The 29th Shanghai TV Festival opens: "People's Festival" enters thousands of households
On Xinhua Road, a huge TV Festival poster was posted at the intersection, with the Oriental Pearl Tower vaguely visible as the main subject of the picture. It is one of the witnesses of the development of China's radio and television industry. After temporarily bidding farewell to the Shanghai International Film Festival, the 29th Shanghai TV Festival officially opened on June 24.
This week, the magnolia is fragrant again and Shanghai launches "TV Time".
The poster of this TV Festival captures the changes of the spherical lighting landscape on the Oriental Pearl TV Tower through real shots, implying "same screen, same frequency". Designer Pang Hao said: "This is an invitation letter from Shanghai to audiences all over the world."
The annual Magnolia Awards at the TV Festival are known as the industry's "barometer". This internationally competitive, recognized and influential film and television selection award received nearly a thousand entries from 57 countries and regions on five continents this year. In the TV series category, about 190 Chinese dramas were registered, and overseas dramas increased from nearly 110 in the previous year to nearly 170, an increase of 53.7%; the number of entries in the documentary and animation categories also increased significantly, and in these two sections where Chinese and foreign works competed on the same stage, the proportion of overseas works increased year by year; in the documentary category, foreign works accounted for 60% of the entries this year, and well-known overseas TV organizations such as BBC, Sony, HBO Warner Discovery Channel, Disney National Geographic, etc., all selected high-quality programs to participate in the selection.
The most watched "Chinese TV Series" unit has announced the shortlist. Realistic works such as "Imperfect Victims", "A Flowing River: The Song of Time", "Flower", "The Glory of Our Fathers", "Welcome to Maile Village", "The Long Season", "South to North", "Asking the Vastness", "Asking the Heart", and "Wind Chaser" have all been shortlisted for awards. Among them, the hit drama "Flower" directed by Wong Kar-wai has been shortlisted for 9 awards including Best TV Series, Best Director, Best Actor and Actress, Best Supporting Actor and Actress, Best Screenwriter, Best Photography, and Best Art.
Following 2015, director Yan Jiangang once again served as the chairman of the Magnolia Awards TV Drama Category Jury. "For the TV industry, whether it is the social form, industry form or technological form, the past nine years have really been a dramatic change and transformation, which has also led to the emergence of high-quality dramas and hit dramas almost one after another." Yan Jiangang said that this made him and the Chinese TV Drama Unit judges such as actor Hai Qing and art director Han Zhong face "a difficult process of choice." However, as a creator, he happily embraced these new changes, "We TV drama people are facing a new mission, we must innovate the form of expression, and use these new forms to establish a channel of communication between the works and the current audience."
In addition to the awards, the "Magnolia Dialogue" TV Forum continues to focus on new developments in the TV industry and showcase the new landscape of the TV industry. 12 theme forums invite domestic and foreign industry leaders to discuss hot topics such as high-quality creation, international communication, and technological innovation; 3 master classes invite representatives of the judges of this TV festival to discuss the industry, exchange ideas, pay close attention to industry changes, and promote high-quality development of the industry. TV market activities will also target future trends in the field of radio, television, and audio-visual and the rapid development of cutting-edge technologies such as AIGC. Focusing on the theme of "high quality, all-media, and big audio-visual", technical seminars will be held on new quality broadcasting technology for radio and television, district and county integrated media communication, and AI technology empowering high-tech audio-visual creation, to explore the implementation and realization paths under the development trend of technological innovation from a more specific practical level.
Last year, the Shanghai TV Festival included all online audiovisual content in the Magnolia Award selection for the first time, adding weight to the gradually taking shape of the "big audiovisual" pattern. This year's Shanghai TV Festival will further focus on the strong growth of online creative forms, hold the Shanghai Micro-Short Drama Conference, organize a series of industry activities, hold a Micro-Short Drama Theme Forum, select outstanding projects for exhibitions, venture capital, negotiations, etc., and in the process of advocating the improvement of micro-short dramas from high traffic to high quality, present an increasingly mature combination of humanistic heritage and worldly fireworks. Yan Jiangang said that in recent years, the Magnolia Award has done a lot of work to "open up new space for film and television ratings", but no matter how the award is set up, embracing the professional spirit of innovation on the basis of professionalism can make "the Magnolia Award good no matter what it does." He said: "I really like the Magnolia Award very much."
"I can't miss the TV festival near my home. I am a big fan of the British drama "Secret of Number 9". I heard that there will be a meeting with the main creators during the TV festival, and I have to be quick to grab tickets." Similar to the "ticket grabbing" experience at the film festival, Mr. Li, a "post-90s" who lives in Huangpu District, logged on to Damai.com in advance at noon on June 17 and waited for tickets. "Finally, I successfully grabbed two tickets." The "Secret of Number 9" he mentioned will be screened as one of the TV dramas for offline benefit at the Shanghai Grand Theater on the afternoon of June 24.
The Shanghai TV Festival is a "people's festival" that has entered thousands of households. In order to implement the important concept of a people's city and highlight the benefit-to-the-people effect of the Shanghai TV Festival, the "Magnolia Fragrance" Shanghai TV Festival program show will be broadcast through television channels, Internet channels and offline benefit-to-the-people screening activities, creating a "TV festival at the doorstep" for citizens.
According to statistics, there were 32 offline screenings for the benefit of the people. Within half an hour of the ticket opening, 17 tickets were sold out, and the ticket sales rate in one hour was 81%. The three most popular series were "Secrets of Number 9", "Planet Earth III" and "Van Gogh: The Road to Masters", which were sold out within one minute of the ticket opening. Fashion blogger Vivian prefers biographical documentaries: "I have been working in the fashion industry and I really want to know the story behind Ms. Chanel's entrepreneurship. During the TV Festival, I was able to see "Unfettered Coco Chanel", which just made my dream come true." Mr. Zhang, 65, is an outdoor photography enthusiast. This time he was lucky enough to grab a ticket for the documentary "Planet Earth III". "I happen to live in the Expo area, and I can immerse myself in the wonders of the sea and land at the China Art Palace, and I can also interact with the creators. This opportunity is very rare. The Shanghai TV Festival brings real benefits to the people."
Within half an hour of ticket sales for the benefit screening, 17 shows were sold out
During the Shanghai TV Festival, 40 domestic and overseas cartoons, overseas dramas and documentaries registered for the Magnolia Awards will be broadcast on the prime time of Shanghai local TV channels, and 10 domestic and overseas cartoons, overseas dramas and documentaries registered for the Magnolia Awards will be broadcast on the BesTV online screening platform. In terms of the selection of content for the benefit of the people, the Shanghai TV Festival has carefully designed eight units: Enjoying Childlike Fun, Trendy Chinese Comics, Life Force, Charm of Competition, Colorful World, Shanghai TV Festival x BBC Studios Cooperation Unit: Endless Exploration, Bright Planet, and Wonderful Journey, showing a total of 33 cartoons, Chinese dramas, overseas dramas and documentaries registered for the Magnolia Awards.
To make artistic nourishment within reach and to let urban aesthetic education permeate every corner, this year, the number of offline screening and guided appreciation activities has been expanded from 18 last year to 20, distributed in 16 districts across the city, such as the China Art Palace, Shanghai Museum of Contemporary Art, Shanghai Jiushi Art Museum, Shanghai Book City, Shanghai Library East Branch, etc. Citizens can choose the cultural space at their doorstep to appreciate excellent works from home and abroad.
"This year's Shanghai TV Festival's offline screenings and guided tours cover all 16 districts. Some screening venues themselves are connected to the city's cultural context and are new urban cultural spaces in the 'one river and one lake' area. Crew meet-and-greets, expert guided tours and other activities drive citizens to the venues, where they can not only appreciate audio-visual art but also experience the beauty of architecture." Chen Guo, director of the Shanghai International Film and Television Festival Center, said that this TV festival attempts to introduce large-scale cultural activities into the "five new cities". "The 'Magnolia Blossoms' awards ceremony will be moved to the Lingang Performing Arts Center, using an industry feast to inject heat into the new city, in order to achieve resonance between cultural vitality and urban development." She said with a double meaning that Lingang is the best place to see "stars" - "stars" refer to the brightest stars in the domestic and foreign television industry gathered in this "young city, city of young people."
