The FIRST international film festival and its operation under the COVID-19 pandemic: an interview with Wen Song and Yinglong Tong

ABSTRACT

Held annually during late July in Xi’ning in northwest China, the FIRST International Film Festival (hereafter FIRST) is an exhibition event and cultivation platform for new emerging Chinese filmmakers developing at home and expanding overseas visibility. It is probably the only festival in the country that persevered with offline activities over three years from 2020 to 2022, during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Conducted in July 2022, this interview focuses upon Mr. Wen Song and Mr. Yinglong Tong, the founder and the Head of Publicity of the festival, respectively. It contains three parts and through these conversations, readers can learn about the festival’s core tenets and industry positioning, the impact of the pandemic on the festival’s programmes and on its operation. More important, this primary information reveals how Chinese film festivals in general and FIRST in particular survived and sustained itself in the pandemic period (2020) and the post-pandemic period (after 2020). It offers a lens through which readers can see the cultural landscape of the Chinese film industry in this uncertain period.

KEYWORDS:

• FIRST International Film Festival
• New emerging filmmakers
• Chinese film festival
• Film industry
• COVID-19 pandemic

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. The data is from the annual reports posted at FIRST’s WeChat public account.

2. Shao’s project won two awards during the forum. The director Zheng Xu and the actress Yili Ma were interested in the project and 16 months later, B for Busy starring Xu and Ma was released.

3. According to the report posted at FIRSR’s WeChat public account, there were 749 valid submissions in 2022. The number in 2021 were 541.

4. Given the pandemic situation in 2020, this ‘island’ theme probably metaphorically refers to life experiences during the home isolation and social distancing requirements.

Additional information

Funding

This article is an outcome of the 2021 Shandong Province Postdoctoral Innovation Programme (Project No.11530071310212).

Notes on contributors

Qi Ai

Qi Ai is a postdoctoral fellow in media and communication studies at the School of Journalism and Communication, Shandong University, China, where he is the associate director of Research Center for Culture, Art and Communication of Film and Teleplay. He is a visiting scholar at the School of International Communications of the University of Nottingham (Ningbo) and also a member of Shandong Film Association. He holds a Ph.D. in film and television studies from the University of Nottingham, UK. His research interests primarily include genre and stardom studies, film industries and regulation, and film festivals.

Liao Zhang

Liao Zhang is a PhD Candidate in Film and Television Studies at the University of Nottingham. Her PhD project explores the representation of girls’ culture and post-feminist sensibility in contemporary Chinese girlhood films. Beyond her PhD research, Liao also serves as Lead Women’s Film Programme Curator at the UK-China Film Collab, and Training Officer at the MeCCSA PGN.