the first Italian Chinese Film Festival is being held in the northern city of Milan. Zhang Xiaobi, chairman of the Film Festival and president of the Culture and Media Group of the European Times, said in an exclusive interview with reporters a few days ago that this film festival will enable more Europeans to learn about contemporary and diversified China through films. I also hope that Chinese films can take a greater step of "going out" through this platform.
the first Italian Chinese Film Festival is being held in the northern city of Milan. Zhang Xiaobi, chairman of the Film Festival and president of the Culture and Media Group of the European Times, said in an exclusive interview with reporters a few days ago that this film festival will enable more Europeans to learn about contemporary and diversified China through films. I also hope that Chinese films can take a greater step of "going out" through this platform.
on the original intention of holding a film festival, Zhang Xiaobi said that diplomacy between countries is inseparable from mutual understanding between citizens. Culture is the soft power that can really enter the hearts of the people and change ideas, and it can shorten the distance and feelings between people, and film has become one of the best carriers of cultural exchange because of its easy-to-understand and intuitive form.
Zhang Xiaobi believes that there are great differences between Chinese and foreign cultural traditions, aesthetic perspectives, moral standards, and social structure, which can easily lead to misunderstandings in communication, so the Chinese film "going out" must have better planning. The film festival is a good way for Chinese films to connect Italy and Europe, and it can push more realistic films in line with the situation of modern China to foreign audiences. this film festival has experienced nearly half a year of preparation, and has gone through the stages of film selection, establishment of review committee, event planning, organization and implementation. "We did encounter a lot of difficulties in this process," said Zhang Xiaobi. "the outside world did not understand the original intention, purpose, and effectiveness of the event, and they all adopted a wait-and-see mentality, including the fact that the source of the film was not particularly smooth, and it was quite difficult to start." under the circumstances of shortage of manpower and limited funds, Zhang Xiaobi chose to calm down and do a good job. He believes: "the essence of the film festival should not only be a feast of stars and a luxurious red carpet show, but also the exchange of film works, the collision of multiple ideas and the spread of cultural integration." in the past, China had three iconic symbols overseas, "traditional Chinese medicine", "Chinese food" and "martial arts films". The festival hopes to let overseas audiences see more Chinese art and commercial films outside of martial arts films. Zhang Xiaobi explained that the reason why he chose to include art films is to let the audience understand the professional artistic level of Chinese films, and at the same time to be "more approachable", adapt to the tastes of foreign audiences and attract them to watch movies. In addition, film selection will also take into account the production of well-produced commercial films. this film festival has unique film selection criteria: the first is to choose "new films" to bring Chinese audiences' favorite films to Western audiences in time; the second is to pay more attention to realistic works; the third is to introduce to some Western audiences screenwriters, directors and actors who are not familiar with them. At the same time, they will also select works that have potential for commercial distribution in Europe in the future. in addition, the composition of the judging committee of this film festival is very diverse, including both Chinese and Italian film professionals, educators, as well as senior media and film critics. Zhang Xiaobi said that the main purpose of such a team of judges is to ensure that the final results of the festival should not only reflect the voice of China, but also not deviate from the taste of the Italian audience, but also ensure influence and authority. Zhang Xiaobi recalled that he came to Europe in the 1990s, when there were almost no Chinese films in cinemas, and now most of the films shown in foreign cinemas are Chinese films of Western choice. Therefore, when talking about the vision of the Italian Chinese Film Festival, he expressed the hope that the festival can take this as a starting point to train a group of cinemas that can broadcast Chinese films on a regular basis and a group of foreign audiences who love to watch Chinese films. to further promote foreign audiences to understand contemporary China and arouse their enthusiasm to explore and learn Chinese culture, film festivals can also make brands and exert the influence of Chinese films overseas. Edit: yvette