Kicking off a short film career

Festival gives young global talent a platform, Xu Fan reports.

It was when Huang Riwen, a native of South China's Guangdong province, started to study at the directing department of Beijing Film Academy in 2018 that she heard of the International Student Film and Video Festival, an annual event to boost cultural exchanges, for the first time.

"The festival is the highest-level international event held by our college," recalls Huang. "Our teachers suggested it could be a good opportunity for us to watch and learn from the excellent short movies produced by fellow filmmakers in foreign countries."

Born in Zhuhai in 2000, Huang beat around 3,000 competitors to become one of the 16 students in her class. Although shooting a feature-length movie is a dream for most film students, Huang describes herself as a comparatively "practical" person, believing a quality short work is important to lay the foundation for the future.