BigScreen Festival , the only international video festival in southwest China , will be back in November 2007, following the enormous success of last year’s “Italian productions for the Year of Italy in China “. CinaOggi.it , GoKunming.com , and the Yunnan Arts Institute will host the BigScreen Festival, with the collaboration of the Italian Institute of Culture in Beijing .
From November 27 to December 1 the Chinese city of Kunming will host the Film Festival , featuring 94 films from more 30 countries. This year’s BigScreen festival will add momentum to Kunming’s emergence as one of China’s major movie centers. This fifth installment of the BigScreen film festival series will last five days and will highlight films from around the globe, including feature-length films, short films, documentaries and video installations. Special guests include jurors Marco Ceresa (organizer, Venice Film Festival), Wang Yao (screenwriter, Baby in Love, Returning Home, Gourmet of Poison ) and Chinese media expert Jeremy Goldkorn , founder of the highly influential website Danwei.org . Hong Kong director Yan Yan Mak ( Butterfly, Big Brother) will also be a special guest of the festival and will introduce her new film, The Scarlet Robe . Special musical guests include songstress Tujiko Noriko , bilingual hiphop act Rap Republic and the Bai, Yi and Wa minority performers of Yuansheng Studio , one of the event’s co-sponsors.
This year’s BigScreen will feature a collection of movies from around the world to be judged by an international jury . Last year’s jury members included world-famous directors such as Jia Zhangke (Winner, Golden Lion at Venice Film Festival) and Wang Xiaoshuai (Winner, Grand Prize of the Jury at Cannes Film Festival and Silver Bear at Berlin Film Festival).
The event will be divided into three main sections opened to feature movies, shorts, documentaries and animation: ” On Competition “, ” Out of Competition ” and ” In Focus ” (dedicated to selected works). The five days of the BigScreen Festival will feature concerts by internationally recognized bands plus DJ sets and much more. Additional features for this year that will add to the artistic atmosphere include photo exhibitions with video, and a handicraft exhibition.