Curtain Rises on TV Fest

The 19th Shanghai Television Festival, which runs from June 10th to 14th, will bring together directors, actors, scriptwriters, producers and critics for discussions and workshops.

During the TV festival, more than 80 recent and acclaimed shows will be screened on the Documentary Channel, Art Channel, Entertainment Channel and ICS. They include dramas, documentaries, animations and other films.

Among more than 1,000 entries, 48 productions have been nominated for the TV festival\'s Magnolia Awards in TV film, documentary, drama and animation.

They include the mainland drama Beijing Youths about a group of young people and their love, friendship and coming of age.

The German nature documentary The Green Universe and British animation Room on the Broom, based on a children\'s picture book, will be screened.

The five-day event also includes the Shanghai Student Television Festival screening short videos by college students, the international film and TV marketing and animation pitch, and TV forums about challenges and opportunities in China\'s TV industry.

A total of 48 productions have been selected and nominated from more than 1,000 entries. During the annual TV festival, they will vie for the coveted Magnolia Awards in categories like TV film, documentary, drama and animation.

Celebrated mainland director Zhang Li will chair the jury panel for TV film and drama. Yves Jeanneau, founder of the France\'s Sunny Side of the Doc, will be the jury president in the documentary section. Viewers can also vote for their favorite TV series and actors at Sina.com.cn.

According to Fu Wenxia, an official with the festival\'s organizing committee, the annual TV gala will also feature professional TV forums to discuss creative mechanism for production, foreign format purchase, and the originality of domestic TV. It will focus on the new challenges and opportunities for China\'s TV industry.