The Golden Bear was announced at the 73rd Berlin Film Festival, and the spring of Chinese films was quiet.

2moon26Day, day73The 3rd Berlin International Film Festival announced the Golden Bear Award and other awards in the main competition unit.seventy-twoNicolas, a French director at the age of 18.·Philip Bert won the Golden Bear Award for best film for his documentary "A Journey of Perseverance". This is also the successor.2022After the Golden Lion Award at Venice International Film Festival in 2006 fell to Beauty and Bloody Event, the three major European film festivals awarded the highest award to documentary works for the second year in a row.

Journey of Perseverance focuses on a nursing center floating on the Seine River in Paris, where patients and their caregivers have developed a new way of getting along.seventy-twoPhilippe Bert, a silver-haired French director, was very surprised when he took the stage to receive the award. He asked whether the judges were crazy or he was crazy, and bluntly said.This award is too important.".

Nikolai Filibert, director of the Golden Bear Award for Best Film "A Journey of Perseverance" at the 73rd Berlin International Film Festival. Image source: Berlin International Film Festival official website

German director Christian, who ranked second in the score of the field magazine.·Paetzold’s new film "Red Sky" finally won the jury prize. He once won the Silver Bear Award for Best Director for "Barbara", which is also the sixth time that Paetzold was selected for the main competition unit in Berlin. Unfortunately, he still failed to win the Golden Bear Award.

French director Philippe·Garrell won the Silver Bear Award for Best Director for The Big Dipper, and his last film, Salt for Tears, was also shortlisted for the main competition in Berlin three years ago.

In the performance award section, SpaineightSophia, a little girl aged 18·Otero won the Silver Bear Award for Best Actor for his outstanding performance in 20,000 Kinds of Bees, becoming the youngest winner in the history of the film festival. Austrian transgender actress Thea·Iha won the Silver Bear Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in "Until Late at Night".

Sophia otero won the Silver Bear Award for Best Actor in the 73rd Berlin International Film Festival. Image source: Berlin International Film Festival official website

Chinese films, includingLiu JianMore than ten Chinese films and dramas, including Academy of Art directed by Lao Xinying and Light of the White Pagoda directed by Lv Zhang, were shortlisted for each major unit of the Berlin Film Festival, but in the end it can be said that nothing was gained. Only the short film Xiaohui and His Cow directed by Lao Xinying won the short film award for special mention in the new generation children’s unit.

In the past two years, because of the COVID-19 epidemic,rightFilmmakersThe most important face-to-face communication activityAlmost impossible.2021The Berlin Film Festival in 2008 had to be judged online. Even if the scale expanded last year, due to strict epidemic prevention measures in COVID-19 and mandatory social distance and mask orders, in the past,That kind of bigHoliday spiritIt no longer exists at the film festival..

In terms of time nodes,sequence73sessionThe Berlin Film Festival is undoubtedly in the true sense.Post-pandemic era"The first large-scaleinternationalFilm Festival. just asThe implementation of this year’s film festivalchairmanMariette RissenbeekTo the media before the opening ceremonyAs you said:Finally, everything can go all out again. Guests can walk on the red carpet again.,Discussions and big parties can also start again."

It is never too late for filmmakers to rejoin a carnival. This is why this year’s Berlin Film Festival is of great significance to Chinese films.especiallySignificant.

Unlike the embarrassment of often absent from the three major European film festivals in the past two years.,At this year’s Berlin Film Festival, Chinese films were shortlisted.ofThe number has clearly ushered in a recovery.——onecommon15Part of the Chinese works was shortlisted for each unit including the main competition, includingeightA feature film,sixA short film,oneSeries. On the whole, this numberHas exceeded the past two years.chinese filmThe total number of finalists in the top three in Europe.

At the same time, thanks to the substantial adjustment of domestic epidemic control policies at the end of last year,moreChinaFilmmakers are finally able to once againGo into battle light and heavy.Back to the international stage.Whether it’s dressing up on the red carpet orattendPress conference before and after the screening,Or go further and send the work to international publishers, this time.Have highlighted.Chinese filmbe on the scene"the meaning of.

Liu Jian, director of Art College. Image source: Berlin International Film Festival official website

The collective appearance of Chinese-language films undoubtedly means that China’s film industry has resumed its connection with the global film industry. However, for the time being, the overall output and creative ability of Chinese films have not really recovered.Vitality, let alone peak..

Whether it’s the number of finalists or the grand prizeOpportunityBerlin Film Festival has always been the most popular film festival for Chinese filmmakers among the three major European film festivals.

The fifth-generation domestic directors have become famous internationally, and almost all of them work with the Berlin Film Festival.DoThe promotion of is inseparable..The early works of Zhang Yimou, Tian Zhuangzhuang, Wu Ziniu and others have almost received the attention of Berlin Film Festival, and Zhang Yimou’s directorial debut.Red sorghumIt is also the first Chinese film to win the highest prize in the three major international film festivals in Europe.

Later, in Berlin, there was a sharing of The Wedding Banquet directed by Ang Lee and The Heroine Girl directed by Xie Fei.sequence43sessionThe grand occasion of the Golden Bear Award.

After that, Jia Zhangke, Zhang Yuan, Wang Xiaoshuai and Wang Quanan, among the directors of the sixth generation, got the attention of the Berlin Film Festival from the first one or two works of his directorial career. Even though Jia Zhangke is now regarded as a Cannes lineal, his first novel Xiao Wu was finally noticed by European critics in Berlin.

Even in the last decade when Cannes and Venice gradually lost interest in Chinese films, Fireworks in the Day, Massage and Forever can still win major awards in Berlin. This year, more than ten Chinese works were selected again, which proves the indispensable bridge value of Berlin Film Festival for Chinese films and filmmakers.

Although this year’s shortlisted Chinese works are regrettable, for Chinese filmmakers,boardThe international stage is still the best opportunity to show Chinese films.take for exampleThe screening of "Deep Sea" in Berlin has caused many overseas media to focus on China.GuodongDiscussion on the rise of painting movies.

Debut at the film festivalof courseNot just aboutawardThese international platforms are also creators.BetweenThe best opportunity to communicate,butThe copyright trading market held at the same time as the film festival is to let more small and medium-sized works return.harvestThe key to Ben.

For those who occasionally applaud in China but often find it difficult to make a seat.literary filmGenerally speaking,This sales channel is an excellent opportunity for producers to get returns, and they once occupied an important position in the film festival trading market. But in the past two years, films from South Korea and India have replaced the former and become the new focus of international copyright transactions at film festivals.

How to let more viewers see it?arrivechinese filmConstantly inBring forth the old and bring forth the new,internationalFilm Festival is still an indispensable and important channel.. butFor cultural and artistic creation, only when communication is maintained can they present their own different aesthetic feelings.

Of course, the reappearance of a large number of Chinese films at the Berlin Film Festival is not entirely so-called.Chinoiserie"It began to sweep across the three major European countries again. In a broader sense, this is more of a bottoming out after the group has been suppressed for a long time, but it is a single bounce.riseIn terms of height, the result is not satisfactory.

This anxiety about the quality of the film actually comes from the words of Du Qifeng, the only Chinese judge at the opening ceremonyrevealClue.I think the movies are poor now, and the movies all over the world are poor. The world where I watch movies by myself seems to have gradually disappeared, and it is no longer the world where I used to watch movies. I hope this is only temporary. It seems bold of me to say so, but I mean it."

On February 16th, 2023, local time, the 73rd Berlin International Film Festival was held in Berlin, Germany. Members of the jury of the main competition unit, Du Qifeng, Francine Messler and Golshifteh Farahani, attended. Image source: vision china

It is advisable to be open-minded when the scenery is long.Although movies are never judged by specific awards, especially the collective jury mechanism like the Big Three in Europe, the personal taste of the jury chairman often dominates the final list of winners, but winning or not is often related to.The film sufferedpay close attentionThe number of.In addition,Field publication mediaofEvaluation and public audience reputation can also show the overall quality of the film from the side.

The last time a Chinese film won the awards of three major competition units in Europe, it was still2019Year,12Three Chinese-language films entered the Berlin Film Festival, and the works of Wang Xiaoshuai, Zhang Yimou and Wang Quanan entered the main competition at the same time, which is also a rare occasion in recent years.

It was also in that year that One Second and Better Days both met successively.Technical reasons"Quit the Berlin competition unit and show.evensuchWang Xiaoshuai’s "Auld Lang Syne" still won.in those yearsBest actor and heroineseatSilver Bears. onlyThat seems to have been the last highlight moment of Chinese films in the three major European film festivals.

In the next three years, the mainland Chinese films that were shortlisted for the three major European film festivals were also left with "Into the Dust".butWhether it’s a field issue or an awardNoneSurprise. The only thing that deserves Chinese filmmakers’ relief is probably the short films of young directors.ofsomeawardDefinitely.

Zhang Dalei is here.2020In 2000, with "Half the afternoon passed"acquireWon the short film Silver Bear Award,2021NianyouChen Jianying’s "A Cliff Rising by the Sea" and Huang Shuli’s "When I Look at You" won the Palme d ‘Or Award and the Best Short Film of Cannes Queer Palme d ‘Or respectively. In terms of age,95After that, young filmmakers finally began to make their mark at international film festivals.

But this does not mean that Asian content is on the ebb in top international film festivals, on the contrary. ZaiguoIn the past four or five years,The attention of the three major European film festivals to Asian worksbegrow with each passing dayof, "Burning" and "Driving My Car" have successively led the Cannes Journal Rating, and the former is even more3.8The score record of the field journal was refreshed. Hirokazu Koreeda and Bong Joon ho have taken away the Palme d ‘Or award from Cannes for two consecutive years, and Asian films are in the limelight.

Only Chinese movies are lost. especiallyIn contrast to Japanese and Korean films,Chinese worksThere is no doubt that both awards and attention are aphasia.Make this lossMore intense.

This lack is not only due to the physical isolation caused by the epidemic.. From the perspective of creation,Over the past few years, Chinese film perspectiveObviously, they all show an inward contraction trend, and the filmCreatorsMore attention is paid toLimited to here and nowPersonal experienceInstead of openly expressing issues of universal significance with an open attitude..

Whether it is the "Light of the White Tower" that director Lv Zhang returned to shoot after many years.,stillLiu JianThe director was once again shortlisted for the animated feature film "Art Academy" in the main competition in Berlin. Judging from the evaluation given by domestic and foreign media at present,theyAll the presentations are about individuals and even expressions related to the director’s own personal memory. This kind of private expression, without a strong personal image style or author’s blessing, is obviously difficult in today’sinternationalGet too much recognition at the film festival,It is even difficult to communicate with the general audience.After all, not every writer and director can be treated like Hong Shangxiu.

Lv Zhang, director of Light of the White Pagoda. Image source: Berlin International Film Festival official website

All along,Berlin Film Festival andGlobal issues andSocial reality connectionEspecially.Close, and in the past few years, Cannes and Venice have also started to award more prizes.awardGiving social reality is direct.shine uponThe work of.

Whether it is "Parasite" and "Triangle of Sorrow" which show the increasingly sharp polarization between the rich and the poor in genre films, or "The Clown" which depicts the surging populism under the guise of super-English genre, and last year,withThe resolution to break up, which innovates the film noir genre and skillfully covers the issues of refugees and gender, is the performance of global filmmakers facing the major global issues in the past decade.

From this point of view, the Berlin Film Festival is in a catching-up position. After Venice awarded the Golden Lion Award to the documentary for the second time in history last year, Berlin immediately conducted business study this year. And this just shows that the current film festival is highly bound to social reality.

Documentary won the Golden Lion Award and the Golden Bear Award in succession after many years’ absence.Expressedfilm festivalofA certain attitude, after all, the drama takes care of reality through exquisite plays, and its strength can’t be compared with the documentary that directly points the camera at reality.

Nowadays, it is very difficult within the system of Chinese movies.againThere is a record as deep as Tiexi District.pieceWorks, dramas, etc.more and moredifficultTowards a global commonrealityThe road of doctrinedraw close, andHidden into the dustandMore than endlessSuch films that have attracted the attention of international film festivals have a tortuous road to release in China. If we completely give up this type of creative theme and the opportunity to empathize with the global audience,Chinese filmmakeraskWant to attract only by skillHave seen it.too muchGorgeous technologyThe film festival judges, the difficulty can be imagined.

existLost three years"After that, it is still worth thinking about how Chinese filmmakers can use film language and image expression to connect with the world again.seriousProposition.

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