China's first art theater alliance was established. Art film spring is coming?

On the closing day of the Changchun Film Festival, China's first art theater alliance was announced. Zhang Hongsen, director of the Film Bureau, made a speech on the same day, calling on more theaters to join the Art Film Alliance to help art films thrive in China.

Perhaps Fang Li's shocking kneeling for "Hundreds of Birds Praying to the Phoenix" at the beginning of the year can arouse the overall reflection of filmmakers and film management on artistic films. At the just-concluded Changchun Film Festival, how to untie the survival of artistic films has become a focus of attention in the industry and practical actions have been taken. On the closing day of the Changchun Film Festival, China's first art theater alliance was announced. Zhang Hongsen, director of the Film Bureau, made a speech on the same day, calling on more theaters to join the Art Film Alliance to help art films thrive in China.

Tragic situation: How can art films be dignified when kneeling on their knees? The Art

Theater Alliance was born in a crisis. According to Zhang Hongsen, the box office in 2016 currently exceeded 38 billion yuan, a net increase of more than 2 billion yuan compared with last year. Last year, the number of movie-goers was 1.25 billion, and the total number of movie-goers in 2016 has reached 1.121 billion, compared with 998 million in the same period last year. In terms of theater construction, there are currently 37817 screens across the country, compared with only 32000 screens at the beginning of the year. The screen growth rate is still very fast, and theater construction has maintained a strong momentum. However, in China's film market, artistic films seem to have difficulty finding their place.

In 2006, the domestic box office of "The Good Man of the Three Gorges", which won Jia Zhangke the Golden Lion Award in Venice, was less than 1 million yuan; in 2007,"Tuya's Marriage", which helped Wang Quan 'an win the Golden Bear Award from Berlin, only earned 2 million yuan in the box office in the mainland market; In 2011, a large number of literary and artistic films with good reputation such as "Star Sky" and "Steel's Qin" also fell into the strange circle of "being praised but not popular". In the past two years, the box office of China's film market has exploded. Filmmakers think that artistic films can find friends. However, the reality is still cruel-in 2015, the reputation of "The Intruder" directed by Wang Xiaoshuai was much better than "How to Sheng Xiao Mo", but the box office of the two films could not be "reversed." Bad films can easily earn hundreds of millions of box office by just using "commercial" calculations. High-quality literary and artistic films are like thin grass, dying on the edge of the market.

It is not that the creators of artistic films have not lowered their dignity to appeal. When "The Intruder" was released, Wang Xiaoshuai once moved to a group of students born in the 1990s at the College Student Film Festival Awards Ceremony: "While watching youth films, you should also support movies suitable for your parents. For example, go and watch" The Intruder "on Mother's Day." Unfortunately, such a "family card" did not work. Director Jia Zhangke once worried about "The Old Man of the Mountains and Rivers" and used Weibo to implore theaters to retain the filming: "" The Old Man of the Mountains and Rivers "was released for 5 days and grossed 21 million yuan at the box office. Good start, but hidden crisis. Today, the national screening has dropped to less than 3%. "The Old Man of the Mountains and Rivers" is a slow-heating film, and audience reputation, media reports and comments have been fermenting in recent days. I would like to urge all theaters to keep the film arrangements as much as possible and keep "The Old Man of the Mountains and Rivers" together for the audience and the big screen." At the beginning of this year, Fang Li knelt down for director Wu Tianming's posthumous work "Hundreds of Birds Praying to the Phoenix", which not only saved the box office of the film, but also made people really pay attention to what kind of state art films have reached in their dignity survival.

Dilemma: Which is more important than art films or theater operations

? Directors such as Wang Xiaoshuai have been calling for many years ago that there should be corresponding theater policies to give art films the right to enter the market. Director Wang Xiaoshuai pointed out the injustice of theaters: "On the one hand, the commercial monopoly scheduling has made the film industry market lose its norms. On the other hand, the market lacks protection for domestic films. The movie theater is a magical link, and the manager will only put on the shelves what he thinks is packaged. We don't want to hide in the corner, but we can't get into the public's view at all. 90% of the pomp of "I 11" is useless. Late at night or in the morning, who would get up at 6:30 in the morning and run to the theater to watch a movie?"

Regarding whether cinemas should have the mind and sense of responsibility to "protect cultural diversity", cinemas said that cinemas serve the audience, so the film layout is also determined according to the needs of the audience."If a film goes from being popular to being popular, the movie hall will immediately make adjustments based on this trend and give it more space; although some films have high attendance at the beginning, they have poor reputation and insufficient support, so we will also compress their space."

However, if "diversity" is specifically referred to both art films and commercial films, theaters are a little hesitant."We also want to support art films, but the current situation does not allow us to set up a separate movie theater or squeeze out a movie theater during prime time. After all, cinemas cannot lose money to arrange films. Now, rent costs and labor costs are greatly increased, and running cinemas itself is already very stressful."

Even Jiang Zhiqiang, president of the famous Hong Kong Anle Film Company and producer of "Hero" and "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", lamented that art theaters were not easy to do. Known as "Boss Jiang", he established the Contemporary MOMA Broadway Film Center in Beijing at the end of December 2009. This is also the first art theater in the country and is very popular among young artists. However, Jiang Zhiqiang said in an interview with reporters that his several cinemas are operating very hard."China is still short of alternative films, and Chinese audiences are not enough to support our own art films." To reverse this dilemma, Mr. Jiang said that I am afraid that it is not enough to rely on the theaters in the broadcasting process, but it requires the cultivation and support of the entire film environment.

Danger: Facing adjustments in the distribution and screening of art films

, there are many people like Jiang Zhiqiang who want to help art films. Domestic theaters are not just watching the "weakness" of art films. In recent years,"spot screenings" and "weekly screenings" of some art films have occasionally appeared in theaters, and director Jia Zhangke once wanted to build his own art theater. Although such "spot screening" and sporadic support cannot be turned into a "long-term", it at least laid the foundation for the establishment of the Art Alliance. In this regard, Zhang Hongsen, director of the Film Bureau, also said that the prototype of art theaters has been produced across the country, and art screenings have also begun to take shape. The screening sessions of international film festivals held in Beijing and Shanghai also provide a good screening platform for art films; some online ticketing platforms can accurately promote and promote target audiences, further increasing the audience's enthusiasm for watching art films.

Under the deliberation of all parties, and before the dignity of artistic films was completely lost, the Art Theater Alliance finally stood up. It is reported that the National Art Film Screening Alliance is jointly sponsored by China Film Archive, Huaxia Film Distribution Co., Ltd., Shanghai Warm Current Culture Communication Co., Ltd., Wanda Cinema Line Co., Ltd., Broadway Film Center, and Beijing Microfilm Times Technology Co., Ltd., which can be said to mobilize the resources of film companies, distributors and theaters.

At present, the National Art Film Screening Alliance has selected 100 cinemas in key cities among 31 provinces and cities across the country as the first batch of cinemas. They will be screened at least three times a day and at least 10 golden screenings will be guaranteed every week.

Next, the Art Film Screening Alliance will also recruit 400 cooperative art cinemas across the country and gradually expand the overall layout to finally achieve dynamic screening of art films on 3000 screens, allowing audiences in every province and city to see art films. The first screening lists of the Art Film Screening Alliance will be announced to the audience on November 8, online ticketing will be available on November 16, and screened nationwide on November 23.

Jia Zhangke, chairman of Shanghai Warm Stream Cultural Communication Co., Ltd., one of the sponsors, said that in order to unify the selection standards of the Art Film Screening Alliance, the Alliance will establish a film selection committee composed of scholars, critics, curators, etc. to jointly evaluate which film meets the Alliance's screening requirements. The selection scope will face the entire art film creative group and production company.

For the Art Film Screening Alliance, distribution and theaters are also facing new adjustments. Distribution professionals said that in the past, distribution remained under the traditional system, mainly for audiences across the country and covering a large range. In comparison, art theaters have higher requirements for screening, so it is necessary to understand the needs of audiences in different regions for films, understand the characteristics of screening and operation of theaters and theaters, and better convey art film information to audiences and theaters. However, regarding the alliance's ticket prices, relevant people said that they are still under discussion.

Editor: Nancy