Program Submission for 23rd STVF at Final Stage Over 100 Excellent TV Series Compete for Magnolia Aw

    March, the misty month of flowers, is witnessing the return of spring, and the 23rd Shanghai TV Festival is already around the corner. This year’s Shanghai TV Festival will be held from June 12 to 16, 2017. On December 1 of last year, the 23rd Shanghai TV Festival has officially launched program collection. As of now, more than 500 TV dramas, documentaries, animations and variety programs from over 30 countries and regions have signed up for the competition of the Magnolia Awards this year, including excellent works that are popular among audience with both high ratings and good word-of-mouth.

    According to the requirements of Registration Instructions for the 23rd Shanghai TV Festival, programs qualified for submission for the Shanghai TV Festival must be those that are first shown or completed between April 1, 2016 and March 31, 2017, and the registration deadline is March 31, 2017.

Main-theme programs gain popularity

Revolutionary history themed TV dramas have more human touch

    In 2016, while celebrating the 95th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese Communist Party and commemorating the 80th anniversary of the victory of the Red Army Long March, the radio and television institutions nationwide have created and broadcast a number of TV dramas with the revolutionary theme and of biographies, presenting many excellent main-theme works on the TV screen. Many of them have registered for the Magnolia Awards competition, including Marshal Peng Dehuai, My Uncle Zhou Enlai, and Mao Zedong And His Two Brothers that depict great personages’ revolutionary career, work and life; The Battle of Nujiang River, Yihai Alliance and The Battle of Yichang that are based on historic revolutionary events or battles; and Yu Chenglong, which was a big hit shown on CCTV early this year and portrayed the life of a famous honest and upright official.

    Looking back on TV dramas with the theme of revolutionary history in 2016, it can be seen that a human touch prevails, and “lecturing” has reduced. In Marshal Peng Dehuai, audience do not only see the stories between Peng Dehuai and other leaders like Mao Zedong, Zhu De and Zhou Enlai, but also see the growth of many vivid “nonentities” who were around the leaders, like Peng’s guard Shi Tou. These “unimportant” people and subtle details add vitality to the solemn historical dramas so that audience could feel they are close to life, shortening the distance between audience and those extraordinary years.

    Meanwhile, dramas such as Marshal Peng Dehuai and My Uncle Zhou Enlai depict in length the love, marriage and family of great personages. Peng Dehuai and Pu Anxiu went through the hail of bullets without any regret, and there was romance and inner softness under the serious appearance and amid the fiery revolution. Zhou Enlai and Deng Yingchao were soulmates of a life time, and their love was always closely related to China’s revolution and the welfare of the Chinese people. That is why even after the great personages have passed away, the Begonia flowers in their old residence are still blossoming.

Modern urban dramas are rid of small household affairs pattern

Hand of realism holds pulse of times

    There was a period when modern urban dramas followed the pattern of “small household affairs”, “trivial matters” and “endlessness”. Although eye-catching, they ran against the “truthfulness”, “kindness” and “beauty” of artistic creation. In 2016, many TV drama creators found new perspectives and new ideas in their creation based on realistic themes.

    Among the contestants for the Magnolia Awards of this year’s Shanghai TV Festival, we see Love O2O, which for the first time builds in “quadratic elements” and presents love totally from young people’s perspectives; we see Ode to Joy, which gives a penetrating portrayal of the urban white-collar group; we also see A Love for Separation, which, starting with the issue of education, sharply puts the anxiety and sense of insecurity of the middle class in front of the audience. In addition, May-December Love 2 brings various unconventional romances to the screen, such as “romance between a older woman and a younger man”, “twilight romance”, “women wooing men” and “remarriage after divorce”, while To Be A Better Man uses a great deal of flashback and narration to present the audience with a new experience. These are all embodiment of the new thoughts in TV drama creation, as well as real reflection of the current social reality and people’s life.

TV dramas themed on espionage enters “era of idol”

Costume dramas win over young people with beautiful relationships + novel approaches

    Over the past two years, a number of serious dramas and historical dramas represented by Nirvana in Fire and The Disguiser have shown the tendency of “serious drama becoming idol drama, and idol drama becoming serious drama” , symbolising the quality improvement of TV drama creation and effective addressing of market needs.

    Among the applicants for the Magnolia Awards of this year, Decoded, adapted from Mai Jia’s novel of the same title and an tribute to the 95th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese Communist Party, Sparrow, which tells the story of a group of communist intelligence agents hiding and working in Wang Jingwei’s secret agent headquarters; Rookie Agent Rouge, which portrays the growth of an outstanding female communist secret agent, and The Battle At Dawn, which depicts the revolutionary work of China’s first generation of public security officers, are the representatives of this trend. Many young and extremely popular “idol” actors participate in espionage themed dramas, making the espionage drama that is already full of suspense even more appealing.

    Another good thing to see is that costume dramas that were considered only for young girls have also shown their merits in the wave of IP adaption: the production level has notably improved; moreover, these dramas fully activate “the girl” who dwells in the heart of every audience, regardless of age and gender. TV dramas like Ten Miles of Peach Blossom, Noble Aspirations, The Princess Weiyang and The Glory of Tang Dynasty have tried their utmost to satisfy people’s longing for beautiful and loyal relationships while making sure they are a “feast to the eye”, demonstrating the positive young energy. At the same time, these TV dramas fully utilize converged media means, and effectively convert and diffuse the emotions of the characters in real life through forms popular among young people such as“top search queries”, “hot topics”, “emoticons” and “high-energy videos”, eventually “conquering” many young people with tricky tastes.