Cannes hosts China-Italian Women Filmmakers Forum to discuss opportunities and challenges for women filmmakers in international film and television cooperation

The 75th Cannes International Film Festival is underway with the forum “A Covenant in China: Women in the Chinese and Italian Film Industry – Achievements, Challenges and Perspectives”, curated by the Italian National Pavilion.

As early as 2019, the China Europe Women’s Film Festival held a forum on the theme “Opportunities and Challenges of Female Filmmakers in International Film and Television Cooperation” at the Italian National Pavilion in Cannes. Chinese actors Qing Xu, Ming Dow, host Xiao S, and Italian filmmakers. Filmmaker Francesca Sima and other film and television practitioners attended the forum.

After two years, the China-Italy Women’s Forum in 2022 hopes to have a more detailed discussion on the achievements, living conditions and development prospects of female filmmakers in the industry.

The guests participating in the forum include Willox Robert Willoxo Stabile, the general coordinator of the Italian National Pavilion project; Chiara Sbarigia, the chairman of the old Italian film studio Cinecittà; Taiwanese filmmaker and scholar Jiao Xiongping; “What’s in the Darkness” director Yichun Wang; Maria Spier Carol Spierina Terzi, co-founder and producer of the film company Mad Entertainment, and Story Chen, a young Chinese director who will be shortlisted in the Cannes Short Film Competition in 2022 with his short film “The Water Murmurs”.

In addition, actor Ming Dow also attended the forum as a special guest.

In the forum, Italian producer Maria Spier Carol Spierina Terzi mentioned that she learned to use zoom to collaborate with her team online during the epidemic, and the effect was surprisingly good. Her feature film “Nostalgia” was also shortlisted for Cannes this year. The main competition unit of the film festival.

Story Chen and Yichun Wang, two young female directors, said that during the epidemic, they continued to create with limited conditions. When the filming was stagnant, they turned their attention to the script and later parts that could be completed by non-team work. .

Jiao Xiongping and Ming Dow paid particular attention to the influence of the Internet and new media in special times.

Ming Dow found that live broadcasts and short videos developed more rapidly during the epidemic, and many of the creators were women.

“During the epidemic, the power of women and the power of women’s activism has never been more important in China, as far as I can see.”

In addition, he believes that before the epidemic, the big screen represented by movies and the small screen of new online media were usually mentioned as opposing roles, and the arrival of the epidemic has provided more opportunities for female creators to create and practice .

Today, the interdependence and unification of different media are more apparent. 

Jiao Xiongping affirmed the necessity of discussing the topic of today’s female filmmakers, “Even though a lot of efforts have been made in China’s film industry, female practitioners still account for a very small proportion.”

She called on female practitioners to strengthen their awareness of women. Only by uniting and constantly reminding people can women’s influence be seen more.

Yichun Wang shared his personal experience as a female director in the industry. “My development is more troubled by the problems of my own life, but when I think about it, it is inseparable from my identity as a woman. It is difficult to completely give up the responsibility for the family no matter what career I am in.”

She hopes that female directors can gain the support of more people around them so that they can have the opportunity to do what they want to do.

In addition, she also mentioned that the current international trend of emphasizing female directors has become a politically correct exercise.

Although this kind of inclination and “preferential treatment” to female directors made people feel uncomfortable at first, but I have to admit that this is an effective way to make women’s works known to everyone.

When asked what female filmmakers need most, Story Chen said that as a young rookie female director, what she needs most is to be trusted.

She mentioned that she was fortunate to have gained the trust of investors and was given the greatest degree of creative freedom, so she was able to create the content that everyone sees today.

Chiara Sbarigia, chairman of Italian Film City, shared the situation in Italy. Italian Film City has many programs to foster young female filmmakers, encourage them to go abroad to establish cooperative networks, and launch workshops and seminars to alleviate gender inequality in the film and television industry. condition.

In terms of strengthening the influence of female filmmakers in the future, she suggested that everyone should learn to understand. Build organic partnerships with men.

The host of this forum and the initiator of the China-Europe Women Filmmakers Forum, Yang Ying, expressed her great pleasure in coming to the event. In addition to learning about the situation of the guests during the epidemic, she also shared her thoughts on the real situation of women in the film industry. Questions were raised.

She said that although the topic of women has been mentioned in recent years, the real change in the industry is still very small, although the current epidemic has brought us distance barriers, making it impossible for everyone to communicate face-to-face.

But the topic of women in the film industry should not be just a superficial article, and I hope that in the near future, the dialogue in the industry can really help the improvement of the living conditions of female filmmakers.