What does Shanghai International Film Festival mean for global filmmakers?

Despite the easy access to movies online today, the Shanghai International Film Festival offers a unique platform for films that might otherwise go unnoticed. This year, over 3,700 movies from 105 countries and regions were submitted, with more than 1,300 films having their world premiere and 390 being screened outside their production country for the first time. There's a special component of the festival called the Belt and Road Film Week. It showcases 18 excellent films from participating countries of the Belt and Road Initiative like Chile, Greece, and Sudan. Many of these films are the directors' first works, so workshops were held to help them find collaboration and get to know the Chinese market.
Foreign audience often gravitate towards films that help them understand another country sociologically or anthropologically. If a film does not cover these topics, it may struggle to find a place in the global market. This is a challenge faced by many filmmakers, including one from Colombia. The good news is his film that was selected at Shanghai International Film Festival is about family relationship, which is something he wants to do.
A director from Chile, who has attended around 40 film festivals, describes himself as "an experiment of the system of film festivals." His film The Settlers, which just won the honor of "Media Focus for Film" at the Belt and Road Film Week, is a co-production of nine countries.
According to Huaxia Film Distribution Company, one of the two companies in China with the national distribution rights for imported films, more than 80 films from participating countries of the Belt and Road Initiative have entered the Chinese market since 2018, the year when the Belt and Road Film Week was launched. These films achieved a box office of nearly 3.2 billion yuan. In 2019, Capernaum, the first Lebanese film introduced into China through collaboration with the Shanghai International Film Festival, achieved an impressive box office of over 370 million yuan in China.
An insider noted that Chinese audiences' tastes for movies have changed over the years. Some Hollywood films expected to be blockbusters did not turn out to be that popular. This shift might create an opportunity for films from other countries to enter the Chinese market. Maybe these films will resonate well with the Chinese audience and become the next big hits.
Reporter: Zhang Hong

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