Chinese Film Festivals


Book Description

This book is the first anthology of research devoted to the booming world of Chinese film festivals, covering both mainstream and independent films. It also explores festivals in the Chinese-speaking world and festivals of Chinese films in the rest of the world. The book asks how Chinese film festivals function as sites of translation, translating Chinese culture to the world and world culture to Chinese-speaking audiences, and also how the international film festival model is being transformed as it is translated into the Chinese-speaking world.




Film Festivals


Book Description

Movies, stars, auteurs, and critics come together in film festivals as quintessential constellations of art, business, and glamour. Yet, how well do we understand the forces and meanings that these events embody? This work offers an overview of the history, people, films, and functions of the festival world.




General History of Chinese Film III


Book Description

The Reform and Opening-up of China since the late 1970s has not only transformed the economic and political situation of the country but also transformed the Chinese film industry. This volume focuses on the 40 years of the history of Chinese film in the post-Mao era. As all aspects of film production, distribution, and exhibition have been commercialized, Chinese film has become an industry of immense scale and has grown by leaps and bounds. Meanwhile, contemporary Chinese film is marked by a new zeitgeist, with Chinese film closely integrated with Chinese society and the economy. The author argues that the Chinese film industry clearly stands at a turning point where the future of Chinese film and the way to further awaken, change, and shape film production have become important issues worth consideration in contemporary film history. The book will be an essential reading for scholars and students in film studies, Chinese studies, cultural studies and media studies, helping readers to develop a comprehensive understanding of Chinese film.




Directory of World Cinema: China 2


Book Description

Since the publication of the first volume of Directory of World Cinema: China, the Chinese film industry has intensified its efforts to make inroads into the American market. The 2012 acquisition of US theatre chain AMC and visual effects house Digital Domain by Chinese firms testifies to the global ambitions of China’s powerhouse film industry. Yet Chinese cinema has had few crossover hits in recent years to match the success of such earlier films as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon; House of Flying Daggers and Kung Fu Hustle. Yet even overseas revenue for Chinese movies has dwindled, domestic market growth has surged year after year. Indeed, annual production output remains healthy, and the daily expansion of screens in second-or third-tier cities attracts audiences whose tastes favour domestic films over foreign imports.




The Pusan International Film Festival, South Korean Cinema and Globalization


Book Description

This book provides a political and cultural exploration of the Pusan International Film Festival in South Korea since its inception in 1996. By paying a particular attention to the organizers' use of an Asian regionalization strategy, SooJeong Ahn reveals how the festival staked out a unique and influential position within a rapidly changing global landscape. Very little primary empirical research has been conducted to date on non-Western film festivals, though PIFF and Tokyo and Hong Kong have swiftly grown more exciting and influential as testing grounds for global cinema innovations. The initiation, development and growth of PIFF should be understood as resulting from productive tensions in the festival's efforts to serve local, regional and national constituencies. The book also reflects the complexities of rapid transformation in the South Korean film industry as it has reached out to the global market since the late 1990s. SooJeong Ahn worked for the Pusan International Film Festival between 1998 and 2002 and has completed a Ph.D. on film festivals at the University of Nottingham. Her recent publications include "Re-imagining the Past: Programming South Korean Retrospectives at PIFF," in Film International (Vol. 6, 2008), "Placing South Korean Cinema into Pusan International Film Festival: Programming Strategy in the Global/Local Context," in What a Difference a Region Makes: Cultural Studies and Cultural Industries in North-East Asia (2009); "Re-mapping Asian Cinema: The Tenth Anniversary of PIFF in 2005" in Cinemas, Identities and Beyond (2010).







Documentary Film Festivals Vol. 1


Book Description

This book provides the first comprehensive overview of the global landscape of documentary film festivals. Contributors from across the globe offer in-depth analysis of both internationally renowned and more alternative festivals, including Hot Docs (Canada), Nyon (Switcherland), Yamagata (Japan), DocChina, Full Frame (US), Belgrade (former Yugoslavia), Vikalp (India), and DocsBarcelona (Catalonia, Spain), among others. With a special focus on historical and political developments, this first volume draws a map of documentary festivals operating today, and then looks at their origins and evolution. This volume is organized in three sections: the first addresses methodological problems film historians and social scientists face when researching documentary film festivals, the second looks at the historical development of this circuit within the wider frame of history of world and national cinemas, and the third reflects on how politics find their way through festival programs and actions. Curatorial, organizational, industrial and political changes occurred in the festival realm addressed in this book help better understand how these affected documentary production, distribution, curation, exhibition and reception up to this day.




Chinese Films in Focus II


Book Description

Chinese cinema continues to go from strength to strength. After art-house hits like Chen Kaige's Yellow Earth (1984) and Wong Kar-wai's In the Mood for Love (2000), the Oscar-winning success of Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon (2000) disproved the old myth that subtitled films could not succeed at the multiplex. Chinese Films in Focus II updates and expands the original Chinese Films in Focus: 25 New Takes with fourteen brand new essays, to offer thirty-four fresh and insightful readings of key individual films. The new edition addresses films from mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and other parts of the Chinese diaspora and the historical coverage ranges from the 1930s to the present. The essays, by leading authorities on Chinese cinema as well as up-and-coming scholars, are concise, accessible, rich, and on the cutting edge of current research. Each contributor outlines existing writing and presents an original perspective on the film, making this volume a rich resource for classroom use, scholarly research and general reading for anyone wanting to understand more about the historical development and rich variety of Chinese cinema. Contributors: Annette Aw, Chris Berry, Yomi Braester, Felicia Chan, Esther Cheung, Robert Chi, Rey Chow, Mary Farquhar, Carolyn FitzGerald, Ping Fu, Kristine Harris, Margaret Hillenbrand, Brian Hu, Tan See Kam, Haiyan Lee, Vivian Lee, Helen Hok-Sze Leung, David Leiwei Li, Song Hwee Lim, Kam Louie, Fran Martin, Jason McGrath, Corrado Neri, Jonathan Noble, Beremoce Reynaud, Cui Shuqin, Julian Stringer, Janice Tong, Yiman Wang, Faye Hui Xiao, Gang Gary Xu, Audrey Yue, Yingjin Zhang, John Zou The Editor: Chris Berry is Professor of Film and Television at Goldsmiths, University of London.




Chinese Animation and Socialism


Book Description

This is the first book in English on Chinese animation and socialism that introduces the insider viewpoints of socialist animators at the Shanghai Animation Film Studio. A timely and useful reference book for researchers, students, animators, and fans interested in Chinese and even world animation.




Chinese Films Abroad


Book Description

This book examines Chinese films made and shown abroad roughly between the 1920s and the 2020s, from the beginning of the international exchange of the Chinese national film industry to the emergence of the concept of soft power. The periodisation of Chinese cinema(s) does not necessarily match the political periods: on the one hand, the technical development of the film industry and the organisation of translation in China, and on the other hand, official relations with China and translation policies abroad impose different constraints on the circulation of Chinese films. This volume deals with the distribution and translation of films from mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and the Chinese diaspora. To this end, the contributors address various issues related to the circulation and distribution of Chinese films, including co- productions, agents of exchange, and modes of translation. The approach is a mixture of socio- cultural and translational methods. The data collected provides, for the first time, a quantitative overview of the circulation of Chinese films in a dozen foreign countries. The book will greatly interest scholars and students of Chinese cinema, translation studies, and China studies.