Poster of Love Simply. [Photo provided to China Daily] |
An annual highlighted Sino-Korean cinematic communication event was kicked off in Beijing on Nov 24.
The Third Chinese-Korean "Share Your Dream" Short Film Festival, which was launched by CJ, an entertainment colossus from South Korea, gathered near 400 short films from both countries' young filmmakers, and 30 of them entered the final round competition.
The highest winner, which will be announced on Nov 26, is to get a bonus of 30,000 yuan ($4,400) plus the chance to get trained by top-tier film studios in South Korea. Final entries have a wide spectrum of varieties, including works of historical genre, documentaries and animations.
Chinese director Xia Gang, Chinese-American filmmaker Dayyan Eng and Korean director Lee Seok-hoon are three final-round judges.
According to Xia, this year's short films show apparent advance in qualities compared with the previous two years.
"However, most works are still based on filmmakers' personal experiences," Xia says. "We should encourage young people to better express their opinions on more in-depth topics."
Eng first gained his international reputation in 2001's Venice Film Festival by winning special jury award via his short film Bus 44, which is a tragic satire on collective apathy.
"I don't think making short film is necessarily a preparation for feature film," Eng says. "It needs an equal passion and storytelling skills to make a good short film."
"I've seen some Chinese short films in the festival have proved even better quality and of higher technical level than Korean works this time," Lee adds.
"If young generation Chinese filmmakers are well nurtured, Chinese films will be the most representative in Asia within the next decade."