Wu Yigong, founder of the Shanghai Film Festival: Facing difficulties and speaking out for China films

The successful establishment of the Shanghai International Film Festival lies in facing the world, learning from world films and promoting China films to the world.

From 1993 to 2017, the Shanghai International Film Festival has a history of 20 years. It is the first international category A film festival in China recognized by the International Film Producers Association. With the development of history, the Shanghai International Film Festival has become an important window for foreign countries to understand China's film culture.

Twenty-four years ago, director Wu Yigong, then director of Shanghai Film Studio, founded the Shanghai International Film Festival. He is a representative of the fourth generation of directors of China films. In 1980, his debut film "Night Rain in Bashan" won the Best Feature Film Award at the First China Film Golden Rooster Award. In 1983,"Old Things in the South of the City" won the Best Director Award at the Third China Film Golden Rooster Award and the Golden Eagle Award for Best Feature Film at the Second Manila International Film Festival in the Philippines. This is the first time that a China film has won international awards since the reform and opening up.

Before the start of the 2017 Shanghai Film Festival, Wu Yigong, who was nearly 80 years old, talked about this cultural feast that "I built it all by myself". He can still remember the feeling of being "so happy to death" after stumbling into it at first.

Birth background: The climax period of creation. The reason why the Hollywood Shanghai International Film Festival in China was born in the 1990s is due to historical inevitability. According to Wu Yigong, the late 1980s was the third creative climax in the 100-year history of China films. At that time, the "Cultural Revolution" ended, literature and art regained its vitality, and masterpieces in the film industry appeared frequently, including "Furong Town" directed by Xie Jin and "Old Things in the South of the City" directed by Wu Yigong himself, which won awards from various film festivals at home and abroad. At the same time, the film industry has also developed rapidly, producing more than 100 films every year and more than 10 film studios, from Shanghai to Sichuan, all over China. Therefore, from the perspective of art and business, China films are facing new development opportunities and need to show the new image of China films to the world.

But on the other hand, China did not have a world-renowned film festival at that time. At that time, Japan had the Tokyo International Film Festival and the Philippines had the Manila International Film Festival. In comparison, China, which had a high international status and was in a prosperous stage, did not have a matching film festival. Wu Yigong, who was the director of the Film Bureau at that time, felt "a little bit unpresentable."

With the support of a group of like-minded friends such as Bai Yang and Xie Jin, Wu Yigong is determined to establish a film festival belonging to China people."On the one hand, it is to expand the influence of China films, and on the other hand, it allows China audiences to see more foreign films and use films to get to know the world."

Shanghai is not only the economic center of China, but also the first window for China to show its charm to the world. For movies, the movie was born in France in 1895, and the next year there was a movie screening event in Xuyuan, Shanghai. This was the first film screening in China. In 1913, the first small feature film in the history of China's film,"A Difficult Husband and a Difficult Wife", was born in Shanghai. From then on, Shanghai, the cradle of China films, brought together the best creators and best film entrepreneurs of China films, and was gradually built into China's Hollywood. After 1949, Shanghai continued to develop as the most important film industry base in China. Therefore, Shanghai has a strong film culture and a long film history, which is enough to become the venue of an international film festival.

No one has no money, no one has no experience, it is easy to know, but it is difficult to do. Although I am determined to build my own film festival, I face various difficulties. First, I have no experience, second, I have no money, and third, I don't know how to hire people. He founded a film festival, but lacked funds. In order to save money, when Wu Yigong went to Beijing for an organizing committee meeting, he stayed in a guest house and went out to have a meeting.

Among the many issues, Wu Yigong grasped the most important issue-the composition of the film festival judges. For film festivals, the jury is the most important facade and the guarantee of the quality of film festival selection. The composition of the jury will also form the unique style of the film festival. For example, the Oscar Film Festival and the Cannes Film Festival, one is for the public and the other is elegant. It is all caused by the different composition of their film jury.

For Wu Yigong, inviting film judges with high status and unique styles is an important step in creating the Shanghai International Film Festival. To this end, he personally invited famous film celebrities one by one to serve as judges of the film festival.

The first Shanghai International Film Festival opens.

Finally, the jury of the 1st Shanghai International Film Festival was full of stars, including Xie Jin (China, director), Hector Baben (Brazil), Karen Shakhnazarov (Russia), Oshima Zhu (Japan), Oliver Stone (USA), Paul Cox (Australia), Xu Ke (China Hong Kong), Chinese and foreign directors, each with its own unique style, which became an important guarantee for the success of the 1st Shanghai International Film Festival.

While determining the jury, Wu Yigong also personally inspected various international film festivals to learn from them. From Asia to Europe, from the Tokyo Film Festival, the Berlin Film Festival to the Venice Film Festival, although it was hard, Wu Yigong was determined and set off with just an interpreter. With the help of friends, visit the chairman of the film festival, inspect all aspects of the film festival, and understand the working conditions and situation of each department. After running around many times, Wu Yigong shouted,"It's so tiring to hold a film festival."

Finally, we have our own A-category film festival. Although it was difficult at the beginning, with the hard work of many China filmmakers represented by Wu Yigong, the Shanghai International Film Festival was finally successfully established. "This is a big step in the concept of literary and artistic creation in China, and China films have since embarked on a new level." Xie Jin, chairman of the first jury of the film festival, once said this. Wu Yigong recalled that after it was successfully launched, everyone was very happy because "we finally have a film festival." Bai Yang, Qin Yi and other film industry seniors all praised Wu Yigong's efforts. After that, the Shanghai International Film Festival developed rapidly and was recognized by the International Producers Association the following year, becoming the only international A-category film festival in China. When he heard the news, Xie Jin excitedly held Wu Yigong.

The successful establishment of the Shanghai International Film Festival lies in facing the world, learning from world films and promoting China films to the world. At that time, the best film of the first Shanghai International Film Festival was awarded to the China Taiwan film "The Silent Hill", which caused great controversy. Wu Yigong said that "The Silent Hill" was well filmed. He also emphasized that if he didn't even have this in mind, it would be better to just remove the international community and hold the Shanghai Film Festival.

So far, as an international A-category film festival ranked among the top 15 in the world, the Shanghai International Film Festival has attracted the attention of more and more internationally renowned filmmakers. From the past French Film Festival and Japan Film Week to the "Belt and Road" film festivals in the past two years, the "international style" of the Shanghai Film Festival has also brought a broader and broader vision to the city's audience.

Wu Yigong, who won the Lifetime Achievement Award in Chinese Films

At the 15th Shanghai International Film Festival, Wu Yigong won the Lifetime Achievement Award in Chinese Films. He said excitedly: "I feel that movies are like a dream. It is all-encompassing, diverse, colorful, and everything. The feature of the movie is that it does not reject anyone. Anyone can get close to it, like it, and get joy from it. It also tells you other possibilities in the world and life without hesitation."

Editor: jessica