The premier international film festival, held annually in the highlands of Tibet, prides itself on being a festival of discovery and is described as China's equivalent of Sundance.
But acclaimed Chinese director Guan Hu (“Mr. Sex,” “Black Dog”) dealt a blow to First Festival organizers on Sunday when, as head of the competition’s main jury, he declined to announce the winner of the best film award.
“It’s not that we didn’t see any good films, but the selection overall wasn’t bold enough,” said Joan from the stage. In other comments, Joan suggested that the festival, which is 18 years old, should have reached maturity by now, but in fact it still needs to mature.
Fortunately, the jury decided to award a number of other prizes. Among these were “Sailing Song in June” which won the Grand Jury Prize and “Chengzi 1” which won the Spirit of Creativity Award.
In recent editions, FIRST has selected and featured Chinese films that have enjoyed great international success. These include Jun Li’s “Drifting” and Gu Xiaogang’s “Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains.” Other notable figures who owe some of their success to FIRST and Xining include Wen Muwei (“Dying to Survive”), Zhang Dali (“The Summer Is Gone”) and the late Hu Bo (“An Elephant Sitting Still”).
The festival's market division, First Mart, will no doubt claim to have played a role in shaping The Killing of a Mongolian Horse, a Malaysian-Hong Kong-US-South Korea-Japan co-production directed by Jiang Xiaoxuan, which will premiere as a completed film next month as part of Venice Days at the Venice Film Festival.
Founded in 2006 by Song Wen, FIRST was initially based in Beijing, before moving to the Qinghai Plateau in 2011. The advantages of this remote location include a captive audience of passionate filmmakers and delegates who choose to be there and make the effort to travel.
This year, that included Zhang Miao of Splendid Culture & Entertainment, and others from Lian Rui Pictures, Mahua FunAge (although the company cancelled a planned press event), Tingdong Film and Happy Film Industry.
From July 20 to 28, visitors had the opportunity to view a wide range of films by Chinese directors in their first, second or third attempts at directing feature films, feature documentaries, a selection of short films, a project market, and a sidebar dedicated to women called “First Frame.” In addition, director Lu Yi was the head of a mentoring event where short filmmakers were able to make a new short film during the week-long festival.
The disadvantages of being based in Xining include a smaller local base than might be available in a major city like Beijing or Shanghai, and therefore a greater reliance on commercial sponsorship than ticket sales. Major backers of FIRST this year were mobile phone maker Vivo and fashion house Chanel.
The festival also adopts a unique programming approach. Rather than maintaining a programming team throughout the year to select films, the festival creates a dedicated team each year made up of filmmakers, critics, industry professionals, and even programmers from other festivals. This can lead to variations in quality.
The unpredictable nature of the lineup may be one reason the festival is not popular with some parts of the local Chinese press. “If there’s a good film, I win,” says one delegate who has attended several times but asked not to be identified. “I think this is the film I’m going to win,” says others. diverse The opportunity to discover a precious gem and get ahead of the rest is precisely the essence of FIRST's appeal.
First International Film Festival Awards 2024
Feature films
Best Film Award: Not granted
Spirit of Freedom Award: “Chengzi_1,” Dir. Fu Zongsheng
Best scenario: Zhang Youdi on “A Midsummer's Tale”
Best Artistic Originality: “the little village”
best actor: Huang Jingyi in “Fishbone”
Grand Jury Prize: “June Sailing Song”
Special mention: “The Dreamer in the Forest”
Best Director: Jiang Yujie on “Shards”
Best Documentary: “on fire”
short films
Best Animated Short Film: “Candy” directed by Ying Xun
Best Short Film: “Activity outside the classroom”
Special mention: “Baugda: (The Story of the Kazakh Ethnic Group) dir. Kiran Abukasimo.
