FIRST International Film Festival, a film festival-style service platform in China, focuses on discovering and promoting young filmmakers and their works.
Since its inception in 2006, after 16 years of patient exploration and active experimentation, FIRST has intervened in the current Chinese youth film industry in the form of a film festival, focusing its direction on discovering debut and early works of filmmakers. It is also a berth in the basin of world cinema, offering the world a multi-faceted example of Chinese youth cinema in the mechanism of memorializing contemporary film history.
As a platform for the exchange of film culture, art and industry, FIRST revives the spirit of cinema by screening and promoting high-quality film works every year, providing the industry with a diverse selection of Chinese youth films, intervening in the ecological cycle of the film industry, and chiselling the memory of contemporary film history.
With its mission of the film industry and its responsibility as a public cultural institution, FIRST promotes the integration of film art into the film industry, reserves talents and film projects with room for growth for the industry, and contributes to the ecological cycle of film, which means that it provides the industry with annual trends in filmmaking and key energy for the metabolism of the film industry.
In 2012, FIRST added feature-length films into Main Competition section. Over the past decade, FIRST film selection has covered over 53 countries and regions.
FIRST invites a host of established and esteemed filmmakers to sit on the Jury Committee and to maintain a strict and just juror system. Since 2012, the Festival has been honored to have Xu Feng (Taiwan, China), Ann Hui (Hong Kong, China), Xie Fei (China), Jiang Wen (China), Wong Kar-wai (Hong Kong, China) , Lou Ye (China) ,Chen Guo Fu (Taiwan, China) ，Diao Yi Nan(China) and Zhang Ai Jia(Taiwan,China) as Jury Presidents, and Xu Zheng, Qin Hailu, Deng Chao, Huang Bo, Chen Kun, Zhou Xun, Zhao wei, Hu Ge, Zhu Ya Wen, Wang Chuan Jun, Zhou Dong Yu, Hai Qing,Li Fei,Yi Yangqianxi,Wen Muye,Jing Boran,Huang Xiaoming,Yao Chen,Lei Jiayin and Xin Yukun as spokespersons.
Over the decade, a number of filmmakers have received recognition and acclaims at the Festival, including Fan Lixin, Ma Li, Hao Jie, Wen Muye, Xin Yukun, Wang Yichun, Degena Yun, Ma Kai, Zhang Tao, Zhang Dalei, Cai Chengjie, Zhou Ziyang, Chan Ching-lin, Chou Sheng, Lu Qing Yi, Zhou Zhou, Gu Xiao Gang, Zhang ZhongchenXu Lei and Chai Xiao Yu.
FFFF will try to interpret the cultural texture of the city in a new dimension and tell a new urban language of ‘some kind of unexpectation’ and ‘some kind of exclamation’: Presenting classic films from a new curatorial perspective and creating new experiences for the scene of ‘film wathcing’; using films to collide with various fields such as technology, art and music to create new cultural trends, provide richer experiences for audiences and broaden the horizons of industry professionals; and combining the efforts of all stakeholders to give FFFF@CD a more friendly and carnival quality.Parallel to FIRST International Film Festival, FIRST Fantastic Film Festival integrates diversified elements, such as film, music, art and technology, nurturing new creative ecosystems and encouraging cultural trends. The five sections of FFFF@CD (Fantastic Screening, Studio Tour, Fantastic Forum, Genre Film Lab and Producer Lab) are based on exploraing more space for testing the level of creavity. FFFF@CD takes the discovery and experimentation of genre films as its core mission, and aims to build a festival with distinctive style, clear recognition in the industry, strong gathering capacity and high interaction.
FFFF will try to interpret the cultural texture of the city in a new dimension and tell a new urban language of ‘some kind of unexpectation’ and ‘some kind of exclamation’: Presenting classic films from a new curatorial perspective and creating new experiences for the scene of ‘film wathcing’; using films to collide with various fields such as technology, art and music to create new cultural trends, provide richer experiences for audiences and broaden the horizons of industry professionals; and combining the efforts of all stakeholders to give FFFF@CD a more friendly and carnival quality.