2016 ICFF

In 2015, the seventh International Chinese Film Festival was presented in Sydney, Gold Coast, and Melbourne. 7th year is a turning point for International Chinese Film Festival Festival, we actually aim to build up this platform for helping the collaboration between Chinese and Australian film industries, we want to use this platform to let Chinese film makers and Australian film makers work together, understand each other better”, said Lanwei Gong, President of International Chinese Film Festival.

In 2014, the sixth International Chinese Film Festival was presented with two stages in Sydney and Melbourne separately. The opening ceremony was held in Fox Studio Hoyts in Sydney while the award ceremony was showed in Crown Palladium in Melbourne. The sixth International Chinese Film Festival was also the biggest one ever. Also, the level of candidate films and attending celebrities was the highest ever. The media even call the festival “Auscar”. Li Bingbing (an international film star), Grace Huang (a Hollywood Australia-born Chinese star), Tong Liya, Chen Sicheng, etc. Melbourne shined because of the “starry night”.

In 2013, the fifth International Chinese Film Festival was held in Australia, New Zealand and Malaysia separately. The enthusiasm showed by local Chinese illustrated that International Chinese Film Festival had a worldwide influence. Also, the festival made some innovations in this year. The Chinese short films were put on to a world class stage for the first time by competing for the Best Short Film. This innovation aimed to promote good Chinese short film and help those “original power” who had great talent and creativity keep fighting for their dreams while the audience could feel the charm of original short films. In the same year, Australia-China Film Forum provided Australian and Chinese filmmakers with a fantastic platform to communicate with each other.

In September of 2012, the fourth International Chinese Film Festival was held in Sydney. “Golden Dragon”, the renamed award, was showed to the entire world for the first time. This name indicated that Chinese films will be well-known in every country, like the worldwide perception of Chinese totem of Dragon. In the fourth International Chinese Film Festival, a lot of excellent Chinese film were shown on Australian screens such as Painted Skin, Gun and Roses, Dangerous Liaisons etc. Starry Starry Night, 33 Postcards and Warriors of the Rainbow: Sediq Bale, three toughing films, won the “Golden Dragon”.

The third International Chinese Film Festival expanded in 2011. More international and national celebrities attended. In this year, International Chinese Film Festival set up two sections: Candidate Films and Films on Display. This action helped more excellent Chinese films display on Australian screens. Also in this year, International Chinese Film Festival established the awarding system for the first time — Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress and Committee Recommend. Professionals in film industry were invited to form an authoritative jury panel. At last, Ocean Heaven and Deep in the Clouds were the biggest winners — both of them won 2 awards. In addition, International Chinese Film Festival signed the long-term cooperation agreement with Chinese Film Promotion International.

In 2010, Huang Bo, Cui Jian and other Chinese celebrities joined the opening ceremony of International Chinese Film Festival. Also, the number of candidate films increased to 15 — 2000 minutes total runtime. Various types of film illustrated the high quality of Chinese films completely. In all candidate films, there were some excellent films directed by famous directors, including One Hundred Yuan (directed by Wang Ping), Cow (directed by Guan Hu) and so on. In that year, film festival encountered Chinese Spring Festival. Such a beautiful encounter made the 2010 International Chinese Film Festival one of the most popular events in the communities of Australian Chinese, the other was the Spring Festival Parade.

In 2009, first Sydney Chinese Film Festival, renamed as International Chinese Film Festival later, was held as the largest Chinese film festival ever in Sydney. At that time, Sydney Chinese Film Festival got great support and focus from Sydney city government, Consulate-General of the People’s Republic of China in Sydney, AusFilm and other communities. The aim of holding this film festival was to show the profound culture of China in a more direct and specific way. With showing Chinese films, people in Australia, or from other countries, would know more about China and Chinese culture. Meanwhile, as a world class and professional stage for Chinese films, Sydney Chinese Film Festival built a bridge which connects Chinese film and filmmakers with international market.