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GZDOC concluded with intended turnover reaching 519 million RMB

The Closing Ceremony of GZDOC 2017 and Golden Kapok Award Ceremony [Photo/Organizing Committee of GZDOC 2017]

GZDOC 2017 came to a successful conclusion on December 14, with a potential turnover of 519 million RMB, up by about 30% from last year.

This year, a total of 4,239 documentaries from 113 countries and regions were entered into the GZDOC 2017, a record high not only in terms of the number of documentary entries but also participating countries and regions. The number of registered participants was 3014 and participating organizations 613 from home and abroad by Dec. 11.

This year, GZDOC also signed four new strategic partners, which are National Film Board of Canada, Canada Media Fund, International Festival of Audiovisual Programmes and Banff China, and a new partner Visible Influence Pictures.


The Closing Ceremony of GZDOC 2017 and Golden Kapok Award Ceremony [Photo/Organizing Committee of GZDOC 2017]

Winners of the 2017 Golden Kapok Award announced

As the only national documentary festival incorporating investment, financing and trade in China, GZDOC’s Golden Kapok Award Competition has a great influence in the documentary industry.

On the evening of Dec. 14, the Closing Ceremony of GZDOC 2017 and Golden Kapok Award Ceremony was held in Guangzhou, where the winners of the award were announced. The documentaries ‘Muhi - Generally Temporary’ and ‘Aerial China Season 1’ were the biggest winners of the night.

The documentary ‘Muhi - Generally Temporary’ not only won the Best Documentary Feature Award, its directors Rina Castelnuovo from Israel and Tamir Elterman from Germany were also awarded with the Best Documentary Director.

The documentary ‘Aerial China Season 1’ won the jury’s Special Award, and the Special Award of The Organizing Committee along with two other documentaries ‘Amazing China’ and ‘The Long March’. ‘China’s Van Goghs’, one of the documentaries that has grown out of GZDOC, won the Best International Co-production Award.

The 2016 Audience Choice Award went to ‘The Tale of Chinese Medicine’ which was voted for by fans online. In the meantime, the online voting for the 2017 Audience Choice Award has already begun on iQiyi, an online video platform. The 30 nominated films which are also finalists of the Golden Kapok Award Competition are being screened on this video website.


China’s top 10 documentary promoters announced

It’s well worth noting that there are a large group of people who are passionate about the documentary medium. They have been devoted to promoting documentaries by investing capital, building platforms and gathering resources. They are truly the driving force behind the development of documentary industry.

On December 14, China’s top 10 documentary promoters were announced at the 5th China Top Ten Documentary Promoters Forum. Among the ten promoters, three celebrities drew the media’s special attention.

The 5th China Top Ten Documentary Promoters Forum [Photo/Organizing Committee of GZDOC 2017]

Actress Zhang Xinyi donated one million RMB for the shooting of ‘Twenty Two’, a documentary about ‘comfort women’. Zhang said, there are many things in this world that are worth bringing to light and remembering.

Model and actress Lin Chi-ling appears in documentary ‘The Great Shokunin’ as the ‘sharer’, narrating the stories of 20 shokunins. This is the first time Lin Chi-ling dubs documentaries and she will continue to do voice over for the ‘The Great Shokunin 2’.

Media proprietor and journalist Yang Lan led a team to interview more than 80 experts from over 30 AI laboratories and institutes in over 20 cities around the world. From those experiences and interviews, she made the documentary ‘In Search of Artificial Intelligence’.

(From L to R) Posters of documentaries ‘Twenty Two’, ‘The Great Shokunin’ and ‘In Search of Artificial Intelligence’.

(Author: Monica Liu; Editors: Simon Haywood, Wing Zhang)

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