The 7th Pingyao International Film Festival will kick off on October 11 in the ancient city of Pingyao, Jinzhong, Shanxi. The list of shortlisted films for the "Hidden Dragon·Short Film" event was announced today. The "Haomiao Project" short film "She Asks", produced by Tianhao Shengshi Entertainment, directed by Wen Qi and Zheng Ziyi, and starring Wen Qi, was successfully shortlisted and will be joined by 11 other outstanding Chinese short films. Jointly compete for "Fei Mu Honor·Best Short Film".
The feature film script project "Love is the Most Useless Thing", with Wen Qi as producer, was also successfully shortlisted for the "Pingyao Venture Capital" unit of this year's Pingyao International Film Festival.
Emerging young filmmakers have repeatedly achieved great success at film festivals
The short film "She Asks" premiered at the 25th Shanghai International Film Festival in June this year and was shortlisted for the Golden Goblet Award International Short Film Competition. Now it has been confirmed as a finalist for the Pingyao International Film Festival Short Film Competition. Good results are reported frequently, which is exciting.
Young directors Wen Qi (right) and Zheng Ziyi (left) attended the post-screening meeting of the short film at the Shanghai International Film Festival
The short film is directed by Zhou Hao as the chief producer and producer, Shan Zuolong as the executive producer, and Wang Siyu, Zeng Chen, and Li Xiaoyuan as co-producers Produced by Wen Qi and directed by Zheng Ziyi, starring Wen Qi, it tells the story of an ordinary girl's thoughts. Gu Huai, 19, lives alone in the city. The childhood trauma caused by her mother's violence left her with fragmentation in her life and heart. In an accidental astronomy class, Gu Huai came into contact with the poet Qu Yuan's "Heavenly Questions". Through the interpretation of this poem, Gu Huai seemed to have found an exit in the darkness.
The two directors used the poems in Qu Yuan's "Heavenly Questions" as clues to open up the thoughts of the female patron Gu Huai, inspire her ideological changes, and explore the self-growth of teenagers. "Everything in the world, from the mysteries of the universe to a certain thing or a person, is extremely complex. There are too many questions that we have no way of knowing. We don't know what the real answer is, and we can't really define what kind of The answer must be the truth. So, just as we don’t know all the truth in heaven but can still live each day well, sometimes the best answer is to stop clinging to an answer and move on. Sometimes the so-called Reconciliation means having the courage to stop asking questions."
It is worth mentioning that Wen Qi, who won the special commendation award for audience voting at the first Pingyao Film Festival for her superb performance in "Carnival", once again brought two new works with multiple identities. Shortlisted, she was recognized as a director and producer for the first time. From the first Pingyao Film Festival in 2017 to the present, Pingyao has witnessed Wen Qi's growth. Wen Qi, who is studying acting in the Class of 2021 at the Central Academy of Drama, has focused on her studies in recent years and has not had many exposed works. However, with the debut of each new work, we can be surprised to see that her image as a multi-dimensional and professional filmmaker is growing. Just like this Pingyao International Film Festival, whether she is directing and starring in the short film "She Asks" or serving as the producer of the feature film "Love is the Most Useless Thing", we can all see Wen Qi's multi-dimensional efforts around "female growth" Artistic exploration, multi-faceted potential has begun to emerge, and the future is exciting.
Film and television agents drive the whole process to support Haomiao, a new force in Chinese film and television.
It is reported that the short film "She Asks" is produced by Tianhao Shengshi Entertainment's creator cooperation program "Haomiao Project". It is the follow-up to the short film "Seaside" that won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes International Film Festival. Another masterpiece released after "Raising a Cliff".
"Haomiao Plan" is a long-term support plan for creative talents that Tianhao Shengshi Entertainment continues to promote in order to implement its original intention of empowering cutting-edge content creators. It covers diverse fields such as movies, dramas, and animations. Since the launch of the "Haomiao Project", Tianhao Shengshi Entertainment has continuously mobilized young film and television forces and successively signed young directors such as Chen Jianying and Che Yusheng. At the same time, relying on the complementary and win-win foundation of Tianhao Shengshi Entertainment’s film and television, agency, metaverse, and music businesses, Tianhao’s agency business also provides outstanding talents for the “Haomiao Project” and is deeply involved in co-creating high-quality content. This program provides creators with full-process support for film and television creation, and jointly creates diverse types of works with both artistic aesthetics and humanistic value.
With the support of the "Haomiao Project", the short film "A Cliff Rises from the Sea" directed by Chen Jianying won the Cannes International Film Festival Short Film Palme d'Or and many other international film festival honors. The first film "The Story No One Knows" won the 25th Shanghai International Film Festival Film Project Venture Capital·Alibaba Pictures pays special attention to the project. The short film "She Asks" co-directed by Wen Qi and Zheng Ziyi has been shortlisted for the short film competition units of the Shanghai International Film Festival and Pingyao International Film Festival. The national IP short drama "Summer Arbors and Yawang Paradise" directed by Che and Stone has also been completed recently.
The cutting-edge forces in film and television have gathered together and high-quality content has been released frequently. We look forward to this program continuing to inject vitality and creativity into the Chinese film and television industry and bring more exciting works that reflect the spirit of the times.