The 28th Shanghai TV Festival Kicked Off Today

On the morning of June 19, the 28th Shanghai TV Festival officially kicked off as the familiar children’s chorus of Song and Smile faded in again in the central hall of the Shanghai Exhibition Center.

Yang Xiaowei, Deputy Director and member of the Party Leadership Group of the National Radio and Television Administration, lit the Magnolia-shaped device of the festival and announced the opening of this edition of STVF. Zhao Jiaming, member of the Standing Committee and Head of Publicity Department of CPC Shanghai Municipal Committee, Liu Duo, Vice Mayor of Shanghai, and Jiang Wenbo, member of the Editorial Board of China Media Group, attended the opening ceremony.

Since its birth in 1986, STVF has grown into one of the major international TV exchange platforms in Asia, contributing to the development of China’s TV culture industry and facilitating cultural exchanges between Chinese and foreign TV cultures.

The 28th STVF will be held from June 19 to 23. This year, STVF comes with five sections, namely the Opening Ceremony, TV MARKET, STVFORUM, the offline public screening programme and the Magnolia Awards Ceremony. Being committed to creating a professional, international, and people-benefiting TV festival, STVF has kept innovating the festival-running mechanism to promote the exchange between domestic and foreign TV cultures, satisfy people’s spiritual needs, and drive the development of China’s TV cause and industry.

Especially, as one of the top three TV awards in China, Magnolia Awards has been in the limelight among TV workers at home and abroad every year. This year, the official selection, which has been postponed for one year, has received nearly 1,900 TV works from 49 countries and regions in five continents. And as the submitted works have shown unprecedented quality and risen in quantity, there will surely be a fierce competition.

Singer Liao Changyong, President of Shanghai Conservatory of Music, Canadian animation director David Stephan, Jury President of the Animation section, American and Malaysian documentary filmmaker Poh Si Teng, Jury President of the Documentary section, and Chinese film and TV scholar Hu Zhifeng, Jury President of the Drama section, unveiled the finalists in the sections of Variety Progam, Animation, Documentary and Drama.

This edition of STVF attaches great importance to the exchange and cooperation in the global TV industry. In recent years, Chinese TV drama has adhered to the philosophy of “to go global” to tell China’s stories in the international arena. Yan Ni, overseas promotion ambassador of Chinese TV drama, recalled with emotion the story of her participation in TV exchanges between China and the rest of the world at the opening ceremony. In 2017, the TV drama LIFE REVELATION, starring her and Hu Ge and produced in Shanghai, was broadcasted in Mongolia and was well received by local audiences. She recalled that while attending a meet and greet in Ulaanbaatar, “A woman told me that she had been binge-watching LIFE REVELATION, and on the day of the meeting, she actually came on foot from a long distance just to meet us due to the vehicle license plate rule.” That day, surrounded by the smiling faces of the Mongolian audience and the tone of the serene yet profound Mongolian theme song, “I was overwhelmed by inner peace instantly and immersed in the valuable resonance and the nice night in Ulaanbaatar.”

Since ancient times, Chinese civilization has been known for its openness and inclusiveness, and it has constantly renewed its vitality through exchanges and mutual appreciation with other civilizations. “To go global and “to bring in” will become the norm of Chinese TV in the future. At the opening ceremony, the Belt and Road TV Showcase programme sponsored by the National Radio and Television Administration was officially launched.

One hundred audiovisual masterpieces demonstrating the great leadership of General Secretary Xi Jinping, advocating the ideal of human community with a shared future, portraying the magnificent new journey of China in the new era and unveiling the innovative development of fine traditional Chinese culture, including 30 TV dramas such as MINNING TOWN and THREE-BODY, 30 documentaries such as ADVENTURES ON THE NEW SILK ROAD and A BITE OF YANCHENG, 20 animations such as GROWING UP and NO. 23 NIU NAITANG, and 20 variety programs, such as SEE YOU AGAIN and OFFER, aside from song and dance productions, are selected to be showcased and promoted in major countries along the Belt and Road route in the second half of 2023.

This programme will also carefully curate the screening of over 60 sophisticated audiovisual productions from countries along the Belt and Road route, including Uzbekistan’s JOURNEY OF CULTURE, Russia’s MASHA AND THE BEAR, Thailand’s FABULOUS 30, Japan’s REBOOTING and India’s KANAA, on radio and TV stations in nearly 20 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities), including Beijing, Tianjin and Shanghai, as well as online audiovisual platforms of Tencent, Sohu, iQIYI, Youku and Bilibili, etc. from June to September 2023, to zoom in on the unique cultural appeal along the Belt and Road route.

Showcasing quality works on the screen, gathering stars on the red carpet, and delighting people in the city, STVF, with underpinned and excellent works and unveiled as ever, will lead the rapid and healthy development of China’s TV industry, contribute to the construction of Shanghai as an international cultural metropolis, and create a people-oriented festival with humanistic spirit.