On November 6, the 2024 Peru Chinese Film Festival grandly opened in Peru’s capital Lima. Hosted by China Film Administration, the festival is organized through joint efforts by the China Film Archive and the BJIFF.

In his speech, Mao Yu said that holding the Peru Chinese Film Festival, visiting and communicating with Peru’s film industry ahead of the APEC Meeting is quite encouraging. As a country with time-honored history and diversified cultures, Peru has given the birth to the Ancient Inca Civilization. Such a context empowers Peruvian films with charms and vitality and allows it to tell Peruvian stories with unique perspectives and sentimental narratives. Thus has brought together great contributions to the global cinematic arts and cultivated numerous talents in the film industry. As for China, a country with inclusive and open markets for films, provides universal benefits for global filmmakers. We hope to further our cooperation in the film industry and introduce in more films from each other, and we welcome more Peruvian films to be on China’s screens.

Director Vanessa Vizcarra said in her speech that it was the first film festival of its kind to be held in Lima, both the PUCP Cultural Center and the Lima Film Festival were honored to become the partner and promoter of the event. They aimed to strengthen the cultural connection between China and Peru through films, at the same time creating more opportunities for co-productions, technological exchanges and widespread transmissions of films and TV works.

Speaking at the ceremony, General Coordinator Carlos Alberto Chavez Rodriguez said that they have been holding the online Peru Chinese Film Festival for four years in a row since 2020, and there have been great supports from the Tusan Association of Peru and five other Confucius Institutes, including the Confucius Institute of the University of Havana, The PUCP Confucius Institute, The Confucius Institute of the University of Costa Rica, and The Confucius Institute USFQ. It was really exciting for the PUCP Film Archive to participate in a new round of BJIFF activities held offline.

Guests and nearly 200 people at the festival have watched the opening film Endless Journey, a film directed by Dai Mo and starred by Zhang Yi. The China Film Archive researcher Li Zhen and Peruvian film critic Juan Carlos Ugarelli held a 40-minute conversation with the audience present.

The conversation was held in a warm atmosphere, in which director Dai Mo shared his difficulties and approaches when adapting a literature into a film. Researcher Li Zhen spoke highly of the film Endless Journey for its significant role in the history of Chinese films. During the conversation with audiences, Zhang Yi expressed his gratitude to the audience for bursts of applauses for the film in this movie hall that stood over ten thousand miles away from China. “It is the story that advances the human civilization, and the typical and the best way of telling stories is filming. We wish to share good Chinese stories with Peruvian people, enhance our friendship and reach more cooperation.”

In addition to that, audiences present raised questions for location scouting, shooting, acting and other parts during the making of a film. One female audience said passionately that Chinese films have been thought-provoking and touching, and she was looking forward to see co-productions made by China and Peru so as to allow the Peruvian audience to enjoy a more exciting film experience. During the visit, the Chinese delegation visited the PUCP Film Archive and communicated with the Peruvian film industry.