The Asian premiere of Giuseppe Tornatore’s series The Camorrist, Asia’s first fan meeting of BBC Studios’ documentary Planet Earth and TV series nominated for the Magnolia Awards are among the highlights of the 29th Shanghai TV Festival (STVF, June 24-28).
As a pioneering international TV awards in China, “the Magnolia Awards is highly respected and widely perceived as a twofold benchmark, providing guidance to the industry as well as creating a showcase of remarkable TV works for a broad local audience,” says Chen Guo, managing director of the Shanghai International Film and TV Events Centre.
The Camorrist, a nominee for best foreign film or miniseries, was shot by Italian director Tornatore in the 1980s at the same time as his debut feature of the same name, but it has never been aired and was believed to be lost for 40 years. STVF is now set to host the Asian premiere of two episodes of the five-part version, which has been restored in 4K by Tornatore, the filmmaker best known for Oscar-winning feature Cinema Paradiso.
Planet Earth III, a nominee in best documentary series, is an ambitious natural history series narrated by David Attenborough, which travelled to previously unseen locations with spectacular landscapes and wildlife.
This is one of eight titles from BBC Studios that will be presented through the STVF x BBC Studios: Endless Exploration showcase, which also includes the final season of dark comedy anthology series Inside No.9, documentary Secrets Of The Jurassic Dinosaurs, animation Dog Loves Books and the third season of popular animation Bluey alongside special The Sign.
Significant boost
This year, the Magnolia Awards received nearly 1,000 entries from 57 countries and regions across five continents, of which foreign submissions have increased significantly. A 53.7% growth in overseas drama series submissions was recorded, up from last year’s 110 entries to this year’s 170, while foreign entries account for 60% of the total submissions in the documentary category.
International TV organisations such as the BBC, Sony, HBO Warner Bros. Discovery and National Geographic have all submitted programmes. The number of participating countries is also the highest of the last five editions as a result of closer collaborations with India, Australia and Turkey.
The Magnolia Awards comprises four key categories, from Chinese and international TV drama, documentaries to animations and variety shows. Some 65 TV titles are in contention, including 20 Chinese TV series, 10 overseas TV series, 10 documentaries, 10 cartoons and 15 variety shows.
To cultivate a large audience base, a series of free screenings for more than 30 Magnolia Awards nominees such as The Camorrist will be held in 16 districts across Shanghai. The screening network has expanded to 20 unique cultural venues, reflecting the arts and cultural development of the cosmopolitan city. The screening venues include China Art Museum, Shanghai Library East, Power Station of Art, Shanghai’s City of Books and Shanghai Jiushi Art Museum, which are also popular art spaces frequented by Shanghai residents.
Creators in attendance
To further engage the public, 10 meet-and-greet sessions will be hosted with creators in attendance, including Michael Gunton, executive producer of Planet Earth III, and Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton, the writers and actors behind Inside No. 9.
In addition to onsite physical screenings, some 40 titles will be aired on TV including Magnolia Awards best documentary nominees Van Gogh, The Making Of A Master, Lynx Man and Story Of A Golden Monkey King In Qinling Mountains Of China.
Such titles will broadcast on an expanded network of six traditional TV channels in China, including SMG Docu TV, Toonmax Satellite TV and Shanghai Dragon TV as well as online platforms BEST and Bilibili. As Shanghai Dragon TV also broadcasts to Chinese-speaking audiences globally, STVF will have global broadcast reach outside mainland China for the first time.
As part of the festival, STVF Market and STVFORUM will both take place at Shanghai Exhibition Centre, providing a platform for filmmakers, sales and production companies, broadcasters, streamers and post production companies.
STVF was launched in 1986 as China’s first international TV festival. It is a sister event of the Shanghai International Film Festival (SIFF), which recently ran its 26th edition from June 14-23.
