1. Shanghai International Film Festival (SIFF) and Shanghai TV Festival (STVF) dates announced

Picture from SIFF official website: http://www.siff.com/

The 23rd SIFF will be held from 25th July to 2nd August, followed by the 26th STVF, which will be held from 3rd to 7th August. The two festivals are the first major international film and television event held in China since the outbreak of Covid-19 from early 2020.

The film festival SIFF will include screenings in cinema, open-air space and online, as well as the events such as SIFF Forum, SIFF Market and the Belt and Road Film Week etc. The TV festival will encompass the Magnolia Award Competition, Magnolia TV Forum and International Film and Television Market and more.

The jury members for Magnolia Award are also revealed. For the documentary section, the Dutch producer Ellen Windermuth will be the Chair of the Jury for Magnolia Award-Documentary, while Indian producer Vikram Channa and Chinese director Liang Hong serving as the jury members.

According to the requirements of the Epidemic Prevention and Control Regulation in China, all tickets must be sold online and the occupancy rate of each screening shall not exceed 30%.

2. Cinemas of low-risk areas open gradually from 20th July

 Chinese cinemas in the low-risk areas resume business, only if they follow strict rules：

l  All tickets should be sold through online reservations.

l  Individuals and groups shall be allocated in seats more than a meter apart.

l  Attendance rate of each screening shall not exceed 30%.

l  The overall screenings shall be reduced to half as of that before the Pandemic.

l  The length of screening should be no longer than two hour.

l  Different screenings in the same cinema should be arranged at the different time

    to avoid crowds gathering.

3. Cinema Re-opening Day 1: Bright Torch 3D released

Bright Torch 3D, directed by Qu Quanli, is one of the first films released on  big screen after cinema re-opening on 20th July, 2020.It is a 4K 3D feature documentary presenting the images of Chinese craftsmen. The film is 76 minutes long and was premiered at the Guangzhou International  Documentary Film Festival, China (GZDOC) in December 2017.

The documentary restores and presents the beauty of Chinese traditional culture, revealing the inside stories of Chinese craftsmanship for the audiences.

4. Japanese Orphans and Their Descendants (《归去来——日本遗孤的后代们》) — A Sino-Japan Co-production

Photo from China Daily: https://baijiahao.baidu.com/s?id=1672333342815588815&wfr=spider&for=pc

To celebrate the 48th anniversary of the diplomatic relations between China and Japan, broadcasters from the two countries will co-produce a TV documentary Japanese Orphans and Their Descendants (working title). The documentary tells the stories of the Japanese orphans and their descendants in Jilin, a North-East China province. The documentary aims to record the history while sharing the future about peace and friendship between the countries.

The chief director Liu Guojun said that Japanese orphans refers to Japanese children, who were abandoned in China in their early age and raised by local Chinese after the surrender of Japan in 1945. There are about 5000 orphans and ninety percent of them in the Northeast China and the Inner Mongolia. By telling the stories of the Japanese orphans and their descendants, and recording the emotional connections between the orphans and their Chinese parents, the documentary aims to present a vivid image of the history.

The pre-production will start in July. Chinese and Japanese experts will be invited in the scripting seminar, in-depth research and interviews. The production will begin in the winter of 2020.