In 2016, Beijing International Film Festival is held between April 16 and April 23 at Beijing. Focus of Peking opera movie section of the film festival is to further promote Peking opera moves by well organizing screening and showing activities of the five pieces of Peking opera movies in “Peking Opera Film Project”—Dragon and Phoenix, Farewell to My Concubine, Marriage of Number One Scholar, Qin Xianglian, Xiao He Chases Han Xin Under the Moon.
During the Beijing International Film Festival this year, to meet requirements of vast audience and theater fans, Peking opera film unit launches a series of screening activities.
The Film Festival Committee will have unified arrangement to conduct screening activities to the five Peking Opera movies (20 sessions total). Firstly, arrange one urban movie theater (Saga Cinema in Beijing, store at Solana) to show Peking opera films (Dragon and Phoenix, Farewell to My Concubine, Marriage of Number One Scholar, Qin Xianglian, Xiao He Chases Han Xin Under the Moon) during the film festival（April 14-23）, and show 10 sessions (two sessions for each Peking opera film). Secondly, arrange activities of showing at countryside at suburbs of Beijing (Huairou).
At the same time, it is solemnly announced that two movie theaters in Beijing will display the five films at a fixed time all year (200 sessions total). Cultural Commission of Chaoyang District, Beijing will arrange subordinated two movie theaters (Culture Center of Fatou Area, Jinsong Movie Theater) take turns to show the above five films at fixed time. During the year from April 2016 to April 2017, four sessions will be showed each week, 200 sessions in the year.
“Peking Opera Film Project”, aimed at keeping classics, inheriting quintessence and carrying forward culture, is a historical project proposed and cared by the national leadership. The project gains strong support from Ministry of Culture, the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television (SAPPRFT), and Propaganda Department of Municipal Party Committee from Beijing, Tianjin and Shanghai. China National Peking Opera Company, Beijing Peking Opera Theatre, Tianjin Peking Opera Theatre, Shanghai Peking Opera Theatre, Tianjin Young Peking Opera Troupe, National Academy of Chinese Theatre Arts; Chinese Film Co., Ltd., Shanghai Film Group Co., Ltd., Tianjin Beifang Film Group Co., Ltd. and Beijing Jinghu Art Research Society will jointly implement the Project. The project carries out and implements overall requirements of “Chinese excellent traditional culture is spirit lifeblood of Chinese nation, an important source for cultivating socialist core value, solid foundation for footing in world culture surge. Inheritance and promotion of Chinese excellent traditional culture and Chinese aesthetic spirit should be done by combining with new era condition” which is put forward at the Forum on Literature and Art given by General Secretary Xi at a speech.
At present, the top five Peking Opera movies shot in the project, such as Dragon and Phoenix, Farewell to My Concubine, Marriage of Number One Scholar, Qin Xianglian, Xiao He Chases Han Xin Under the Moon, have already participated in 5th Beijing International Film Festival last year, have held premieres and have won the honorary title of “Special Contribution Award”; Dragon and Phoenix has already participated in Golden Rooster Awards and Hundred Flowers Awards Film Festival, China-Australia International Film Festival, New Zealand-China Film Festival, China-America Film Festival and Macau International Film Festival and has been nominated in “the Best Opera Film” of the 30th Golden Rooster Awards; Farewell to My Concubine (3D) has already participated in 6th International 3D & Advanced Imaging Society Awards Ceremony in Los Angeles in 2015 and has won “Golden Lumiere Awards”; Marriage of Number One Scholar has already participated in New Zealand-China Film Festival and China-America Film Festival in 2015 and has won the Best Opera Film Award of the Year in China-America Film Festival in 2015.
After the 2015 Beijing Internal Film Festival, the Peking opera movies began to land the mainstream markets and secondary market in China, and had been issued and gotten good box-office results. Among them, the Dragon and Phoenix, as a classic and festive traditional repertoire had been issued to the mainstream market during the spring festival of 2016. In order to promote and expand the impact of Peking opera films, we had also carried out going to community, going to theater, going to the basic level and other promotional activities. Up to now, the issuance work has covered mainstream cinema, troops, video rental, campus cinema, communities and rural areas which have covered 28 provinces, cities and autonomous regions of China.
These activities played a very good role in promoting the propaganda of the film. In addition, with the completion for the shooting of the previous five Peking opera films, the supporting books had also finished by the People’s Publishing House. It had rich contents, elegant manufacture and was a set of classic books on recording history, showing style and features, collecting data and studying theories. Now, it has been officially published.
The Launching Ceremony for the Spot Screening of 2016 opera films will be held at 9:30 a.m. on Apr. 17 in Chaoyang Peking Opera Culture and Art Center. The leading roles, film directors of the five opera movies are invited to meet with the audience, experts of Peking opera film engineering, group (school) leaders of six major opera theaters in Beijing, Tianjin and Shanghai, of the film group, of the Cultural Commission of Chaoyang District and the responsible person of the film festival will come to the ceremony for supporting.