China’s Pingyao Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon International Film Festival (PYIFF) has kicked off this year in a new slot for the first time, running earlier from September 24-30.
Some 10,000 more audiences are expected to visit the ancient city located in the inland Shanxi province in north China, as the milder September climate allows the festival to organise additional open-air screenings to cope with the demand from cinemagoers.
A total of 51 films will be screened, including 17 world premieres and 11 Asian premieres. The two competitions – Hidden Dragons for Chinese-language films and Crouching Tigers for international films – showcase works by rising directors. The Made in Shanxi section spotlights films shot in the province or made by Shanxi filmmakers, while the retrospective on restored classics carries a special Earth theme this year, including the 40th anniversary of Chen Kaige’s Yellow Earth, Alexander Dovzhenko’s Earth and Nelson Pereira dos Santos’ Vidas Secas.
The festival will continue to take place at Pingyao Festival Palace, which was retrofitted from an abandoned diesel engine factory for the inaugural PYIFF in 2017. Situated in the northwestern corner of the ancient city of Pingyao, a UNESCO world heritage site, it covers an area of 11,000sqm and houses six cinemas, event and exhibition areas, restaurants and shops. It has become an iconic cultural and community centre that remains open all year-round, not just during the festival period.
Ahead of the eighth edition, Screen spoke with PYIFF founder and renowned Shanxi filmmaker Jia Zhangke. The highly acclaimed director, who won the Golden Lion at Venice in 2006 with Still Life, was in Competition at Cannes for the sixth time in May with his latest film Caught By The Tides.
The festival will take place in September for the first time, moving from its usual slot in October and away from the freezing weather?
The limited screening facilities have been a recurring problem for us for a long time. Our main festival venue at the Pingyao Festival Palace has six cinemas, including one open-air theatre [named after Jia’s 2000 film Platform] and five cinema auditoriums, offering a total of 2,200 seats. But it is not enough to meet the demand from the audiences. Last year, the online ticketing system crashed shortly after it opened for sale due to overwhelming demand.
Do construction restrictions within the ancient city make it hard to expand the cinema network?
We can easily build new cinemas outside the ancient city, but it’s hard to do so within the ancient city of Pingyao, a UNESCO site. The open-air theatre has 1,500 seats, but we can only hold one screening there per day. The temperature drops to 0-5°C in the evening, too cold for the audiences to stay outdoors.
The temperature is milder in September at around 15°C. We can programme one extra screening, making it two screenings per day at the open-air theatre. This way, we expect the audience attendance to increase by 10,000, which will also increase the ticket sales. Last year, we recorded a total of 47,000.
Pingyao is onto its eighth edition since its launch in 2017, without skipping any physical edition even during the Covid pandemic. It remains a small, intimate event with a lineup of 51 films this year. Is that deliberate?
We are proud that we were able to continue the festival in a physical format without interruption during the pandemic. Pingyao was never meant to be a big festival. With a population of 600,000, Pingyao can only accommodate a certain number of visitors, unlike big cities like Shanghai and Beijing which can handle 300 to 400 films. The current size enables us to give our attention to film through screenings and talks. We can’t stay focussed if there are too many films.
On the market side, PYIFF ended the work-in-progress section last year. It continues to run Pingyao Project Promotion (PPP), which has a script contest, and the Literary Picturised Project (LPP), which presents new literary works for adaptation, including a new play Crocodile by Nobel Prize winner Mo Yan this year. Why do you think these two areas can benefit emerging Chinese filmmakers?
PPP is for filmmakers to bring their scripts to meet potential investors. Before any film can be made, investors can only evaluate the project through the script. During PPP, the investors get to meet the filmmaking team, which is also an important part of their project evaluation.
Many distributors, producers and sales agents will travel to Pingyao to look for new projects. New director Liu Jiangjiang managed to secure funding when he brought his script Lighting Up The Stars to PPP in 2019. This directorial feature debut was a hit when released in 2022, earning $243.4m (RMB1.7bn) at the local box office.
LPP is for literary adaptations. Books tend to address and reflect social issues well. They can enhance and unlock more creativity for filmmakers.
PYIFF has always been committed to discovering new talent. Has its role evolved to something else?
China is a huge market but is still conservative and lacks diversity. I hope the audiences can take in more international films. Starting from our third edition, we have seen good results from Chinese buyers who visit PYIFF to acquire foreign films. Luc Besson’s Dogman screened here last year before it was acquired for theatrical release.
PYIFF is still a young festival for foreign visitors. Many international programmers have been here, from Toronto, San Sebastian to Cannes, Berlin and Venice. I hope to get more foreign distributors and producers to come to Pingyao to meet local filmmakers and look at their films and projects.
What is the state of independent mainland Chinese cinema for emerging filmmakers?
There is a new generation of Chinese filmmakers who studied overseas. The way they make films is different from the traditional system. While their films may still carry local subjects, their funding and crew tend to be more international. About two-thirds of the titles from the short film competition this year are directed by such overseas educated filmmakers, who have a more international outlook, targeting not just the Chinese market.
What are the must-see places and must-eat foods for first-time guests of the festival?
Pingyao has a history of 2,800 years and is the only surviving ancient city that maintains a comprehensive architectural style from the Ming Dynasty. It was an economic centre during the Qing Dynasty and home to the first bank in China.
It has two famous Buddhist temples: Shuanglin Temple, home to over 2,000 painted sculptures from the Yuan and Ming Dynasty, including a 26-armed Guanyin, and Zhenguo Temple, in which the Ten Thousand Buddhas Hall houses rare surviving examples of 10th-century Buddhist sculptures in China.
Shanxi is well known for noodles, which come in hundreds of different types. Another famous dish is Pingyao beef, a very simple dish that requires just a pot and a pinch of salt, but full of flavour.
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