Overall Situation of the 21st Shanghai TV Festival

The 21st Shanghai TV Festival was held from June 8 to June 12, 2015. Being created in 1986 by the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television of the People\'s Republic of China (SAPPRFT) and Shanghai Municipal Government, it was the earliest international film festival initiated in China. Its growth is an epitome of the development of TV industry in China and it has also witnessed and boosted the growth of Chinese TV industry market from nothing as well as its gradual development from weak to strong.

This year, the Shanghai TV Festival will continue its practice of thrift and feed back the industry and audiences with rich and practical activities. By means of comprehensively upgraded market, forums gathering industry elites, exhibitions favored by the audiences, impartial, authoritative and professional awards, innovation and optimization of all modules, it strives to build a unique festival brand in Shanghai. Shanghai TV Festival has constantly pursued innovation and change for more than 20 years. This year it will witness a new round of takeoff in Chinese TV industry with a brand new attitude.

I. Simplified awards, fierce competition, award Mechanism acting on international conventions

Magnolia Award adopted greater innovation this year. To comply with industry trends, Magnolia Award this year simplified the original 23 awards into 15 authoritative awards in 4 units (TV drama, documentary, animation and variety show) so as to improve the "gold content" of all the awards and cover the whole TV industry status more comprehensively. The decision to simplify awards also coincided with the spirit of awards reformation advocated by the central government.

Based on years of good public praise, the quality of film entries in Shanghai TV Festival has been yearly increased. The nominated films basically embody the top standard of filmmaking in the world. Among the film entries recruited this year, there are 274 TV dramas, 396 documentaries, 169 animations and 80 variety shows. After preliminary assessment, 10 Chinese TV dramas, 6 foreign TV dramas, 9 documentaries, 10 animations and 20 variety shows have successfully been nominated to compete for the awards in various units of "Magnolia Award" this year.

Mr. Yan Jian’gang, Deputy President and Secretary General of China Television Director Committee, presides over the unit of TV drama which is most remarkable. Guo Jingyu, Lin Lisheng, Wang Wanping, Song Jia and Daniel Lapaine act as the judges. Ten TV dramas are nominated for Best TV Series (China), including All Quiet in Peking, Obstetrician, Hey Daddy, Red Sorghum, The Chinese Farmers, Deng Xiaoping at History’s Crossroads, A Civic Yuppie in Countryside, The Ordinary World, Divorce Lawyers and A Servant of Two Masters. Among them, Red Sorghum which is adapted from Nobel literature laureate Mo Yan’s representative works and directed by Zheng Xiaolong took the lead and won all the seven nominations. The Chinese Farmers, The Ordinary World and All Quiet in Peking closely followed and the competition was very fierce.

As for the award unit of variety show, Shanghai TV Festival has made pertinent plans from works recruitment and appraisal principles to judge candidates and award mechanism, so as to build the most authoritative award of variety show in China. The works entries also have top qualities, including some popular variety shows such as Running Man and The Voice of China. By means of awards of this unit, Shanghai TV Festival hopes to honor the variety shows which are well produced and popular with excellent social effects, so as to lead the development tendency of TV variety shows in China and encourage the practitioners to create more and better programs of variety shows.

As for award mechanism, Shanghai TV Festival Organizing Committee invited Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited to act as the independent polling agency to ensure impartiality, authoritativeness and professionalism. It’s one of the key measures adopted by Shanghai TV Festival Organizing Committee to standardize award process from the aspect of system. It’s also an important step for Shanghai TV Festival to be in line with international norms.

II. Upgrade market service, assemble forum elites and focus on “China Format”
From the aspects of market and forum, Shanghai TV Festival also seeks for breakthrough continuously. Market demanded great adjustments of the internal space and there was a qualitative leap in terms of services. Based on four topics such as TV series, documentary, animation and variety show, the forums targeted at the discussion on the future development of domestic TV industry.

Last year, two markets of Shanghai TV Festival and Shanghai International Film Festival were officially combined to conform to the trend of industry development. After the two festivals had been combined, not only the exhibition cost of enterprises had been greatly reduced, but also manpower had been saved, which received universal praises from all the exhibitors. After one year of operation, the international film market this year was further expanded, the total area was as large as over 22,000 square meters and all together 500 important exhibitors from home and abroad came to arrange for their exhibitions, which hit the record in history. With complete industry chain, international film market serves for the whole film industry and becomes the best platform to improve cross-border integration of TV and film industries and mutual enhancement of film contents creation and equipment technical development. In order to better serve for the coming guests, the international market this year adjusted space utilizations in large scale and established many zones according to different functions, such as central forum zone, news release zone, negotiation zone, film screening room and dining zone, so that the guests coming to the trading market could not only fully contact with exhibitors in the exhibition hall, but also participate in theme activities of the film festival in the same space. The exhibition zone was also clearly divided and newly designed guide map and indication system would bring great convenience for the buyers to find what they needed more swiftly and more purposefully in an efficient way to realize final trade of programs.

Magnolia TV Forum which used to be popular every year will carry out the positioning as the TV industry bellwether. It will invite industry elites from home and abroad to give their own views on the platform of Shanghai TV Festival and jointly discuss the development trend of TV media industry in the future. By pertinence and depth of the contents, it aims to stimulate the guests and audiences into heated discussion so as to exchange their successful experiences and promote healthy development of the industry. This forum will focus on four categories for further discussions, including the TV drama industry pattern of “One Play for Only Two Satellite Channels”, popular variety shows on TV screens, documentaries more under the spotlight as well as animation industry such as children\'s film and TV dramas. Leader-level media persons at home and abroad have been invited to participate in almost ten forums within three days to discuss the new developing trend of TV industry in the future and diagnose and for new patterns of TV industry.

Moreover, Shanghai TV Festival this year conformed to industry development and established the first “China Format Day-” together with 3C Media. Being the warm-up activities of two-day Shanghai TV Festival, it referred to the MIP FORMATS of MIPTV so that it could be better in line with international market, promote the development of original TV creation in China and show Chinese original creations to the world. “China Format Day” included theme forum, sub-forums, lecture given by master producers, model recommendations and model contest. Shanghai TV Festival and 3C Media will jointly build such an activity into a TV model industry bellwether in China and all over the world, so that Chinese TV could enter innovation model as soon as possible and convey Chinese original capability to the world.

III. Intimacy interactions, combination of culture and education, Magnolia blossoms in Shanghai
Excellent programs exhibition of this “Magnolia Award” will also be held for the audiences as scheduled. Together with Dragon TV, Documentary Channel, ICS, Art Channel, Haha Children’s Channel, Shanghai TV Festival will broadcast 61 excellent foreign TV series, documentaries and animations from June 8, including new and hot British TV drama this spring Poldark as well as some TV series, animations and documentaries nominated for “Magnolia Award”, such as The American Letters, Life and Death Row, Kung Fu Brothers, etc. So many wonderful and elaborate TV works from home and abroad will only be broadcast collectively and annually during Shanghai TV Festival. Switching on TV sets, audiences will be able to enjoy the exclusive screen feast elaborately prepared by Shanghai TV Festival.

The TV Festival this year will be themed on “Magnolia Blossom”. Not only popular TV stars but also meritorious people contributing to TV industry behind the screens will be invited to tell their moving stories relevant to TV and share their love and passions on TV with the audiences. Meanwhile, many TV industry achievements in the past year at home and abroad will also be reviewed. As the warm-up activity of award ceremony, the section of new TV dramas recommendation will introduce about ten film crews of new TV dramas which will be on in the second half of the year, such as Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou Not Believe in Tears and See you! My wife. The prominent Magnolia Awards will also be announced at the award ceremony themed on “Magnolia Blossom”.

Moreover, being the special activity of Shanghai TV Festival, “the 8th Shanghai College Students Shows” has been successfully closed on May 27. This activity was jointly hosted by Shanghai Institute of Visual Art and East China Normal University and sponsored by 51 universities and colleges in China. It has been awarded the title “Excellent Project of Culture Construction in Colleges and Universities by Ministry of National Education” since 2012.

After more than 20 years of brand creation, the 21st Shanghai TV Festival has adopted more innovation measures this year. Now, being an integrated and international TV festival combining awards, trades, markets and forums together, it has become one of the most important platform for international TV exchange and cooperation in Asia. In the future, Shanghai TV Festival will play more roles to promote film and TV cultural exchanges between China and foreign countries and improve the influences of Chinese cultures. Let’s look forward to magnificent “Magnolia blossoms” in Shanghai this June.