5 Takeaways From China’s Golden Rooster and Hundred Flowers Film Festival

China commemorated its Golden Rooster Awards this previous Tuesday night in a glittering event hosted inside the palatial Xiamen Strait Grand Theater in Xiamen, Fujian Province, China.

The southern seaside city hosted generations of stars– from existing hotshot Jackson Yee (Resurrectionto well-known auteur Zhang Yimou– for an occasion that is the emphasize of the yearly state-run Golden Rooster and Hundred Flowers Film Festival.

Hong Kong’s Tony Leung Ka Fai took the program, winning his very first Golden Rooster finest star nod for his turn as the bad guy in the Larry Yang-directed thriller The Shadow’s Edge — some 25 years on from sending out hearts a flutter around the world in Jean-Jacques Annaud’s steamy The Lover

“I hope this is simply the start of brand-new journey,” stated the veteran of more than 140 motion pictures.

Behind the scenes business of making films was quite front and center, as the Chinese market collected for workshops and workshops it hopes will chart its future course.

Here’s what The Hollywood Reporter gained from the week:

Yimou Urges Filmmakers to Stay Focused on the Story

Zhang Yimou brought a sense of gravitas to procedures throughout the week. The 76-year-old existed amongst all the excitement at the occasion’s Golden Rooster Awards, giving out the very best Feature Film award to director Shen Ao and his WW2 drama Dead to Rights while likewise joining all the stars and enjoying on– in wonder, like everybody in the space– as an enormous dragon drone travelled the air overhead.

Yimou had actually likewise assisted introduce the market side of procedures with a “Stories That Travel: Chinese and Asian Cinema in Dialogue with the World” workshop that collected representatives from worldwide celebrations and, quickly enough, saw talk turn to Artificial Intelligence and its impact on movie theater.

With Zhang’s adjustment of Liu Cixin sci-fi traditional The Three-Body Problem in the works the director exposed he ‘d begun to meddle the tech, with a devoted group established on set to check out how AI might be adjusted to the filmmaking procedure.

In his own unique method, the director then set the scene for the week ahead when he prompted his fellow filmmakers to do the very same– however to never ever lose website of the primary active ingredient: The story.

“The brand-new innovation is moving too quickly,” the director stated. “The minute you blink, you lag it. Welcome this age. For me filmmaking is about the story that’s in my heart, and the only thing I can do is to inform it the finest method I can.”

Star-Studded Golden Roosters Celebrate a Big Year for the Locals

The news entering into the week was that up until now this year Chinese movie theaters have actually been controlled by Chinese motion pictures, with 8 of the year’s ticket office leading 10 being domestic productions.

The market itself has actually approved spreading out a message of diversity of material, and to that end the 2 movies that controlled “China’s Oscars” might not perhaps be more various in either design nor in material.

Shen’s Dead to Rights — with Golden Rooster Best Actress winner Gao Ye shining– gathered more than $380 million and sets itself around the notorious Nanjing massacre and the real-life story of the picture studio that recorded the scary. It’s a gripping typically harsh tale– and includes 2 of China’s the majority of bankable stars in Gao and Liu Haoran (Investigator Chinatown.

Lan Hongchun’s Dear You — winner of both Special Jury Prize and Best Screenplay– gathered around $300 million and sets itself around the story of among the countless migrant Chinese households separated through financial requirement in the 1950s and ’60s. It’s a sluggish tear-jerker, and it stars a cast of total unknowns.

Dear You was the surprise hit of the year in China and it reached a passionate international audience. Lan was next to himself on phase. “It seems like I’m dreaming,” he stated. “I wish to thank my granny in paradise, due to the fact that she informed me a lot of stories when I was little.”

How Chinese Stories Are Going Global

Opening night under the stars at the Bailuzhou Park Water Square in Xiamen was a reward for the young households who loaded the place for the China launching of another movie that speaks with the Chinese diaspora and– the filmmakers hope– will to the domestic audience too.

The Singapore-Spain-Italy production The Violinist has actually currently won finest movie at the 2026 Annecy International Animation Film Festival and finest animated movie at the 19th Asia Pacific Screen Awards. Set amongst the Chinese neighborhood, it follows the fortunes of 2 youth good friends separated by war, and it had the audience, consisting of all those kids, transfixed.

“Singapore’s animation market is really little, and the nation is little too. With a production of this scale, one individual can’t do it alone,” co-director Ervin Han discussed. “We began by looking overseas for co-producers. As it occurred, we had a great deal of pals in the animation market. All together, we’re informing a story about a part of the history of us Singaporean Chinese.”

Manufacturer Cristiano Bortone likewise required to the phase before the best and detected what was among the main styles of this year’s celebration: sharing Chinese stories with the world. Bortone The Violinist “digs deeply into Chinese and Asian culture, while likewise catching a European design and perceptiveness.”

“This is the charm of mixing our cultures,” he included.

AI Creator Opens Up on New Tech

China’s next generation was out in force throughout the market occasions, and they essentially filled the space at the “Golden Rooster Film Academy II: Ark Lab AI” workshop.

Lan Tian, the imaginative director behind joint-generation AI design Seedance 2.5, took the space and didn’t avoid exploring its effect in what became an honest conversation about how the innovation was currently affecting the movie market.

The AI market has actually been accepted in China perhaps like anywhere else, and currently has actually an approximated worth of around $176 billion, while the short-drama and digital movie market is anticipated to top $6 billion this year. The pitch from Lan was on the cost savings the brand-new tech can supply.

“If you get a financial investment of one million, or less than one million you may be able to produce something that appears like it cost 10 million,” he stated.

Lan’s push was likewise to utilize his innovation as a tool that supports “truth.”

“My sweetheart is a star so I understand there is issue,” he stated. “The innovative method I’m discussing might just need a studio and some props that communicate with the stars. I desire this prop to be genuine, too. If I require to consume water, I desire the water to be genuine.”

Celebration Spotlight Turns to Young Filmmakers

While AI controlled procedures, it was motivating to see young filmmakers dedicated to the customs of movie theater out and about.

Yan Siyu was amongst those included throughout pitching sessions that put emerging skill in front of worldwide celebration and studio reps. Her launching Outdoors The Room of My Own focusses on the journey 3 generation of ladies who reclaim to their ancestral town, and she echoed the words of Zhang that had actually opened the entire week.

“I wish to connect to individuals to let them understand there is this movie in China. It’s a female director’s launching and I can state it’s an actually excellent movie,” she stated. “This movie is not simply my work, due to the fact that I have a great deal of individuals supporting me. I can’t let them down. It’s a story that originates from my heart– and in informing it I am sharing my inmost sensations.”