The 27th Shanghai International Film Festival was successfully held from June 13 to June 22. The 120 years of Chinese film history have made every aspect of the "City of Film" dazzling; the 10-day event has made the global "dream makers" and the "dream chasers" of movie fans at home and abroad truly feel that in Shanghai, every frame is brilliant.
The value of "Golden Goblet" is further improved
Founded in 1993, the Shanghai Film Festival is "China's only international A-class film festival", and the value of this statement is still rising. Coinciding with the 130th anniversary of the birth of world cinema and the 120th anniversary of the birth of Chinese cinema, this year's Golden Goblet Award, from the film call, to the composition of the Golden Goblet Award jury, the screening of the Golden Goblet entries, to the Golden Goblet Festival and the red carpet ceremony of the Golden Goblet Awards, all reflect the continuous rise in its reputation and the steady expansion of its influence.
This year's Golden Goblet Awards and International Film Global Call received more than 3,900 film entries from 119 countries and regions, a record high. The combined premiere rate of world premieres and international premieres exceeded 80%, the highest in history. This year's Golden Goblet Awards main competition unit, all 12 shortlisted films were sold out.
The Shanghai Film Festival is an important platform for mutual learning and cultural exchange among civilizations. Among the works shortlisted in the main competition unit, Latin American films account for 1/4. "Crossing the Border", a joint production of Argentina, Chile and Spain, has attracted a lot of attention. Producer Nicolas Grosso said: "Asian films have their own genes, and our films have strong Latin American genes. We use Latin American narratives to convey the brotherhood of the underworld and use unique culture to interpret the theme to everyone."
"The fact that the film can be shown overseas has given Japanese films a boost," said Japanese director Shinya Tamada. In 2023, Japanese director Kazuyoshi Kumakiri's "658 km, Yoko's Journey" won the Grand Slam at the Shanghai Film Festival. This year, Shinya Tamada followed in the footsteps of his predecessors and was shortlisted for the main competition unit with "Summer Sand".
The Shanghai Film Festival is also expanding channels for global film exchange and cooperation. The Belt and Road Film Festival Alliance, established in 2018, has grown from 31 organizations in 29 countries to 57 organizations in 50 countries. It has become a consensus to "bring in" excellent films and "go global" Chinese films.
Seeking communication and cooperation is the reason why many international filmmakers attend the Shanghai Film Festival. Turn to Page 4 (Continued from Page 1) This is the first time for Vietnamese judge Pham Tien An of the Asian Newcomer Unit to attend the Shanghai Film Festival, but he has watched Chinese films and TV series since he was a child and is "very familiar" with China. "I am greatly influenced by Chinese culture, and I look forward to having more exchanges with Chinese creators on the platform of the Shanghai Film Festival, and more room for cooperation in the future."
"Each film festival is a good time to attract attention to this city." Huang Bo, a Chinese actor and director and judge of the main competition unit of this year's Golden Goblet Awards, compared the Shanghai Film Festival to "a place for making dreams." He found that many films that did not participate in the main competition were willing to travel thousands of miles to be screened, which shows that the influence of the Shanghai Film Festival is constantly expanding. "Seeing that films from all over the world are quickly sold out shows that everyone is highly involved and enthusiastic, and the film festival is getting better and better."
This is the atmosphere of Cinema Paradiso
"The Cinema Paradiso in my mind is the atmosphere I feel here." On the evening of June 20, after the screening of Cinema Paradiso at Shanghai Cinema SHO, the staff quickly set up the stage for the film master class amid applause. Italian film master Giuseppe Tornatore took the stage to share his film life. This year, Tornatore served as the chairman of the jury of the main competition unit of this film festival. In Shanghai, the city of movies, he happily enjoyed the "greatest satisfaction" of working with colleagues from all over the world.
The Shanghai Film Festival has witnessed the growth of filmmakers. This year, the "6+1" new talent support system of the Shanghai Film Festival shines. After director Qiu Sheng won the Best Live-Action Short Film Award at the Shanghai Film Festival in 2021, his new work "For example, Father and Son" was shortlisted for the Golden Goblet Award main competition unit, becoming the best witness of the Shanghai Film Festival's "from short film to main competition" training system. Data shows that this year's film project venture capital has collected a total of 534 valid project applications, an increase of 39% compared to last year; 175 production, investment, and distribution companies from home and abroad participated in this event, and a total of 636 project negotiation meetings were held, with remarkable results.
Producer Ye Ting, who has produced phenomenal works such as "Time Raiders", "Love Mythology" and "Good Things" in Shanghai, was selected for the SIFF YOUNG×Shanghai Young Filmmakers Support Program. She lamented that Shanghai is not only the birthplace of Chinese film, but also a city of film, and the place where she "realized her dream of making movies."
The star-studded Shanghai Film Festival is also a festival for movie fans. As of 20:00 on June 20, the number of moviegoers at this year's film festival reached 484,000, nearly 30% of whom were moviegoers from other places. Among the audience, those aged 19-35 accounted for 76.39%.
In the city of movies, you can meet movie masters around the corner. In addition to the masterclasses, this year's Shanghai Film Festival has planned hundreds of audience meetings, covering most of the screening units, and held intensively in many screening theaters. Starting from June 13, when director Wu Siyuan combined the movie "The Barber" to commemorate his close friend Chen Yifei, movie fans and filmmakers have achieved resonance again and again.
Antonio Ferreira, a Portuguese director who booked a ticket to Shanghai as soon as he received the news of the nomination, left a good story after the screening of his fifth feature film "The Smell of Things Remembered" - after the screening, an audience member burst into tears. The film's lead actor, José Martins, was sitting in the audience at the time and comforted the crying audience member. On social media, the audience member described this "adventure at the Shanghai Film Festival" in detail. After learning about it, Ferreira humorously said: "I am very happy that the audience cried because it means that the message we wanted to convey was received by the audience."
"Ticket stub" links cultural tourism, business and sports exhibition
2025 is the "Year of Chinese Film Consumption". Activities such as "Travel with Movies" and "Enjoy Food with Movies" will be held in many places to give full play to the role of movies in boosting consumption.
This year, the Shanghai Film Festival actively exerted its influence and linked various social forces, allowing a small ticket to play a brand "ripple effect" of an important cultural festival and exhibition, promoting the vitality of Shanghai's urban economy. Preliminary estimates show that this year's film festival has brought economic benefits of 4.997 billion yuan to other industries including transportation, accommodation, catering, tourism and retail. 29.2% of the audience went to Shanghai specifically to watch movies, and the average stay was 6 days, which boosted consumption in accommodation, transportation and scenic spots, and contributed about 1.774 billion yuan to the city's tourism revenue.
Cultural and creative products are the "magic weapon" used by the Shanghai Film Festival and major theaters to attract moviegoers to spend money. This year, the official cultural and creative products of the Shanghai Film Festival include more than 30 categories and more than 60 products, with unit prices ranging from 12 yuan to 228 yuan. The three most popular items are ticket holders, white umbrellas for "rushing to the theater" and refrigerator magnets paying tribute to David Lynch.
"This year's Shanghai Film Festival has the most cultural and creative products in its history, with about 80% of them being new models." Fu Zhenyan, the official cultural and creative manager of the Shanghai Film Festival, said that this year's Shanghai Film Festival also launched the "Golden Goblet Elf", a cultural and creative product designed with the Golden Goblet Award as its IP for the first time. "Many foreign Class A film festivals have independent and mature IP operation systems, such as the Berlin Golden Bear and the Cannes Golden Palm, which are deeply rooted in the hearts of the people." He hopes that through the "Golden Goblet Elf", a unique and recognizable Shanghai Film Festival IP can be incubated.
