will bring Chinese and foreign guests together to address the subjects of how to seek new opportunities and explore diverse topics during the new journey of China’s film industry, how to drive technological innovation, and how to enhance high-quality international cooperation. China’s film market is to welcome guests from all over the world again. The organizers will serve local and overseas exhibitors by organizing activities for them or providing exhibition booths and screening opportunities for them, in an effort to help them build business connections. This year’s China Movie & TV Night will create an award called “China Movie & TV Night · CMG Recommendation of the Year”, to encourage people in China’s film and TV industry to build a credible, lovely, and respectable image for China by creating vivid film and TV characters.  

2023 marks the 10th anniversary of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and the 5th anniversary of the Belt and Road Film Festival Alliance initiated by SIFF. During this year’s SIFF, the Belt and Road Film Week will bring together old friends of the alliance from previous years and new friends made this year. Through press conferences, film culture roundtables, and so on, they will look back at the past five years, announce an action plan for the future, and mark a new stage for the alliance.

The 28th STVF will include five parts: Opening Ceremony, TV Market, STVFORUM, The Appreciation of Magnolia with the theme of Magnolia Fragrance, and Magnolia Awards Ceremony. In addition to the Magnolia Awards to be picked out by Chinese and foreign jurors in Shanghai, several other activities will also be organized, aiming to create windows for better services and drive better international cooperation. At the Opening Ceremony with the theme of Magnolia Starlight, an initiative will be kicked off to let each BRI country air TV programs from other BRI countries, so as to promote the exchange of great TV programs among them. The TV Market with the theme of Magnolia View will promote Chinese stories to overseas viewers, bringing together various TV companies to tell Chinese stories through TV programs and innovatively drive international communication. The STVFORUM with the theme of Magnolia Dialogue will bring together a panel of Chinese and foreign guests to elaborate on the new trends, new channels, and new models of telling Chinese stories across media platforms in light of the new changes in the environment for international communication. The Appreciation of Magnolia with the theme of Magnolia Fragrance will bring aesthetic education to the doorsteps of the viewers in a manner that is like the traditional way of watching TV in connection with China’s urban renewal initiative. The Magnolia Awards Ceremony will announce winners of this year’s Magnolia Awards and present the awards to them. 

Growing international influence of the Golden Goblet Awards and the Magnolia Awards after two years’ efforts

The Golden Goblet Awards of 25th SIFF will include five parts: Main Competition, Asian New Talent, Documentary Film, Animation Film, and Short Film.

Among the nearly 8,800 entries received from 128 countries and regions within the two application periods, there are many new films by renowned directors, and those for global or international premieres as a percentage of all the entries received have further increased. Focusing on Asian New Talent, more countries will compete for the Golden Goblet Awards this year, to create a new and clear landscape for the film industry that is open, inclusive, diverse, collaborative, and united.

Selected films for international film panorama will be put into 16 categories. “CHINESE ART CINEMA” will feature representative art-house films in Chinese language over the past ten years. “Making Waves” will showcase films by the next-generation filmmakers from Hong Kong. “Global Village” will focus on Spanish films for the first time to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Spain, in addition to screening new films from countries such as Germany, Italy, Japan, and India. “Tribute to Masters” will feature films by four film masters: Xie Jin, Jean-Luc Godard, Juzo Itami, and Mike Leigh. At the same time, this category will also add a new sub-category to commemorate the famous Tibetan director Pema Tseden who just passed away of illness last week, and set a new “IN MEMORY OF” section, to screen one masterpiece by each of the leading filmmakers who passed away last year, including Huang Shuqin, Qin Yi, He Ping, and Ryuichi Sakamoto. 

As the 28th STVF reviewing the TV industry over the last two years, the total number of entries received is much higher this year: almost 1,900 from 49 countries and regions of five continents. Specifically, there are 981 entries signed up for this year alone, which include 167 Chinese TV dramas, 158 overseas TV dramas, 175 animations, 342 documentaries, and 139 variety shows.

This year, online audio and video content across the board will compete for the Magnolia Awards for the first time. This is a major adjustment to the scope of entries in response to the trends and changes of the industry. The purpose is to help create a healthy cyberspace for cultural content. During this year’s STVF, Annual Report on Development of China's Audio-Visual New Media (2023) will be published, and people representing online audio and video platforms and those representing online content generators will be invited to hold discussions on the trend of online content for Gen Z. “Short Play Competition” is designed to leverage the strength of STVF as a platform as well as its leading position in the industry to integrate social resources to support short play producers and drive the advancement of short play production in today’s new environment where the needs and habits of viewers have changed.. As the industry’s weathervane, the Magnolia Awards are designed to honor the best works in the past and set directions for the production of TV programs in the future.

SIFF: 30 years of steady innovation in inheritance

2023 marks the 100th birth anniversary of Xie Jin, one of the greatest Chinese filmmakers. SIFF commenced in 1993 thanks to the efforts by filmmakers like Xie Jin and Wu Yigong. The following year, it was accredited by the International Federation of Film Producers Associations as the international competitive feature film festival in China. During the 25th SIFF, a special forum with a theme of “Looking Back on a Master of Time” will be held to mark the 100th birth anniversary of Xie Jin Iconic films directed by Xie Jin will also be screened as part of “Tribute to Masters”, including the Shanghainese edition “Big Li, Little Li and Old Li” and “Bell of Purity Temple.”

Over the past 30 years, SIFF has been positioned to focus on “Asia, Chinese films and new talents”. Today, it has formed a “6+1” ladder type system to cultivate emerging filmmakers consisting of SIFF Explore, Golden Goblet Awards Short Film, SIFF NEXT, SIFF PROJECT, Asian New Talent, and the Golden Goblet Awards, plus SIFF Young. This has demonstrated the responsibility of SIFF for the Chinese film industry and the global film industry. Nearly 3,900 short films from all over the world are competing for the Golden Goblet Awards for Short Film during this year’s SIFF, and some of the entries represent the bold experiments of the next-generation filmmakers as well as their courage and innovation. As a part of the Golden Goblet Awards, Short Film unit was launched in 2017. Since then, short films of both animations and live action competing for the awards have maintained a high standard, and some short films will be specifically curated for screening at this year’s event. More than 830 applications have been received for this year’s SIFF NEXT. The two-phase model (summer and winter) will continue to be adopted this year, to cultivate new filmmakers and incubate projects. SIFF PROJECT has been around for 15 sessions. A total of 682 entries have been received this year, including 78 projects in progress. SIFF YOUNG, which will take place for the second time this year, will expand the scope of recommendations from directors to producers and scriptwriters. The candidates will be announced during the festival.

Many things will be inherited, but there will also be things that are innovative this year. The SIFF SCI-FI during this year’s SIFF is designed to showcase the new efforts of Shanghai to make the city a global center for film production and the new progress in using technology to drive the promotion of Chinese culture through films. In addition to screening sci-fi films, there will also be a sci-fi film forum, a sci-fi night, and the press conference for the Shanghai Hi-tech Films and Televisions City during the SIFF SCI-FI film week. A series of activities “Vision Lab” will be put together to create a space for demonstrating digital innovations in the film industry by leveraging the influence of SIFF as a brand, to make cutting-edge technologies visible, sensible, and touchable.

A warm festival for everyone to celebrate

Each year, the Shanghai International Film Festival and the Shanghai TV Festival would collect, select, screen and honor great films and TV programs for the Golden Goblet Awards and the Magnolia Awards, and share them with the general public. This is exactly what the Shanghai International Film and the Shanghai TV Festival are about: to let people celebrate. This year, The Appreciation of Magnolia with the theme of Magnolia Fragrance of the STVF will strive to make the event a TV festival at the doorsteps of the locals. Joining hands with Shanghai Mass Art Center, the organizers will work with 18 cultural venues (e.g., China Art Museum, Power Station of Art, and The Inlet) in 16 districts of the city to exhibit more than 30 productions shortlisted for the Magnolia Awards or other popular entries under different themes including “The Light of China”, “The Charm of Limit”, and “The Power of Life”. On some occasions, audiences will have an opportunity to watch a show along with its cast or the critics. In addition to offline screening tour, TV programs for the Magnolia Awards along with audio and video programs from BRI countries will also be aired to many other Chinese cities based on local TV channels in Shanghai. They will also be posted across online platforms to create an omni media platform.

During this year’s STVF, the organizers will also pick out Shanghai’s top 10 film and TV shooting locations in 2023 and recommend the most promising filming locations. The top 10 film and TV shooting locations will be announced during the STVF, which could be compared with people’s favorite hangouts to present a colorful city experience through the influences of TV productions.

The screening schedule of this year’s SIFF will be announced on May 31, and the tickets will be available for purchase on Taopiaopiao.com starting from 12pm on June 2. Apart from watching films, citizens can also take part in this year’s festival in more ways than ever before. After the announcement was made in March to recruit volunteers for this year’s SIFF, more than 2,000 people signed up within one week. In addition to Chinese college students, they also include overseas students studying in China and film enthusiasts who are already in the workforce. SIFF SHOOTING 48H launched in the Shanghai International Tourism and Resorts Zone is an exciting challenge during which the participants are asked to create innovative videos in 48 hours.

Last month, the SIFF launched a campaign, asking film enthusiasts to contribute SIFF-related old objects in their possession over the past 30 years. Most of the objects shared by more than 100 film enthusiasts are stubs of tickets to the film festival. Some of them also shared booklets, screening schedules, volunteer badges, and press clippings they collected. During June 6-19, some items from private collectors will be on display at the Grand Cinema.   

With enhanced cohesiveness and influence, the SIFF has been increasing its influences over the past 30 years and achieved to share excellent films with a wider audience by stepping out of Shanghai. The organizers will continue to hold the Belt and Road Film Week in the Yangtze River Delta region during this year’s SIFF. Film enthusiasts from Nanjing, Suzhou, Hangzhou, Ningbo, and Hefei will be able to watch the latest films from BRI countries without having to travel to Shanghai.

The poster for the 28th STVF and jurors for the Magnolia Awards unveiled

The poster for this year's STVF is themed on “Be innovative, stay true”, presents the logo of STVF in the form of a pixel-like image. It uses bold and highly saturated colors to demonstrate the enthusiasm, focus and dedication of the next-generation TV workers as well as the hope they bring to the future of the TV industry.

The jurors for the Magnolia Awards of the 28th STVF were announced at the press conference. During the TV festival, they will pick out final winners in the categories of Chinese and Foreign Drama, Documentary, and Animation. Winners in the category of Variety Show will be voted by members of the Selection Committee. All the winners of the Magnolia Awards will be announced at the awarding ceremony for the Magnolia Awards on the evening of June 23 at the Mercedes-Benz Arena. Here is the full list of the jurors:

1. Drama Section

(1) Jury President, Drama:

Hu Zhifeng

Film and Television Scholar

China

(2) Jury Member:

A. Chinese Drama:

Duan Yihong

Actor

China

Mu Deyuan

Cinematographer

China

Sun Hao

Director

China

Wang Luodan

Actress

China

Wang Sanmao

Scriptwriter

China

Zhao Tong

Film and Television Commentary

China

B. Foreign Drama:

Mar·Sodupe

Actress 

Spain

YOON JaeHyeok

Producer

South Korea

2. Documentary Section

(1) Jury President, Documentary:

Poh Si Teng

Producer

United States/Malaysia

(2) Jury Member:

He Suliu

Professor and Curator

China

Sabine Bubeck-Paaz

Commissioning Editor

Germany

3. Animation Section

(1) Jury President, Animation:

David Stephan

Animation Director

Canada

(1) Jury Member:

Spencer Ooi

Animation Director, Producer

Malaysia

Jia Fou

Animation Director, Professor

China

*The jury members’ names are sorted by first letter