Film festivals serve as a vital bridge connecting audiences and creators, while also acting as a key platform to unite industry forces and empower professionals to advance their careers.
This year's BE SEEN Youth Actors Support Program, as the first actor-centered activity program at Beijing International Film Festival (BJIFF), was jointly launched by China Film Fund and BJIFF. It aims to build a training system for talented young actors, helping hidden stars break through the industry's fog and enabling more outstanding and promising young actors to be seen by the industry.
On the journey to being seen, young actors need both the nurturing guidance of industry veterans, grounded in practical experience, and companions to walk alongside them as they explore their career paths.
This year's BE SEEN Youth Actors Support Program will center around the BE SEEN Training Camp, with the BE SEEN Training Camp·Global Showcase as the ultimate showcase of its achievements. Through a virtuous industry ecological cycle, the program will effectively discover and improve the professional skills and expertise of young actors.
With the vision of returning to the soil of performance and helping talented young actors refine their craft, the inaugural BE SEEN Youth Actors Support Program adopts a unique format - adapting film and television works into theatrical productions. It brings together outstanding new-generation drama directors and talented young actors in the industry to co-create and perform four theater pieces adapted from screen projects. Selected actors will attend a 16-day intensive, closed-door rehearsal camp beginning April 3, culminating in showcase performances for market guests and audiences at the 15th BJIFF.
Beyond systematic and comprehensive drama rehearsals, the training camp will feature top industry professionals as mentors, providing young actors with multidimensional “first lessons” to help them navigate different stages of their careers and lives.
Zhang Hua, artistic director of the BE SEEN Youth Actors Support Program and professor at Beijing Film Academy, serves as the director of the BE SEEN Training Camp.
With over 50 years of experience in performance practice and teaching, Professor Zhang Hua remains at the forefront of performance education and scientific research. Among his many accomplished students are renowned actors such as Zhou Yiwei, Lin Jiachuan, Huang Lei, Xu Jinglei, and Bao Beier, all of whom have become well-known and popular film and television actors in recent years.
For this year's BE SEEN Training Camp, Professor Zhang Hua personally designed the daily schedule and curriculum. From actors' morning jogs and exercises to daily voice training, physicality courses, intensive performance rehearsals, and reflective “fireside chats” for review and discussion... this training campus is far more than just a creation rehearsal or a project delivery. It is an endurance test and a return to the original intentions of performance.
Under Professor Zhang Hua's guidance as the director, the BE SEEN Training Camp embraces the philosophy of mutual companionship and common growth. Two of his former students - Zhou Yiwei as Mentor of the Year and Lin Jiachuan as Senior of the Year - were specially invited. Together, they create a nurturing space where practitioners from three generations can connect, share insights, and inspire one another, facilitating professional inheritance and collaborative growth within the performing arts community.
Actor Zhou Yiwei serves as Mentor of the Year of the Training Camp.
Zhou Yiwei first showed his brilliance in Hai Yan's TV drama The Sun Shines Like Bloom, then gradually expanded his range of roles in Dying to Survive and The Longest Day in Chang'an, before transforming into multiple images in Brotherhood of Blades and Riverside Code at Qingming Festival. He has been heavily involved in the acting industry, interpreting various aspects of human life with a professional attitude and refining each image into a distinct performance model. As Mentor of the Year of the BE SEEN Youth Actors Support Program, Zhou Yiwei will share his experience and provide hands-on guidance, passing down the development path of becoming “good actors”. Through his mentorship, he aims to help the new generation of actors find their own ladders to the spotlight.
Actor Lin Jiachuan serves as Senior of the Year of the Training Camp.
As a graduate of the Beijing Film Academy, Lin Jiachuan has spent over 20 years crafting the growth story of a young actor. He made his screen debut in the 2003 sitcom At Your Service. Through subsequent performances in TV dramas such as Living Pride, You Are My Life, and Where Happiness Lies, he gradually established his reputation as a master of "slice-of-life acting". In 2018, Lin Jiachuan made his directorial debut with the urban romance TV drama Partners, demonstrating his artistic vision and control. In hit productions such as The Knockout, Endless Journey, Riverside Code at Qingming Festival, and The Tipping Point, he continues to unlock new possibilities, using each role to explore the depth and breadth of performance.
Beyond its accompanying coaching, the BE SEEN Training Camp has assembled an elite group of industry-leading creators to form a comprehensive mentor team. These mentors will provide multidimensional support to help young actors refine their craft in terms of dialogue , physicality, screenplay, and industry:
Dubbing Director Jiang Guangtao serves as Dialogue Mentor.
As a master of voice shaping, Jiang Guangtao has guided his dubbing team to breathe life into classic works such as Nirvana in Fire and Big Fish & Begonia with their remarkably expressive voices. Serving as the Dialogue Mentor for this Training Camp, Jiang Guangtao will guide actors through specialized voice training - including breath control and emotional projection - to help them turn written scripts into compelling performed dialogue.
Dancer Wang Yabin serves as Physicality Mentor.
As a principal dancer of Beijing Dance Academy's Youth Dance Company, artistic director of Yabin Studio, vice chair of the Beijing Dancers Association, and council member of the China Dancers Association, Wang Yabin has woven the Eastern poetics of Chinese dance into a universal language. Over 16 years of collaborating with 200 world-class artists, she has pioneered cross-cultural fusion and contemporary choreography, guiding actors to liberate their physicality and transform subtle gestures into eloquent storytelling.
Screenwriter Yang Jinsong serves as Screenplay Mentor.
Screenwriter Yang Jinsong, who has injected literary genes into classic works such as Youth So Long, My Son and Mostly Sunny as a literary planner, brings his creation thinking in multiple fields such as film and TV dramas, stage plays and non-fiction creation to the BE SEEN Training Camp. He will provide sharp guidance for the theatrical adaptation of four screen projects, helping young directors and actors spark creation inspiration through authentic inter-media perception.
Producer Ye Ning serves as Industry Mentor.
In the midst of seismic shifts in the film and television industry, young actors as practitioners face the difficult task of making personal decisions and predicting their future paths. They need industry navigators to help them pierce through the fog of uncertainty. This year's Training Camp has invited industry luminary producer Ye Ning to serve as mentor.
From crafting the fantasy universe of Mojin - The Lost Legend to producing the suspense comedy Detective Chinatown, film producer, supervisor and executive producer Ye Ning has always stood at the forefront of China's film industrialization process. With strategic foresight, he helps actors navigate their career trajectories. Ye Ning's participation will provide young actors with a macro-level industry perspective while delivering concrete, actionable guidance for their career development.
This year's BE SEEN Training Camp uses the form of adapting screen works into theatrical productions, focusing on actors' ability to sustain character arcs across continuous time and space. In this cross-media ecological experiment, Ding Yiteng, Asia's most powerful theater director of the new generation, serves as Guest Curator of the BE SEEN Training Camp, personally adapting and directing one of the four featured productions: the international thriller The Invisible Guest.
Ding Yiteng anchors the artistic vision of the BE SEEN Youth Actors Support Program's theatrical showcase with an annual curatorial statement inspired by theater master Stanislavski: “The only king and ruler of the stage is the talented actor.”
In an industry where specialization proliferates and boundaries constantly expand, the BE SEEN Youth Actors Support Program believes that the power of performance is still the foundation of narrative art. The first BE SEEN Youth Actors Support Program aims to use the theater stage as a medium to remove complexities of cinematic creation and help actors rediscover performance's transformative power in the spotlight, where every breath resonates with magnitude.
During this year's final review preparation meeting, Tian Hua, head of the China Film Fund's Film Performance Art Special Fund and founder of the BE SEEN Youth Actors Support Program, stated, “I hope to build a platform for young actors together with industry predecessors and peers so that more talented young actors can be seen.”
Tian Hua has served multiple times as the chief director and producer for prestigious national film award ceremonies, including China's Huabiao Film Awards, the China Film Golden Rooster Awards, the Golden Deer Awards at the Changchun International Film Festival, the Beijing College Student Film Festival, the Golden Phoenix Awards of the China Film Performance Art Academy, and the Recognition Conference of the China Film Directors' Guild. She will lead the team in connecting young actors with industry and academic resources, leveraging her years of professional experience and original intention to give back to the industry to create a heartwarming ecosystem for actors. This ecosystem allows more young actors to amplify their collective brilliance and explore new horizons of possibility.
The BE SEEN Training Camp mentorship structure creates a three-dimensional empowerment system of “methodology - practical experience - industry cognition”, resulting in a complete training framework.
From theoretical instruction to collaborative creation and close companionship, the BE SEEN Training Camp strives to build a professional yet heartwarming support system for young actors. Through 16 days of intensive coaching, co-creation research, and experience feedback, every spark of talent will find the energy to shine through.
Special Note: Notice on Extension of Registration Fee Waiver for Industry Partners and Market Guests of the BE SEEN Youth Actors Support Program
After a fair, impartial, and professional evaluation by five final review judges, 30 young actors have been successfully chosen for the program. To honor all participants' passion and dedication to performing arts, the BE SEEN Youth Actors Support Program will extend the original registration deadline for industry partners and market guests while waiving all fees for all qualified film and TV institutions willing to provide opportunities for young actors. This change aims to allow more industry partners to participate and provide more opportunities for young actors. Together, we will work to create a platform that champions talented performers and industry pioneers bold enough to embrace fresh faces - those truly committed to serving the art of “storytelling”. Through the authentic power of “performance”, we strive to drive market transformation and contribute to advancing the development of the film and television industry.
We will offer:
· Invitations to the BE SEEN Youth Actors Support Program Training Camp · Global Showcase, industry honor ceremonies and other events, delivering a super complete experience ticket for the core events of this year's BE SEEN Youth Actors Support Program.
· Dedicated sessions for production companies, including the BE SEEN Training Camp·Industry Open Day, the BE SEEN Training Camps · Global Showcase Industry Session, and industry negotiations. Gain direct access to promising new talents, engage in 1-on-1 collaboration discussions, and even audition potential candidates on the spot.
· Industry Workshops for market guests to help shape the future of the industry.
If you are an interested market guest, please scan the QR code below to get the registration form. Please complete and submit it to beseenmarket@163.com by April 15. We look forward to meeting you at the event and exploring potential collaborative opportunities.
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