Shanghai, / founded in 1993
Held in June
China’s largest film festival (the only serious competitor in the region is the Beijing Film Festival), which starts every year in early summer. The show is relatively young (in 2014 it was held only for the 17th time) and has a very extensive program. It includes an international feature film competition where the jury selects the best film (it should be noted that Russian directors have already won the top prize twice), the best screenplay, the best camerawork, the best director, actor and actress, awards the grand prize and gives awards for outstanding artistic achievements in editing, makeup, etc.; the Asian New Talent Award, whose name speaks for itself; the MOBILE SIFF competition; a large non-competitive selection of international films; and the SIFF Mart and SIFFORUM sections.
MOBILE SIFF program grew out of the former international contest of student short films and, according to the organizers’ idea, should be of interest to beginner filmmakers. Not only feature short films but also documentaries and animation films can compete for the prizes.
The scale of the events at SIFF Mart (film market and pitching) and SIFFORUM (lectures, seminars, round tables, workshops) can be judged by the figures provided by the organizers. According to their data, 819 companies applied for the film market in 2013 (42% were from abroad), and 244 applications were submitted for the pitching, 29 of which were short-listed and eventually received financial support.