The 19th China (Guangzhou) International Documentary Festival ＂China Story, International Communication＂ closed.

From April 15th to 17th, the 19th China (Guangzhou) International Documentary Festival, sponsored by the State Administration of Radio and Television and the Guangdong Provincial People’s Government, was held. The opening ceremony, Golden Cotton Excellent Documentary Selection, Master Class, Industry Forum, "China Story" International Proposal Conference, Results Conference and other activities were met with the audience online, and at the same time, excellent domestic and foreign documentary works were selected for online Youku.

This year’s documentary festival Golden Cotton Excellent Documentary Selection Campaign has collected 3,670 documentaries from 125 countries and regions around the world to participate in the exhibition, setting a new historical record. After initial evaluation, re-evaluation and final evaluation, 17 outstanding works in 12 projects were finally selected. Among them, six domestic documentaries, They were young in 1950, We were young, Dare to teach the sun and the moon to change the sky, Run the last mile well, Be in the prime of life for a hundred years, and Qinghai Our National Park, won the honor of "Excellent Documentary Specially Recommended by the Organizing Committee".

Help the "China Story" to enter the international market

"China story, international expression" is the creative idea and artistic pursuit of many local documentary filmmakers in China. Yang Xiaowei, deputy director of the State Administration of Radio and Television, said at the opening ceremony that after nearly 20 years of hard work, China (Guangzhou) International Documentary Festival has become the largest documentary professional festival in Asia, an annual cultural event with wide influence in the world, and an important cultural window for the world to see China and China. He hoped that all parties would join hands to implement the Opinions of the State Administration of Radio and Television on Promoting the High-quality Development of Documentaries in the New Era as an opportunity to jointly amplify the policy effect and promote China Documentaries to create new achievements, achieve new development and show new images. It is suggested that the majority of documentary workers focus on the theme of the times, sing the melody of forging ahead, and strive to "find the right topic, tell good stories and shoot fine works" to make a biography of the times, sing songs for the people and show the world a vivid and three-dimensional China; Insist on innovation, improve the quality of content, actively embrace the latest technology application, effectively expand the theme, content, form and technique of documentary, and promote the combination of concepts and means, the integration of content and form, and the integration of various artistic elements and technical elements; Actively support and encourage international exchanges and cooperation, encourage Chinese and foreign countries to co-produce excellent documentaries that promote the common values of all mankind and reflect the exchange and mutual learning of civilizations, support the documentary festival, as always, adhere to the direction of specialization and internationalization, and constantly expand its scale, actively trade, enhance efficiency and polish its brand, so that more excellent works can go global.

In order to help more "China stories" go abroad, China (Guangzhou) International Documentary Festival upgraded the pre-sale unit of the program to the "China Story" international proposal conference from 2016, and built an industrial platform for international financing, production and distribution from three perspectives, namely, content, capital and communication, so as to realize the resource sharing of domestic and international documentaries. According to incomplete statistics, over the years, 154 China documentaries have won financing or referral opportunities for international co-production through this platform, and successfully went abroad.

A total of 218 proposals from 35 countries and regions were collected for this "China Story" international proposal conference. After preliminary evaluation and re-evaluation, 25 proposals were finally given the opportunity to be displayed at the proposal conference, and 45 decision makers from home and abroad jointly selected the top ten proposals and the most international potential proposal of bilibilibili× gzdoc.

As the scheme with the largest number of votes, White Horse Boy was rated as the most international potential scheme of Bilibili×GZDOC, and won a prize of 50,000 yuan sponsored by Bilibili. Ye Bingjun, the director of the film, and Yang Xinlei, the producer, said that the China (Guangzhou) International Documentary Festival provided help to young filmmakers, and filmmakers grew up in the activities of the proposal conference. According to reports, "The White Horse Boy" has gone abroad through the "China Story" international proposal conference, and will participate in the Deal Maker unit of the Canadian Hot Docs, the largest documentary film festival in North America, to meet with global decision makers.

Fang Baide, international consultant of China (Guangzhou) International Documentary Festival and president of Fornes Production Company, said that there are many "China stories" and there are many powerful and powerful documentary creators in China. The "China story" international proposal conference is a good platform, hoping to recommend more films to the international market and let more people hear China stories.

Streaming Media Platform Promotes Documentary Content Innovation

Taking the hot topics of the year and the future as the breakthrough point, this documentary festival invites decision makers, directors and producers of well-known documentary production and broadcasting platforms at home and abroad to talk about the future and development of the documentary industry. Among them, the theme forum of streaming media "rolled up" invited professionals from China, the United States and France to focus on the content operation mode of the head streaming media platform, look forward to the layout of streaming media content in 2022, further explore the future relationship between the platform and the film festival, and discuss ways for the film festival and the platform to jointly promote the development of the industry.

Poster of Silence of Tides (left) and Writing with Fire (right)

Peter Hamilton, consultant of Documentary Business website and consultant of international festivals and exhibitions, has written many articles about the development of streaming media in the industry. He said that video viewing and communication will shift from channels to streaming media. "The United States has achieved such a revolutionary change, and other western countries are also close behind. This means that Netflix with 200 million users will become the industry leader, and competing streaming media and film companies around the world such as Disney and Paramount will struggle to survive in the Netflix-led market. "

Jean Jacques Pereti, curator of the French Sunshine International Documentary Festival, said that the arrival of streaming media has changed the documentary industry. "For streaming media, whether fictional or non-fictional, the ability to tell stories is the most important, which is also the largest part of capital investment, so as to improve the quality of documentaries on a global scale." Jean Jacques Pereti believes that there are about 200 international streaming media service platforms at present. If some platforms acquire other platforms to consolidate their position in the industry, customize different content for different audiences and pay attention to market segmentation. He believes that small-scale streaming media will find its own mode of operation and business model to rise, so there is still room for development for high-quality platform and documentary investors.

Ning Yuqi, director of the Iqiyi Documentary Center, said that since 2017, all major video platforms in China have been actively producing documentaries that meet the preferences of new media users, including documentaries on history, food, society and traditional culture. Iqiyi will try to launch more interactive content such as barrage and comments, and launch different types of creation with different emphasis for different audiences. He said that the new media platform will provide more funds to support more young creators to produce different content. To this end, iQiyi launched the "Qingchuang Plan" in cooperation with fund companies to distribute the income of members to the capital side, so as to produce more content through capital investment, hoping to form a closed-loop business.

Watermelon video producer Wu Xuan said that watermelon video is a newcomer in the documentary industry. At present, it is in the stage of continuous growth and increased investment, and will strive to deliver temperature and diversified content to users, including social observation, food travel, traditional culture and scientific research. In addition, it will expand users and formulate special support plans for emerging creators.

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