The first competition for the Golden Panda Awards started on Tuesday, September 19, in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province. The awards at the festival, which takes the giant panda figure as a cultural symbol and organizes competitions on cinema and television works, are aimed at promoting global exchange and mutual understanding in the field of culture and aiming to bring China and the world closer together.
This year, the Golden Panda competition will give out 25 awards for films, television science fiction series, documentaries and animations. More than half of the 29 films that will be released in the cinema section come from outside China. Among the nine awards to be distributed, there are awards for the best film, the best director, the best screenwriter and the best photography manager.
The jury, chaired by the famous Chinese director Zhang Yimou, also includes Oscar-winning director Malcolm Clarke and animation master Georges Schwizgebel. Three main events will be organized during the festival; these are Golden Panda night, First Golden Panda cultural forum and Golden Panda ceremony.
During the nomination phase for the awards, the organizing committee invited candidates from all over the world, and a total of 104 candidates applied from 7 countries and regions of five continents. 24 of them, corresponding to 70 percent, came from foreign countries. After the first selection by the organizing committee, 4 works were selected to be shown in the competition due to the richness of their subject and content.
