Premiere of Juries for Magnolia Awards – The Springing up of Realistic Quality Works, and The Mainstream Being Embraced by the Young

When the shortlist for the Magnolia Awards of the 27th Shanghai TV Festival (STVF) was officially announced, netizens were stunned at the starlit lineup of blockbuster works, which presents an extreme confrontation for the Magnolia Awards this year—— How to make the final choice among the fine works and outstanding creators? The juries of this year's Magnolia Awards may face a dilemma.

This morning, the meet-and-greet with the juries for Magnolia Awards of the 27th STVF was held in Shanghai. The juries of the three categories of TV drama, documentary and animation appeared together. Liu Jin, Jury President of TV drama, said that whether there is pressure or not, the standards for judging good works are the same. “This year’s shortlisted works are all popular fine works. Fine works, especially fine realistic works, are thoughtful, artistic, contemporary and born for the current era. And we need to judge and evaluate a works in these aspects."

The unity of thought, artistry and times

The 27th STVF Magnolia Awards have received nearly 900 entries from 40 countries and regions. Among them, most of the hot and highly praised Chinese TV dramas in last year have signed up for the Magnolia Awards. The 10 works that were finally shortlisted for the "Best Chinese TV Series (China)" are all realist masterpieces. Therein, 6 works are about major themes.

As the Jury President of the TV drama, Liu Jin has been deeply engaged in reality themes in his 16 years of director career. His works, from “The Brink”, which won the top laurel of the 18th Magnolia Awards for TV drama, to “White Deer Plain”, winner of the Magnolia Awards for Best TV Series (China) and Best Director at the 24th STVF, all embody his personal understanding of the creation of realistic drama series. With this experience, Liu Jin mentioned that during this year’s Magnolia Awards selection, there’s no substantial divergence in the jury. “We have the same standards for fine works, that is, a fine work should combine thoughts, artistry, times features and the contemporary values. Among us, common grounds prevail disputes for most of the time."

Last year, Fu Dongyu's “The Thunder” won the 26th Magnolia Awards for Best TV Series (China). At present, “Faith Makes Great”, for which he serves as the chief director and instills his artistic innovations in anthology series, is currently a hit TV work. At the event, Fu Dongyu, as the jury for this year's Magnolia Awards, mentioned that his judging standard is “being both artistic and professional”, and “select the annual works that can represent the level of Chinese TV dramas”.

Guan Ling, Dean and Professor of the School of Theater, Film and Television, Communication University of China, mentioned that she prefers works that can comprehensively reflect the spiritual power of the era or a certain historical moment and have a certain artistic appeal. “It is important to be appealing.”

Huo Tingxiao, President of Chinese Film Art Direction Academy, said that the visual aesthetics and artistic tastes of this year's shortlisted TV dramas are quite exquisite. “I will pay more attention to aesthetics. For example, as for visual aesthetics and artistic integrity, “The Age of Awakening” and “Minning Town” are beyond reproach."

Screenwriter Zhang Lei, winner of the Magnolia Award at the 23rd STVF “Chinese Style Relationship”, said that film and television are a comprehensive art discipline, and the flawless production links make a work excellent. “If a work, written, directed and played, presents a particularly fascinating world through proper costumes, makeup and props, I will admire it very much when watching it.”

Actress Tao Hong and actor Tong Dawei are both juries for Magnolia Awards for Chinese TV Drama Unit this year. Tao Hong was honored the Magnolia Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Song Qian in “Little Reunion” last year. She said with a light mood that for her, watching TV was a leisure before, yet this time a work. “There is an indescribable sense of happiness, and at the same time I am also learning, and I enjoy it very time.”

As an actress herself, Tao Hong believes that her criteria should be the same as that of the audience, “I will cry and laugh as the plot develops, and even completely forgot that I’m a jury now.” She said that the emotional experience of people is the most direct. “This matters a lot as for whether the drama is intriguing or whether it touches me.” Tong Dawei also said that after being selected as a jury, he had seized all the time to watch the shortlisted dramas, “The plots are fascinating, and every drama is so exquisite, even the details of photography and art.”

The mainstream shouldn’t be put on the shelf

A phenomenon worthy of attention is that since last year, the mainstream works, such as “The Age of Awakening” , “Minning Town”, “Crossing the Yalu River”, and“WITH YOU”, have won the favor of young audiences widely, achieving fruitful results in terms of attention and communication. And these works are also shortlisted for the Magnolia Awards, which boosts the confidence of all TV workers.

The juries also expressed their individual opinions on why the mainstream works will receive a lot of attention this year. Fu Dongyu, who has made dramas such as “The Thunder”, “Being a Hero” and “Faith Makes Great” in a row, mentioned that the mainstream theme has been loved by many young people in the past year, and the reason cannot be simply attributed to the fact that this year coincides with the centenary of the Communist Party of China. It is necessary to thoroughly study why the existing excellent mainstream works can won the audience.

“In fact, it is still about the creation. This is what really matters.” He said bluntly that in the previous years, the creators of domestic dramas have“put the mainstream high on the shelf.” “How do people perceives mainstream? For me, it expresses the common expectations of the 1.4 billion people of this nation and our common good wishes for life. When TV drama creators try to convey this subject, it is to create an expression of the mainstream.”

Fu Dongyu believes that when such a mainstream work revokes people’s recollection of the details of lives and the history, and when the past meets with the present through the way of expression, it will touch the inner chord of everyone subtly, “It just like the qualities that we inherit from our forefathers and pass on to our next generation. It is natural that the young generation today will be touched by such invaluable inheritance.”

Guan Ling, Dean and Professor of the School of Theater, Film and Television, Communication University of China, who spends a lot of time with young people in university, also notes that she viewed some of the mainstream works due to her students’s recommendations. “We may have narrowed the interpretation of mainstream before, but in fact, all works that can show the beautiful things in social life and allow the audience to immerse in and reflect upon their own lives should actually be deemed as the mainstream works, because it showcases the direction of the times.”

Quality, instead of expression methods, is still the primary criterion

In addition to Chinese TV dramas, the foreign TV dramas, documentaries and animations competing for the Magnolia Awards at this year's STVF are also full of highlights. At the meet-and-greet, the jury for foreign TV drama unit, Spanish TV program producer, and executive producer, Pilar Jimenez said that quality is still the fundamental guarantee for the success of a work. “With the increasingly mature subtitle and translation system, the global distribution of TV dramas has overcome the language barriers, and the quality of TV dramas will then become more important. No matter which country they come from, good dramas all outperforms other works in quality and narrative methods.” She has lived in China for three years and has been deeply engaged in the TV industry. She also mentioned that the development of Chinese TV drama is “exciting”. “, Chinese TV dramas, whether documentary or fictitious, are superior in characterization and production technology.”

Jury for Magnolia Awards for documentary unit of this year’s STVF and documentary photographer Liu Xiangchen is gratified and proud of the fact that more and more young people love documentaries. He just rushed to the event from the Xinjiang shooting scene, and said that documentary people all over the world have a common quality, that is, “presence”. “Presence at crucial historical moment or in real life even surpasses shooting itself.” He emphasized that documentaries provide the perception of value that films and TV dramas fail to bring out. “This is the wonder of documentaries.”

In recent years, the global animation industry has been developing rapidly, and Chinese animation works have also achieved outstanding performance. At the event, the jury for animation, Chinese animation director and screenwriter Yu Shengjun, the creator of “HAIER BROTHERS”, mentioned that animations are special in the form of expression, being both storytelling and aesthetically impressive. And this determines whether an animation will become popular, “Recently, Chinese animation has been created exquisitely, and creators have gradually found the language expression for Chinese animation, so that our works are recognized by not only domestic audiences, but also international friends. He said with confidence that Chinese animation will take on a new look in future, “to meet the world and reveal its own unique charm.”