The 11th Beijing International Film Festival (BJIFF) – Tiantan Award (Competition Section) International Jury Press Conference was held in the Grand Ballroom of Beijing Yanqi Lake International Convention & Exhibition Center on the evening of September 25. International jury members including president Gong Li as well as Chen Kun, Leste Chen, Wuershan and Zhang Songwen took to the press conference.

 

As of the press conference, the selection work for the 11th BJIFF Tiantan Award has been completed. It is understood that due to the impact of the epidemic, the two international jury members Renny Harlin and Nadine Labaki failed to get together offline with the other five due to Covid-19 pandemic. However, during the awards process, the two also took part in discussions, exchanged views and drew definitive conclusions about the award winners virtually.

 

At the scene of the press conference, Gong Li revealed that during the discussion and selection process, jury members had their own different views and opinions on the shortlisted films, but also emphasized that “art has no boundaries, and artists also share common ground in feelings about art." She even sighed with emotion that the presidency of the international jury at this year’s BJIFF made her feel like returning home, and the international identity of the BJIFF makes each of the jury members enjoy this journey.

 

Commenting on his unique experience of serving as a jury member of the Tiantan Award, Chen Kun said: "I were also learning while watching the shortlisted films. Therefore, the entire viewing process at the BJIFF this time is a very perfect trip for me." In addition, he also believes that actors can only strike a chord with the audience when they show deep acting and interpret the "soul" of the character itself.

 

Leste Chen also commended the quality of the shortlisted films for this year’s Tiantan Award. One of the highlights is that "you can see a story from many different angles. For example, among the shortlisted films, there are two films that depict war with different angles, as well as other films that show female growth with different film techniques and language and even a more unique perspective." The diversity and inclusiveness in these films not only benefits the audience a lot, but also encourages young directors to remain true to our original aspiration of the film and continue to make high-quality films.

 

With the attention of many people inside and outside the industry, the ten major awards of this year's Tiantan Award saw a fierce competition. When talking about the judging criteria, director Wuershan expressed his greatest concern about the "overall quality" of a film. During the selection process, he judged a film as a whole from three dimensions, "The first is about theme – whether it is insightful and can resonate with the audience; the second is about aesthetics – whether it is ground-breaking and has established its independent and complete aesthetic system; the third is focused on technology and creative departments – whether the quality of their completion films is worthy of our awards as an encouragement." Let us look forward to the day when the awards are announced to witness which films can be unanimously praised by the jury members and stand out to be the winners!

 

Jury member Zhang Songwen said that this is a brand new experience. Unlike watching movies in ordinary times, he remained relatively rational during his role of serving as a jury member, "I strived to be fair and inclusive and deconstruct a film with the knowledge of movies I have learned."

 

At the end of the press conference, jury president Gong Li bid farewell to other jury members with emotion. She even expressed at the scene that the awards trip together with other jury members gave her a feeling like a "temporary family", expecting to have opportunities to cooperate with them ahead. Chen Kun also revealed that Gong Li is his idol. When learning that he was going to be a jury member together with Gong Li, he deliberately revisited the classics such as The Story of Qiu-Ju. Let us look forward to the day of the cooperation between these excellent directors and actors!

 

Official House Programme becomes a new program as a Competition Section at the BJIFF this year. As of September 24, all the 15 shortlisted films for the Tiantan Award have been shown to fans and the media. With high-quality creativity and cross-cultural perspectives, these films have won critical acclaim from the house programme media.

 

From the international jury lineup to the shortlisted film lineup, they are all top-notch internationally. This makes the Tiantan Award attract much attention. The winners of the ten major awards will be announced at the 11th BJIFF Closing & Awards Ceremony on September 29. Let’s wait and see and stay tuned!