President of the Beijing Children's Film and Television Festival Li Ge tells about the process of selecting finalists

A press conference on the days of the Beijing Children's Film and Television Festival in Omsk was held at the International Multimedia Centre "Eurasia Today".

Li Ge, president of the Beijing Children's Film and Television Festival, said the event has been running since 2017 and the 2022 festival has seen more than 500 million viewers.

"The Beijing Children's Film and Television Festival is growing. We are progressing internationally and this year is very important for us. It's a landmark year thanks to our cooperation with TV BRICS Media Network and the fact that our films will be seen in Russia, in Omsk. Our films have gone beyond China and now they can be seen and enjoyed by international audiences," said Li Ge.

"We pay a lot of attention to the screening in Russia because we now want to show not only the commonalities between children, the common issues of their growth and development, but also the differences. It is true that children's films still occupy a small segment of the market in China, but let's hope that this will change thanks to the festival. After all, films made by children have a special atmosphere, a special way of looking at issues of growing up and interpersonal relationships," he added.

According to the president of the Beijing Children Film and Television Festival, when selecting films for the shortlist (70 pictures were included), the focus is on films that are likely to be successful in the commercial market.

"We are presenting two films - ‘A Parting Day’ and the documentary ‘Dance of the Lion’. The latter allows international viewers to get to know Chinese culture better. It is very important for us that an international audience learns about the specificities of Chinese culture. Our cooperation with TV BRICS is a very important step in promoting children's cinema," said Li Ge.

Sun Chuanling, deputy dean of the Faculty of Journalism at Yanching College of Arts, Yanching Institute of Technology, stressed that through cinema, the peoples of Russia and China will be able to get closer and understand each other.

"We Chinese have learned a lot from Russia. Your film directors, Eisenstein, Pudovkin, Chukhrai, Tarkovsky, and others, are very bright figures in our history. For us, these are not just names - they are known to Chinese filmmakers. Moreover, in the 1960s, a group of Chinese professors studied at the Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography. Gerasimov, and their students then became famous filmmakers in the first wave of Chinese cinema. Today, trends in the global film industry are changing and we are facing the same problems, with similar themes," he said.

"Techniques are changing, and new techniques and ways of filmmaking are emerging, but we teach our students more than just that. It is important to allow them to create and produce films on their own under the guidance of experienced curators. Of course, a lot of films and short films are made about children and more and more students are interested in children's films because it is possible to show social phenomena through the prism of children's perception, creating a special dramatic tension and situation," stressed Sun Chuanling.

The days of the Beijing Children's Film and Television Festival were held at the International Multimedia Centre "Eurasia Today" in Omsk, the Vavilon Cinema Centre and the Cinema House. The screening of selected works of the festival took place with the support of partners of the Eurasian Media Group of the TV BRICS International Media Network and the School of Television of the Advancement Channel.

Photo: Omsk Zdes, a partner of TV BRICS