Tiantan Award
Newcomers are privileged to be raw and bold.
They can express themselves out of instincts and intuition, free from guidance of big data on “preferences”, “genres” and “market”. They are yet to be polished. The new blood may have A, B and O blood types, or are creative and talented. They are one of their own kind on equal footing. They wish to access the round hole of the film industry as square pegs.
Young filmmakers look forward to being part of the film industry, and vice versa. A program to recruit new blood is therefore founded. We wish to show how candid and enthusiastic filmmakers get to the audience.
ReelFocus Program
▍What we’ve prepared
We are keenly aware that it takes a lot of luck to make newcomers seen. There are too many bold and outstanding rising directors remain to be discovered by the general public. We wish to gather the attention of senior professionals in the film and television industry towards new works by newcomers through the program. Let geniuses be seen, and help young filmmakers to transform from amateurs to professionals.
Initiated by BOSS ZHIPIN, the ReelFocus Program supports students from universities at home and abroad and young filmmakers. It includes a short film competition section and short film project pitches exclusively open to students. It’s committed to building an open platform for exchanges among filmmakers, expand employment channels for young filmmakers, and help young filmmakers become professional ones.
To those ends, the new edition plans to establish a support fund & prize money totaling approximately RMB 2 million so as to assist students-based filmmaking activities. It also intends to invite 20 renowned film and television companies in China to attend the screenings, thus bridging universities and film and television companies. Besides, the program will negotiate cooperation with platforms to distribute outstanding entries. 。
▍What you can do
The 14th BJIFF ReelFocus Program officially started its call for entries in October 2023. Just show us what you got.
Project pitches
The project pitches section of the 2024 ReelFocus Program will fund entrants to produce their projects. Why don’t you turn your exciting ideas into short films and stunt everyone?
Entries for the project pitches section must be projects in the study, filming or post-production stages; creators are required to submit their original screenplays or documentary proposals; short films are not allowed to be entered in the project pitches.
It’s open to projects of short films and documentaries with a runtime of 10 to 40 minutes.
Entrants must be current students.
Short film competition
The 2024 ReelFocus Program will present awards and prize money to outstanding projects and creators through review and selection so as to verify and support creativity from multiple dimensions.
The competition section calls for short films that have been completed on and after April 1, 2023.
It’s open to short films and documentaries with a runtime of 10 to 40 minutes.
A project/short film can only be entered in either section. No repeated entering will be allowed. Entrants are advised to choose at discretion.
▍What we’ve done and are doing
Through two successful editions, the program has incubated more than 20 excellent short films that won various awards.
Poster of the Roller Coaster
The Roller Coaster, a previous entry in the project pitches, was shortlisted in the Wide Angle-Asian Short Film Competition of the 28th Busan International Film Festival, and had its world premiere there.
Poster of the Soul of Coal
The Soul of Coal, a previous entry in the project pitches, was shortlisted in the competition section of the FIRST.
Poster of the Pink Flag
The Pink Flag was shortlisted in the FIRST FRAME, and won the Film of the Year at the 20th Vision Youth Awards organized by the Communication University of China. It was also shortlisted in one of the main activities of the China Golden Rooster & Hundred Flowers Film Festival—4th Golden Rooster Cross-Strait Hong Kong and Macao Youth Short Film Season @CGRFF.
Poster of the Sidewave
The Sidewave won the Best Documentary Director at the 20th Vision Youth Awards organized by the Communication University of China.
We are happy for those bold, passionate and candid rising directors to show themselves around the world. At the same time, we wish that more young filmmakers to join us, and explore possibilities of new blood.
Official website: https://reelfocus.zhipin.com/
E-mail: reelfocus@outlook.com /
WeChat account: ReelFocus