Participants at a promotion activity on Xiamen’s culture, film and television industry, held in Beijing on April 16 (ZHANG WEI)

At this year’s Golden Rooster Awards, organizers will share the vision of building Xiamen, a bustling city and cultural hub in Fujian Province, southeast China, into the world’s largest film release platform for Chinese movies. The Awards and the Golden Rooster Festival, to be held in the city in early November, are seen as major components of Xiamen’s plan for achieving this goal.

Yuan Xuepeng, General Manager of Xiamen Film Festival Co, Ltd., which organizes the festival, said as part of efforts to become the premier platform for China’s films, the Awards would begin inviting more new works from Hong Kong and Taiwan and young directors from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan to make their debuts in the Golden Rooster Festival, in order to promote the industrial integration between these regions and the Chinese mainland. Yuan made the remarks at a promotional activity for Xiamen’s culture, film and television industry, held in Beijing on April 16.

Xiamen is making full use of the festival to accelerate the construction of film and television infrastructure and spur the development of the film industry, Li Huiyue, a member of the Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Xiamen Municipal Committee and Executive Vice Mayor of Xiamen Municipal Government, said during the activity in Beijing.

The Golden Rooster Awards, which are a national event sponsored by the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles and the China Film Association, get their name from the Chinese Zodiac, as the inaugural awards were held in 1981, the Year of the Rooster.

Li Huiyue, a member of the Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China Xiamen Municipal Committee and Executive Vice Mayor of Xiamen Municipal Government, speaks during the event in Beijing on April 16 (ZHANG WEI)

The Golden Rooster Awards have been held annually in Xiamen for the last 4 years, and will continue to be held here until 2028, said Zhang Hong, Party Secretary of the China Film Association, at the event.

Over the past five years, enterprises and institutions in the industry in Xiamen have seen annual growth rate of 10.2 percent, much higher than the national average, Li said. During last year’s film festival, Xiamen signed agreements to cooperate on 55 projects in the cultural and film industry, with a value of 15.52 billion yuan ($2.26 billion), he added.

Revenue of enterprises and institutions involved in Xiamen’s culture, film and television industry grew at an average annual rate of 17.8 percent, reaching 201.79 billion yuan ($29.38 billion) last year, with the added value accounting for 5 percent of the city’s GDP, Shangguan Jun, deputy head of the Publicity Department of the CPC Xiamen Municipal Committee, said.

Shangguan Jun, deputy head of the Publicity Department of the CPC Xiamen Municipal Committee, speaks at the event in Beijing on April 16 (ZHANG WEI)

In 2018 and 2019, the municipal government put in place regulations and related departments implemented policies aimed at promoting the high-quality development of the industry, he said.

A group of industry-leading businesses along with the studios of famous directors and actors have already settled in Xiamen, which forms a complete industrial chain of film production, promotion and circulation, Li said.

Xiamen will continue to improve the policy support it provides to the culture, film and television industry, Shangguan said, adding that policy-makers will focus on support for major projects as well as the integration of technology into the industry.

The policies will improve support for all sectors of the industrial chain and provide stable assistance in technology, services and talent. The policies will also cover events such as premieres, festivals and exhibitions as well as provide one-stop services for professionals in the industry, he said.

According to Yuan, Global Development Promotion Center of China International Development Cooperation Agency will host a promotional activity for the film festival at the United Nations General Assembly this month, and invite participants of the Group of Friends of the Global Development Initiative --some 70 countries-- to this year’s festival. “Through diverse forms of exchange, the festival may serve as a bridge for practitioners in the industry,” he told Beijing Review.

The event in Beijing also saw the signing of cooperation agreements with some of the potential partners for this year’s film festival.

Copyedited by G.P. Wilson

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