2nd BRICS Film Festival Held in Chengdu

CHENGDU, China, July 19, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- On June 23, the "2017 BRICS Film Festival" officially commenced the first day of its five days of festivities. Myriad of filmmakers and more than 30 movies from the five BRICS nations of China, Brazil, Russia, India and South Africa participated in exhibition and competition at the event.

The BRICS Film Festival is one of the major cultural activities within the BRICS cooperation mechanism, and is held as a channel to facilitate cultural exchanges, mutual understanding and economic collaborations between the BRICS countries by using film as a medium. The first BRICS Film Festival was held in 2016 in the Indian capital city of New Delhi.

During this edition of the Film Festival, Chengdu was noted for a plethora of ideas and innovations. For instance, five directors from each of the five BRICS nations produced five separate short films based on the theme "where has the time gone," and then the five independent shorts were compiled to form the feature film Where has Time Gone, which was premiered at the Film Festival as the event's opening movie. Another innovation is the "national film day" campaign with the "one day, one nation, one movie culture" format, whereby film culture from each of the five nations are displayed in highly concentrated dosages in order to fully illustrate the "different cultures, equally wonderful" ideology.

During the Film Festival, more than 200 screenings of over 30 films from the five BRICS nations took place in theaters and communities around Chengdu.

At present, Chengdu has played host to a wide range of film exhibitions and activities every year, from the European Union Film Festival and Panorama Du Cinema Francais to the Festival of German Cinema in China and Italian Film Festival, and now the BRICS Film Festival has joined the parade. An increasing number of film exchange activities have chosen Chengdu as the host destination, symbolizing that in terms of culture, exhibition, convention and foreign interaction the prowess of this Chinese city is not to be questioned.

Data show that there are currently 130 movie theaters in Chengdu, and the city ranks fifth in China in terms of box office, just behind Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen. The Chengdu locals are known for knowing how to enjoy life, and thus the activity of "seeing a movie" certainly has a huge base of participants here. At the same time, box office figures also reflect the city's cultural sophistication and the population's spending power.

As a part of China's first batch of famous historical cities, Chengdu boasts more than 2,300 years of history as a city, five World Heritage sites and Asia's oldest ruins of a city. The growth of this famous historical cultural city over a stretch of more than 2,300 years has nurtured and accumulated a Tianfu culture that is "innovative, creative, elegant, fashionable, optimistic, inclusive, friendly and public-minded," while international interest in this metropolis is consistently on the rise. A lot of people might only remember Chengdu as home to the pandas, but in reality, unlike the leisurely lifestyle of the furry animals, this city is expanding in full steam.

Currently, the Chinese central government has included Chengdu within its national central city planning. Chengdu is fully committed to strengthening its role as the economic center, science and technology center, financial center, cultural creativity center, foreign communication center and international comprehensive transportation and communication hub of western China, while also endeavoring to position itself as a National Central City that thoroughly embodies a brand new developmental principal.

Chengdu, this ultra-large central city of western China, is rapidly assimilating into the global community and demonstrating to the world its responsibility and breadth with an open attitude, diligent spirit and innovative mindset.

SOURCE The BRICS Film Festival Organizing Committee