It is the right time to watch the film to kick up your heels in the spring. At the request of the majority of movie fans, in order to live up to the "Commitment of Meeting in Spring", the Organizing Committee of the Beijing International Film Festival (BJIFF) is hosting the Spring Online Screenings in partnership with iQiyi, the official online screening platform, in anticipation of meeting again with movie fans online for the cinematic feast in another form.
On April 29, the Spring Online Screenings, hosted by the Organizing Committee of the BJIFF in partnership with iQiyi, officially announced the new films to be screened. From May 1 to 5, 32 high-quality films will be screened in five major out-of-competition sections: Waves Ashore, Tropical Monsoon, Female Moments, Cinematic Chapter of History, and Sound Waves Rhapsody. The Oscar-winning film Marriage Story will serve as the opening film for limited online screenings, while Bombshell, a Golden Globe nomination, will be presented as the closing film. Meanwhile, Spring Tide, Wonder In The Temple, Judy and other high-quality new films will also be screened during the Spring Online Screenings, and one new quality film will be available to the subscribers during the May Day holiday on a daily basis. In addition, famous director Chen Kaige, actor Tong Dawei and actress Tan Zhuo will be invited as the curators to share the love and dreams in the movie world with movie fans.
The Spring Online Screenings will begin on May 1 and end on May 5. Marriage Story starring Scarlett Johansson will be screened as the opening film with limited availability on May 1, which was nominated for six major awards at the 92nd Academy Award and ended up winning the Best Supporting Actress. Besides, Wonder In The Temple against the backdrop of the Wenchuan Earthquake on May 12, 2008 and the Golden Goblet Awards-winning film Spring Tide will also be screened with limited availability on May 2 and 3, respectively. The Oscar-winning film Judy will go live on May 1. Bombshell, receiving two nominations for the Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress at the 77th Golden Globe Awards, will be selected as the closing film, elaborately dubbed in Chinese by iQiyi together with Shanghai Film Dubbing Studio in one month. The subscribers can freely choose the dubbing in different languages according to their preferences. At the same time, masterpieces from India, Italy, Spain, France, Ireland, the Philippines, and other countries/regions such as The Man who Feels No Pain, Happy as Lazzaro, Midnight in Paris, Diamond Island, Once, and Ma' Rosa, as well as several Chinese literary films including Chongqing Blues, Kaili Blues, Send Me to the Clouds and Mystery will also be included in the Spring Online Screenings. Not only are there masterpieces just winning the Oscar Awards, but also there are many literary films with a great reputation, an online continuation of the BJIFF’s responsibility to convey the diversity of the film, and also iQiyi’s perseverance in bringing high-quality literary films to viewers.
The Spring Online Screenings has also retained the ticket-grabbing session fans of the BJIFF Beijing Film Panorama are most concerned about. Since the tickets for the blockbusters to be screened are limited, movie fans can make an appointment for the ticket-grabbing time online, so that they can receive the notification to participate in ticket grabbing as the tickets are on sale online. The lucky ones can save their ticket stubs after the entry into the online movie theater with the ticket. In addition, many fresh moves will be added to the Spring Online Screenings to allow fans to experience the same sense of ceremony as that when they watch the film in the real world. For example, in the run-up to the Spring Online Screenings, movie fans can receive an exclusive invitation letter from the event organizer which can be shared with more friends for participation. Secondly, after watching any film, movie fans can light it up to generate a unique viewing poster and record where they were. All kinds of innovative moves are in response to the call for "watching the film online", so that movie fans who have not watched films for a long time can rekindle the enthusiasm, and once again feel the heat of a film festival and the fun of watching films.
In the context of being affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, a large number of films and film festivals around the world have been put off, leading to a significantly decreased number of new films available in the cinema. "Although the newly released 5 films to be screened in all at the Spring Online Screenings is not considered as a large number, we believe the subscribers can spend a pleasant mini-break with the wonderful stories of these films," said Song Jia, General Manager of iQiyi Film Business Center . "And we believe this is a good start—online screenings enable the audiences to regain the exciting moments of participating in the festival. Among others, they can grab tickets for their favorite films, everyone can watch and discuss a new film at the same time, and the scope of participation may be extended to more audiences who have never participated in a film festival. As for the selection of film types, we hope to be able to recommend various types of films to subscribers through online film exhibitions, so that they can see more diverse films. This is something that many international film festivals are doing, and we believe this is also important for creators. We hope such a principle can be continued online at the moment when the physical film festivals are postponed."
The highly anticipated offline Beijing Film Panorama of the BJIFF will return at the right time.We hope the Spring Online Screenings will provide more viewers with the convenience and enjoyment of watching the film by screening one newly released film available on a daily basis to accompany movie fans during the May Day holiday.For more information, stay tuned for the official Weibo accounts of the BJIFF and iQiyi Pictures. In the most beautiful season, we once again send an invitation to movie fans for the “commitment of meeting in spring”by presenting the most exciting films.