The Golden Rooster Gala of the China Golden Rooster & Hundred Flowers Film Festival was held in Xiamen from December 28 to 30, 2021. As one of the gala’s main events, the Golden Rooster Opening Forum, themed “Saluting a Century of Film, from History to the Future”, was held on the afternoon of December 29.
2021 marked the centenary of the Communist Party of China. As the Party’s first hundred years were reviewed and summed up, Chinese filmmakers of the new era, staying true to their original aspiration, set out again along the path to a leading film power outlined in the 14th Five-Year Plan. Facing recurring COVID-19 outbreaks and a surge of technological change, they explored amid opportunities and challenges, saluting a century of film together and seeking the way forward for Chinese cinema.
Zhang Hong, member of the Leading Party Members’ Group and member of the Secretariat of the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles, secretary of the Leading Party Members’ Group of the China Film Association and its standing vice chairman, addressed the event. He reviewed the century-long journey of Chinese cinema under the leadership of the Party, looked ahead to Chinese cinema’s progress toward becoming a leading film power, and expressed the hope that Chinese filmmakers would live up to the times and the people and keep opening new frontiers in film art with outstanding works.
The Golden Rooster Opening Forum consisted of three parts: keynote speeches, report releases and a roundtable.
In the keynote session, Ding Yaping, research fellow at the Institute of Film and Television of the Chinese National Academy of Arts and president of the China Association of University Film and Television Studies, spoke on “Socialist Landscapes, Empathetic History and Modernity: How the Party’s Policy on Literature and Art Has Advanced Film over the Past Century”. Wang Yichuan, professor at the Research Center for Literary Theory and the School of Chinese Language and Literature of Beijing Normal University and vice chairman of the China Literature and Art Critics Association, spoke on “Interaction and Coexistence Between the Great and the Ordinary: Three Views of the Image of the People in Current Chinese Films”. Fan Zhizhong, executive dean of the International Institute of Film and Television Development at Zhejiang University, spoke on “Innovation and Breakthroughs in Creating New Mainstream Films in a Commercial Context”.
Xiamen Release is a new segment of this year’s Golden Rooster Film Forum. Three reports were released at the forum: the Report on Film Investment and Financing in China in the Post-Pandemic Era (2020-2021), released by Liang Junjian, deputy director of the Cultural and Creative Finance Research Center of the National Institute of Financial Research at Tsinghua University and associate professor at the Tsinghua University School of Journalism and Communication; New Paths, Shared Growth: A Study of Release Window Strategies in the “Post-Pandemic Era”, released by Mu Chen, head of the Beacon Research Institute of Alibaba Pictures; and the 2021 Report on the Development of Film and Television Bases (Parks) in China, released by Zhi Feina, professor at the Institute of Film and Television of the Chinese National Academy of Arts.
The roundtable was moderated by film theorist Rao Shuguang, president of the China Film Critics Association. It brought together film entrepreneurs and creators: director and screenwriter Huang Jianxin; Yu Dong, vice chairman of the China Film Association and founder, chairman and president of Bona Film Group; Fu Ruoqing, deputy Party secretary and vice chairman of China Film Group Corporation and vice chairman and general manager of China Film Co., Ltd.; Wang Jian’er, Party secretary and chairman of Shanghai Film Group and chairman of Shanghai Film Co., Ltd.; Wang Changtian, chairman of Enlight Media and chairman of Maoyan Entertainment; Wang Zhonglei, co-founder, vice chairman and CEO of Huayi Brothers Media Corporation; and Gong Yu, founder and CEO of iQIYI. The guests shared their views on a year full of opportunities and challenges.
