Recently, one of the important events of the World Film Industry Conference, the World Film Festival Chairman Forum, was held in Macau under the general title of SAIC Viloran. Joanne Goh, Chairman of the Malaysian International Film Festival; Catherine Fitzgerald, Chairman of the New Zealand International Film Festival; Deborah Gabinetti, Chairman of the Bali International Film Festival; Deanna Gao, Chairman of the Paris Chinese Film Festival; Manfred Wong, former Chairman of the Hong Kong Film Awards; Frederic Golchan, Hollywood producer; and Chinese director Sherwood Hu exchanged views on the history and culture of each film festival and the characteristics, problems and countermeasures of the international film festival development. The forum was moderated by Zheng Xin, with director Hu Xuehua as the academic moderator.

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World Film Industry Conference (Photo: Business Wire)

Chairman of Paris Chinese Film Festival: To Cultivate Chinese film fans in France

The forum was attended by a large number of guests from 14 countries around the world. For this reason, the conference prepared simultaneous interpretation in English and Chinese for all the guests. According to moderator, there are nearly 700 film festivals held around the world every year, including more than 130 comprehensive international film festivals, more than 160 professional international film festivals, more than 40 regional international film festivals, and various other film festivals. Different types of film festivals have different positioning and markets, attracting different filmmakers and films to participate. Each award is not only a respect for filmmakers, but also a tribute to film culture.

Joanne Goh, Chairman of the Malaysian International Film Festival, introduced the Malaysian International Film Festival, which started in 2016 and will hold its sixth session this July. "We have faced very big challenges during the past two years, especially during the epidemic, and I am very happy that this year many of the international film festivals are starting to prepare for the event offline. This year, the MIFF will also be able to invite a lot of audiences to Malaysia to join our festival, where we can have more exchanges, interactions, and communication. We choose more literary films than commercial films, mainly to encourage some new directors to be able to come to the MIFF, in addition, new directors with less than 3 films are also welcome to come to our festival."

New Zealand International Film Festival Chairman Catherine Fitzgerald said, the New Zealand International Film Festival, which originated in Auckland, has more than 50 years of history and now has many affairs in Wellington. "The last three years have been great challenges, in 2019 we had over 500,000 participants, but in 2020 we had great difficulties and had to run the event as a combination of online and offline. In 2021, we had to stop the Auckland affairs processing because of the economy. The New Zealand International Film Festival is usually held in July and August every year. This year we hope to return to our previous participation numbers in July. Our festival creates a more diverse audience that is willing to watch more international films in different languages, including independent films, etc."

Deborah Gabinetti, Chairman of the Bali International Film Festival, said that the Bali International Film Festival is celebrating its 16th anniversary. "I set up the festival to introduce Indonesian films to the world and to give a global audience the opportunity to see Indonesian films. We want to be able to see the uniqueness of the stories, to be able to hear the voices of women, the voices of the Indonesian local people. In 2020, we did not hold a film festival, but postponed it to 2021, and also tried a combination of online and offline. We have developed some cooperation with the Hong Kong International Film Festival and the Hong Kong Film Awards. In June this year, we will hold the latest Bali International Film Festival, hoping to reach more people and be able to bring audiences back to the cinema to watch films. We have two projects now moving forward with The Juilliard School and New York University, and we hope to exchange with more students."

The Paris Chinese Film Festival was founded in 2004 and will be celebrating its 20th anniversary next year, revealed Deanna Gao, Chairman of the Paris Chinese Film Festival. "We have already promoted more than 480 Chinese films in Paris, and over the past 20 years we have screened all kinds of genres and themes, new and old films, as well as films of various nationalities. This year's theme is comedies, and another theme is kung fu films, collaborated with Foshan. Foshan is the birthplace of kung fu, with Feihong Huang, which is the highlight of the Paris Chinese Film Festival this year. Paris is the birthplace of film, and China is a major film country, but it is rare to see Chinese films in France, so our main focus is to introduce Chinese films. The Paris Chinese Film Festival has a wide selection of films, from the latest films by young directors to the retrospective, and the China Film Archive offers a good selection of films. We also have a short film unit, and we work with the French National Film Center to organize a French Short Film Forum. We also organize many events, including a Screenwriters Forum and a Retrospective on the theme of women directors. We want to cultivate Chinese moviegoers in France, and we hope to build a bridge between French producers and Chinese producers."

Manfred Wong: Confident in Hong Kong Film Awards and the Future of Hong Kong Film

Manfred Wong, former Chairman of the Hong Kong Film Awards, said: "Offstage is my predecessor, Siyuan Wu, who was the earliest President and Chairman of the Hong Kong Film Awards, and actually he should be on stage today, not me. This year we held the 41st Hong Kong Film Awards, which started in 1982, and the 42nd session will be held in Hong Kong on the May 16th. I am still the Vice Chairman of the HKFA, the Chairman is director Derek Tung-Shing Yee. I can say that I grew up with the Hong Kong Film Awards. For the Hong Kong Film Awards, we don't know who will win the award until the moment of announcement, because openness, fairness and impartiality is the rule that the Hong Kong Film Awards always have to adhere to. In the last seven or eight years, through the SAR government's strong support for Hong Kong films, a number of talented young film directors have emerged, so we are confident and looking forward to the Hong Kong Film Awards or the future of Hong Kong films, especially after the fully liberalization."

Manfred Wong, continued: "I heard that some screenwriters in Hong Kong recently used those AI to write the script for them. Of course, I do not believe that AI can replace us living people, because we all know that films need story, need personality, need empathy, which is not AI can create. Although the film is from silent to sound film, from black and white to color, from 2D to 3D stereoscopic, it is possible that one day in meta-universe, each audience can perform in the film! But in the final analysis, the story and the resonance of our hearts is never replaced by robots, this is my view."

Hollywood producer Frederic Golchan said, “I also attended the Shanghai Film Festival, and I'm very happy to be able to participate in such a festival, because it helps us to strengthen our ties, not only between China, the United States and Europe, but also around the world. And I think film is a very important link to strengthen cultural exchanges, and Macau is also a very important place to help us achieve these exchanges and cooperation. There are many Chinese people who are doing well in the American film industry. ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’ won seven awards, , and before that "Parasite" from Korea won four awards. The film industry is very diverse. Films can help to enhances cultural exchange and interaction, and the director can also combine Chinese culture with American filmmaking methods, such as how to treat traditions, family and other issues, all of which can be discussed in an artistic way to deliver some interesting topics. So we are happy to see ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’ has been well received and won so many awards."

Director Sherwood Hu finally summarized that there is a gap in culture, and each country's culture is different. How can we cross this gap? "We need film to help us communicate across cultures, across history to connect world and humanity."

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