Berlin's main competition shortlisted animated film "Art Academy 1994" will be finalized June 21

Liu Jian's new film "Art Academy 1994", director of the animated film "The Big World", is officially announced today for release on June 21, and the trailer and poster of the "Everyone is an artist" version will be released simultaneously. The film tells the story of a group of art students and music students at the Southern Academy of Arts. In that slow era, youth had a different color. This group of young people felt pure love and friendship, innocently explored art and ideals. Before all the questions could be answered, the graduation season had arrived in a hurry, and the noise was no longer there, parting was staged. On the tail of youth, no one can choose to stay where they are. Caught between tradition and modernity, they or she must decide what kind of person they want to become.

Director Liu Jian, who has created works such as the film "The Big World", has been repeatedly recognized internationally for his strong personal style and profound insight into social reality. "Art Academy 1994" was successfully shortlisted for more than 90 domestic and foreign film festivals, including the main competition unit of the 73rd Berlin Film Festival (nominated for the "Golden Bear Award"), the best animated feature list of the 97th Academy Awards, and the "Focus Filmmaker" unit of the Beijing International Film Festival. Film festivals and exhibitions have once again refreshed the international recognition of domestic two-dimensional hand-drawn animations. The British "Screen Daily" claimed that it reproduced the unique animation style and loose narrative style of director Liu Jian's previous work. Film scholar Dai Jinhua once commented that Director Liu Jian used the language of animation and painting to make such a realistic film, which was very fresh.

Dong Zijian Zhou Dongyu Huang Bo, the ultra-luxurious cross-border acoustic performance lineup is full of expectations

"Who will decide what art is?" The trailer for the "Everyone is an artist" released today takes us to enter the daily life of art students in the 1990s with one click, recreating dialogues about ideals and youth. The film focuses on the stories of youthful growth and graduation confusion of Zhang Xiaojun (voice: Dong Zijian) from the Chinese Painting Department, Rabbit from the Oil Painting Department, Gao Hong (voice: Papi Jiang Yilei) and Hao Lili (voice: Zhou Dongyu) from the Music Department. "Does art really need to be learned?""Is art learning to be famous?""Is art business?""What is spiritual opium?""Where to go and what to do after graduation?""Can we become what we want?", a few simple questions reflect young people's struggles and choices between love, friendship, ideal pursuit and practical pressure.

As the first animated film produced by Modern Sky,"Art Academy 1994" boldly breaks through the traditional dubbing model and innovatively gathers Dong Zijian, Bai Ke, Huang Bo, Renke, Papi (Jiang Yilei), Zhou Dongyu, Xu Zhiyuan, Peng Lei, Shen Lihui, Dapeng, Jia Zhangke and other heavyweights from different fields such as the film industry, music industry, and culture industry. They did not simply "dub", but performed a "sound performance" that deeply matched the character's characteristics. Each person's unique voice and temperament are highly integrated with the vivid characters 'souls in the film, giving them a highly recognizable and infectious character life, jointly interpreting the unique youthful atmosphere and ideal light of the time, and creating a vivid image of the times. Group portraits of the times create a movie-watching experience in which the "sound" is in the face.

In addition, in the released trailer, Cui Jian's "Let me scatter some wild in the snow" suddenly brought people back to the early 1990s. They felt the collision between Oriental art and Western art, traditional culture and modern culture, discussing the abundant ideal world and the reality that makes people have to be sober...

The unique two-dimensional hand-painted style sincerely reproduces the youthful group portraits of the graduation season in the early 1990s

The film simultaneously releases the "Everyone is an artist" version of the poster created by famous poster designer Huang Hai, which perfectly matches the film's ultra-high quality and artistic temperament. The overall poster presents a picture-in-picture structure in the form of a large collage. The background of the picture includes elements of representative movies, music, art, and literary works popular in the early 1990s in the form of a frame. In the film, the characters and various postures of Zhang Xiaojun, Dai Zhifei, Gao Hong, Hao Lili, Zhao Youcai, Wu Yingjun, Skinny Horse are scattered among them. They are both supported and trapped by art. The poster is also dotted with birds, black cats and other animals, making the whole picture more flexible, as if artistic inspiration shuttled through it. The ultra-luxurious star cross-border voice performance lineup is split on the left and right sides outside the frame. The slogan "People who love art have a longer puberty" at the top points out the connection between the film and art and youth.

In this work, Director Liu Jian still continues his iconic two-dimensional hand-painted style, using strong lines to reproduce the character's sharp edges, and drawing on the creative techniques of China painting, giving off the warm temperament of the Southern Academy of Arts. The director once said in an interview that he likes to "depict" a movie and hopes to convey through the pictures a beauty that restores and transcends reality. In 2010, the first animated film "Stinging Me" created by director Liu Jian won the Jin Min Award in one fell swoop. Jin Min's wife once praised during the award,"Liu Jian and Jin Min seem to use the same color palette." On the occasion that "Academy of Art 1994" was shortlisted for the main competition of the 73rd Berlin Film Festival, Xin Haicheng, who was also shortlisted for the same unit with the animated film "Journey of Bell Bud", also said when asked about "Academy of Art 1994" that China's animated films have developed rapidly in recent years and will "surpass Japan sooner or later."

The film "Art Academy 1994" was led by Modern Sky, written and directed by animation artist Liu Jian, and the all-star lineup of Dong Zijian, Bai Ke, Huang Bo, Renke, Papi (Jiang Yilei), Zhou Dongyu, Bu Guanyuan, Peng Lei, Bi Gan, Wang Hongwei, Shen Lihui, Dapeng, Wang Hongwei, Zheng Dasheng, Huang Lu, Jia Zhangke, Cai Kangyong, Zhang Zixian, Chen Liaoyu, and Xu Lei (in order of appearance) gathered across the border to create a group portrait of the times with unique voices. The film was distributed by iQiyi Pictures (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., Beijing Film Distribution Branch of China Film Corporation, and jointly distributed by Wuzhou Film Distribution Co., Ltd. The film will be released nationwide on June 21, so stay tuned!