Switched on by Shanghai Television Festival

 

The weeklong event will include the Magnolia Awards for international television productions, the Magnolia TV Forum and Shanghai Student TV Festival.

During the festival, local TV fans will be presented new TV films, TV series, documentaries and animated series on local channels including International Channel Shanghai, Documentary Channel, Entertainment Channel and the Art Channel.

Almost 1,000 TV productions from more than 70 countries and regions are competing in this year’s Magnolia Awards.

These include around 50 productions nominated in the categories of TV series, documentary, animation and variety shows.

Celebrated British documentary director and producer Richard Bradley, twice Emmy Award winner, is jury president in the documentary category.

Mainland TV director Yan Jiangang is jury president in the TV series category.

“Variety” is a new category launched in this year’s Magnolia Awards. Variety programs from China’s major TV channels will vie for the award.

Some of the programs, despite a format based on foreign shows, feature Chinese elements for a local audience.

The Shanghai TV Festival was founded in 1986, and its Magnolia Award was China’s first international television awards event.

Over the years the festival has been recognized as having pushed forward the development of China’s TV industry and the China Formats event will  be held from June 7 to 8 this year.

Veterans from Endemol Shine Group, Fremantle, Warner Brothers and Zodiak have been invited to discuss the development and trends of new entertainment formats for television.

Young domestic TV producers will also have a chance to learn from successful cases of format franchises and promote their new original ones on this platform, say organizers.