Shanghai TV Festival marks 30 Years with diverse, international lineup

The curtain was raised on the 30th Shanghai TV Festival on June 23 with a ceremony and an opening session at the Shanghai Exhibition Center. A variety of activities will be offered through to June 27.  

At the ceremony, Chinese actor Tan Jianci was appointed the festival's Magnolia Youth Ambassador. 

 The new Magnolia Global Promotion Initiative was also launched to harness the festival's established international prestige to cultivate its worldwide partnership networks. 

The Magnolia Awards competition is always an eye-catching program of the festival.  

This year the awards' major competition sections, including TV dramas (Chinese and foreign), documentaries, animation, and variety programs attracted around 1,000 entries from 43 countries and regions across five continents. 

Leading global television institutions such as the BBC, Sony, HBO, Warner, and Disney have all submitted high-quality programs for selection. 

 Geographically, the awards have also expanded their reach with first-ever submissions from countries including Chile, Denmark, and Iceland. 

The Magnolia Awards Ceremony will be hosted on June 27 at the Lingang Performing Arts Center. During the festival, an international TV Showcase will offer award-winning and new premium TV productions from China and abroad to audiences.  

Three BBC productions related to celebrated author Jane Austen's works interpreting English society or based on her life will be screened to commemorate the 250th anniversary of her birth.

Offline public screenings will also be organized, highlighting excellent documentaries about famed architects and archaeologists like Laszlo Hudec, who has significant ties to Shanghai.

 At the festival's opening session, TV industry professionals chronicled and looked back on the three decades of China's radio and television development. They also exchanged ideas on future audiovisual innovation and content creation. 

 Magnolia Awards TV Drama Jury President Chen Baoguo said at the session that the TV festival and the awards have witnessed the growth of China's TV industry and generations of actors. 

 "The awards always honour and encourage those who create with sincerity, passion and perseverance for high quality productions," Chen said.