Chinese and foreign students hand in hand, cultural exchange, heart to heart

A few days ago, Qilu No.1 Experimental Primary School held a Chinese-foreign cultural exchange activity with the theme of "small hands and big hands, together with the future". The activity invited 20 international students from Egypt, Pakistan, Bangladesh and other countries to the school to have cultural exchanges with more than 200 teachers and students. During the activity, the international students shared their festivals, diets and customs, while the students listened carefully and interacted actively, and the atmosphere was warm.

The White House shouted: "End the war as soon as possible"! Israeli Prime Minister: Continue to fight until "absolute victory"

According to Agence France-Presse reported on December 14th, the White House said on the 14th that the United States hoped that the war between Israel and Hamas would end "as soon as possible". Earlier, the Israeli Defense Minister told visiting US Presidential National Security Assistant jack sullivan that the war would continue for several months.

John Kirby, spokesman for the White House National Security Council, said that during his visit to Tel Aviv, Sullivan also discussed the issue of changing Israel’s military operations in Gaza into "low-intensity operations" in the near future.

According to the report, the rising number of civilian casualties in the Gaza Strip has deepened the contradiction between the two allies of the United States and Israel.

Kirby said at the press conference: "I think we all hope that the war will end as soon as possible." He also claimed that if Hamas gave in, the war "could end today", but "it seems unlikely now".

Kirby said that the US government has not "imposed demands" on Israel, and the timetable given by Israeli Defense Minister Joyaf galante is "consistent" with the previous statements of many Israeli officials.

However, the spokesman also said that during his visit to Israel, Sullivan raised "sharp questions" to Israeli officials about Israel’s offensive plan.

Kirby said: "Sullivan did talk about the possibility of transitioning from high-intensity actions we are seeing to low-intensity actions in the near future. But I don’t want to give a timetable for this. "

The Israeli Prime Minister told the United States: Continue to fight until "absolute victory."

According to a report by Reuters on December 14th, according to a statement issued by the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Netanyahu told visiting US Presidential National Security Assistant jack sullivan on the 14th that Israel would continue its war against Hamas until it "won an absolute victory".

According to reports, Netanyahu said that he and Sullivan discussed regional threats, including Iran’s agent Hezbollah in Lebanon and its agent Houthi in Yemen, to ensure the safe return of hostages held by Hamas and continue to provide humanitarian assistance to civilians in Gaza.

The statement reads: "I told our American friends that our heroic soldiers did not fall in vain. Inspired by the deep sorrow of their fall, we will continue to fight more resolutely than ever before until Hamas is eliminated-until we win an absolute victory. "

According to a report by DPA on December 14th, Hamas leader ismail haniya pointed out in his speech on the evening of 13th that all post-war plans in Gaza Strip excluding Hamas are "fantasy" and "delusion".

Chana also confirmed that he was willing to negotiate "all proposals or initiatives to end this aggression".

Chana said that Hamas is willing to hold talks on a possible political path to "ensure the right of the Palestinian people to have an independent state with Jerusalem as its capital".

Editor-in-Chief: Zhao Hanlu

Text Editor: Fang Ying

Author: Reference News

Source: Xinhua News Agency

Photo Editor: Zhu Ying

Rich film list! The summer box office in 2023 will return to the 10 billion era.


Special feature of 1905 film network In 2023, the Dragon Boat Festival entered the countdown and won at the starting line. At present, the total box office of the two films is more than 20 million, making them the top seed players.


With the opening of the Dragon Boat Festival, the balance in June is insufficient. In July, which played a connecting role in the summer file, with the addition of two foreign films, the lineup of films was more abundant.


Up to now, in 2023, many imported films have been booked and released in China. Coupled with a number of domestic blockbusters previously scheduled, the box office of the summer file in 2023 will return to the era of 10 billion.



Filmmakers hope that all the films in the schedule will sell well.


It has become normal for the imported movie "Bao Tuan" to land in the first month of the summer file.


The same is true in 2023, with 9 foreign films scheduled for June. Among them, "Transformers 7", "Speed and Passion 10" and many other foreign films are temporarily in the TOP10 of the single-chip box office list in June.


"First of all, many films are scheduled in North America in the summer, and the simultaneous release in the mainland can guarantee the box office revenue of the films. If they are shown later, the pirated resources will be leaked in advance and the plot will be spoiled." Cheng Fei, CEO of Top Data, shared his views on the phenomenon that many imported films choose to be released in summer. He admits that the summer file has a time span of three months, and for imported films, there is plenty of room for box office.


According to the statistics of Top Data’s summer box office in recent years, the primary factor for imported movies to achieve high box office during this period is the quality of film content. For example, in early May, under the premise of serious loss of foreign film audience, with excellent reputation, it achieved almost the same box office results as the previous film. At present, the film has exceeded 36.6 million yuan, ranking 9 th in the single box office list of the mainland film market in June.


Secondly, IP size is also an important factor affecting the box office performance of foreign films in summer. For example, Speed and Passion 10, which is being released, has won a cumulative box office of nearly 1 billion yuan with IP blessing, although its reputation is average.



At present, 20 films have been scheduled in July 2023. In terms of imported movies, Mission Impossible 7 has a high degree of market recognition. In terms of domestic films, etc., the online ticketing platform wants to see the top number of people.


Among these films, Cheng Fei said that "the box office of domestic films is greatly influenced by word of mouth, and the word-of-mouth feedback of the premiere of" octagonal cage "is positive; The "Enthusiasm" unveiled at the Shanghai Film Festival has received rave reviews in the industry; There is no word-of-mouth exposure in the production level, showing a large temperament; It attracted a large audience on the streaming media platform. " In terms of imported films, "Mission Impossible 7" was praised by overseas media in the early stage, or became the box office champion of imported films in summer.



For the cinema, the summer file is also an important schedule that affects the annual revenue.


"I think as a filmmaker, I may prefer to sell all the films in the schedule. After the epidemic, the whole industry is working hard from top to bottom. We don’t want only one explosive movie in a schedule, because one explosive can’t support the whole schedule. " Cai Xiaoxue, director of operation of UME Studios, bluntly said that the efforts of all parties in the film industry are aimed at creating a win-win situation of "letting a hundred flowers blossom and a hundred schools of thought contend". Only when the schedule is good can the market remain dynamic.


At present, the 2023 summer movie list can be described as colorful. Cai Xiaoxue believes that this film list can attract more main moviegoers to enter the cinema. According to the characteristics of the scheduled passenger flow, UME Studios also launched preferential movie viewing activities for students and graduates.



Summer box office may return to the era of 10 billion


In 2019, it became a watershed in the summer box office of the mainland film market.


Since 2015, the overall box office of this period has exceeded the 10 billion mark for five consecutive years and reached a record high of 17.778 billion yuan in 2019. Since then, affected by the epidemic, the box office of the summer file fell to 7.181 billion yuan in 2021 and rose to 9.135 billion yuan in 2022.


By 6: 00 pm on June 20th, the box office of summer file in 2023 had reached 1.66 billion yuan, exceeding the level of the same period last year. In July, due to the rich types of films in the market and the balanced volume, the box office in a single month is expected to create a new high after the epidemic. August, etc., with a certain market recognition.


In this context, the summer file in 2023 is expected to return to the era of billions.



"The first mainland box office of the Megalodon series produced by our Chinese film industry sold for 1 billion yuan. The second new combination with Jason Statham will make the potential audience base even larger. " Cai Xiaoxue admits that he is full of confidence in the return of the summer file in 2023 to the era of 10 billion box office. In the August film list, she believes that Megalodon 2: Abyss can have a good box office performance.


Cheng Fei also believes that it is easier for the summer box office to exceed 10 billion in 2023, but it is difficult to challenge the best results in 2019. At the same time, he also admitted that the market could not reach the best level in history overnight and needed a gradual process. According to Top Box Office Forecast System, the summer box office in 2023 is expected to fluctuate from 11 billion yuan to 13 billion yuan.



As we all know, July and August have become the main ticket warehouses for summer files. According to statistics, in the last five summer vacations, July and August won the monthly box office champion for two times and three times respectively. With the coming of these two months, the competition in the summer movie market will become more intense.


In the summer of 2023, audiences hope to see more excellent films, and filmmakers hope to see more win-win situations. The upcoming Dragon Boat Festival will also set off a wave of movie climax.


Who can be the biggest winner when the local life is shuffled?

In 2023, the competition among Internet platforms became increasingly fierce, and all major platforms were actively seeking innovation and breakthrough. In this smoke-filled Internet environment, the competition in local life is particularly noticeable.

From Meituan and Ali, to Tik Tok and Aauto Quicker, to Xiaohongshu and video number, they have entered the local life field one after another as an important strategic direction.It has gradually become the new normal of the development of the Internet industry to provide local life services that meet the personalized needs of users through various means such as price wars, service upgrades and technological innovation.

In such a year full of opportunities and challenges, the local life platform is facing unprecedented competitive pressure. With the coming of the new year, this comprehensive and fierce competition will also enter a new stage.

Local life platform melee 2023

Looking back on the local life platform in 2023, this year is undoubtedly full of high-speed development.

From the perspective of layout, all major platforms have tried their best, for fear that competitors will seize the initiative if they are not careful.

Especially, Meituan, which has been the industry leader for a long time, has become the target of siege by many platforms, and its anxiety has become more and more obvious. In order to alleviate this anxiety, the US Mission had to carry out in-depth layout frequently.

No, a few days ago, Meituan revised the short video channel again, adding local channels in addition to the original attention and recommendation interface.

Source: Yibang Power

At present, this new channel has been popularized and applied nationwide, and most of the jump links in the interface point to the core catering businesses of Meituan. For businesses such as comprehensive, wine travel and beauty, Meituan has not yet opened a link with the short video function.

To put it simply, Meituan closely combines short video content with local life business, hoping to enhance user experience and increase user participation and stickiness in this way.

Combined with the layout of live broadcast and short video in the first-class traffic portal this year, short video and live broadcast are obviously the core layout of the local life of the US Mission in 2023.

Having said that, let’s turn our attention to its biggest competitor, Tik Tok. Recently, Tik Tok continues to explore stores and group purchases as an important way for local life merchants to gain increment on its platform.

In the aspect of talent shop exploration, Tik Tok Life Service launched the "Good Life Discovery Plan", and invested 500 million yuan to help businesses find high-quality talent, so as to further explore the field of shop exploration.

In terms of low-priced group buying, Tik Tok Group Buying Channel has been adjusted for a new round, adding three modules: special group buying, hot list and free trial, which further strengthens consumers’ awareness of low prices and special offers.

Source: Tik Tok App screenshot

In 2023, the layout of Tik Tok and Meituan shows an obvious trend. Both sides are trying to break into each other’s hinterland, trying to expand their respective market share and attract more local life users and businesses.This kind of competition may bring more benefits and benefits to consumers; At the same time, it is also a good opportunity for merchants to show their products and services.

Meituan expanded its business scope by attacking Tik Tok, while Tik Tok explored the advantages of Meituan to find new growth points. In order to seize the market share, both sides sacrificed their own killers.

Where is the key to competition?

Besides Meituan and Tik Tok, platforms such as Ali, Aauto Quicker, Little Red Book and Video Number are also deepening their layout and development in the local life field.

Let’s take a look at the old rival of Meituan, Ali.

This year, Ali’s big move in the field of local life is to merge Gao De and Word of Mouth, which undoubtedly injected new vitality into Ali’s layout in the field of local life. At the same time, the increase in the order volume brought by the high-tech aggregation platform has also enabled the active users of Ali’s local life sector to continue to grow, setting a record high.

According to the financial report of the second quarter of fiscal year 2024, the revenue of Ali Local Life Group increased by 16% year-on-year to 15.564 billion yuan, which was mainly driven by the hungry and the strong growth of Gaode business. The order increased by nearly 20% year-on-year, and the adjusted EBITA was a loss of 2.564 billion yuan, which was an improvement compared with the loss of 3.328 billion yuan in the same period of 2022.

Source: screenshot of Alibaba’s second quarter financial report for fiscal year 2024

From this point of view, Ali has made great progress and development in the local life field with the effective growth of Gao De and Hungry.

As for platforms such as Aauto Quicker, Little Red Book and Video Number, although they entered the local life field relatively late, they paid top-down attention to this life business.

Aauto Quicker accelerates to fill the shortcomings of home business, and provides faster and more convenient home service through cooperation with merchants; The video number cooperates with local life merchants through short videos and live broadcasts to provide consumers with a more intuitive and vivid shopping experience; Xiaohongshu provides consumers with more diversified local life recommendations and experiences by sharing community attributes.

In terms of action, this year, Aauto Quicker has adopted a market positioning of stimulating consumption at low prices and paying attention to community atmosphere, and organized people to produce store-exploring content through short videos to continuously create a more "grounded" local consumption experience for users.

The video number launched the local life component this year, and used the traffic advantage to open up online and offline channels for businesses.

Xiaohongshu entered the local life track step by step through the internal test group purchase function, and launched the food distribution shop plan and the searchlight plan.

The layout and development of these platforms have more or less promoted the innovation and development of local life services and injected new vitality and opportunities into the entire industry track.

From Meituan and Tik Tok to Ali and Aauto Quicker, and then to Xiaohongshu and video number, the layout of local life has become something that major Internet platforms have to do.

At present, the local life industry is in the initial stage of rapid development, and opportunities and challenges coexist. At this stage, innovation and quality become the key factors of platform competition, and the platform must pay attention to user experience and word-of-mouth construction in order to maintain a leading position in the market.

In other words, in the face of increasingly fierce market competition, only by constantly improving their own strength and actively seizing market share can major local life platforms be in an invincible position.

Local life opens up all-round competition

As we all know, competition is often cruel, because it involves many aspects such as market share, user resources and market influence.

Especially this year, the remarkable trend of the local life platform is to shift from the C-end battlefield to the B-end battlefield. In this process, players from all walks of life have invested resources to grab the market, and the competition for merchants and service providers has intensified.

As expected, Tik Tok has launched four management products, including Tik Tok Laike, Tik Tok Linke, Tik Tok Jixing and Tik Tok Shoppers, in order to improve the business ability and work efficiency of merchants.

Meituan has launched a small program "Meituan Circle Shop Exploration" to match merchants and talents, as well as a new marketing tool for merchants "Shenqiangshou" and an information management tool App "Qingyun Juxin" for merchants’ one-stop performance management capabilities.

Source: Qingyun Juxin Guanwei

Aauto Quicker, whose product technology is more mature, Xiaohongshu, which has a strong grass planting property, and the video number backed by WeChat private domain ecology will all release great potential in the field of local businesses and service providers, and become rivals that cannot be ignored by Meituan and Tik Tok.

Paying attention to the B-side has obviously become an important strategy for the above Internet platforms in the field of local life.

There are two main reasons why they attach so much importance to B-side: First, with the decline of mobile Internet traffic dividends and technology dividends, the growth rate of users is gradually slowing down, and the platform needs to seize every opportunity to obtain increments, and the B-side market is an important way for them to obtain increments; Second, by strengthening cooperation with merchants, we can meet users’ scenarios, multi-industry and diversified needs, and enhance the market competitiveness of the platform, thus maintaining a leading position in the highly competitive market.

However, the transformation is not a simple matter, which not only means that the platform needs to pay attention to consumer demand and cooperation and win-win with merchants at the same time, but also must constantly improve its service level and user experience and actively adapt to market changes.

Only in this way can the local life platform represented by Meituan maintain a leading position in the highly competitive market.

At present, it seems that the local life industry has not yet won this year, and the future direction of competition is still full of variables. But what is certain is that the local life industry will face all-round competition, and new stories will be staged in 2024.

Author | Li Xiang

Reporting/feedback

These ten major events this week will affect your life and mine.

  Cctv news: It’s the weekend again! What important policies did the country release this week? How will it affect your life? Xiaobian takes you back to see one by one!

  In 2030, healthy China will be like this!

  The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council recently issued the "Planning Outline of Healthy China 2030",By 2030, China’s main health indicators will enter the ranks of high-income countries, and the average life expectancy will increase by about 3 years from the current level, reaching 79 years.

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  As a grand blueprint and action plan to promote the construction of a healthy China, the outline defines the goal of building a healthy China: by 2020, a basic medical and health system with China characteristics covering urban and rural residents will be established, the level of health literacy will continue to improve, the health service system will be perfect and efficient, and everyone will enjoy basic medical and health services and basic sports and fitness services, basically forming a healthy industrial system with rich connotations and reasonable structure, and the main health indicators will be in the forefront of middle-and high-income countries.

  Pensions are really coming into the market!

  On the morning of October 25th, Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security held a press conference, and Jong Li, a press spokesman, revealed the new progress of pension entering the market. Jong Li said that it will start the investment and operation of pension funds, organize the first batch of entrusted provinces to sign contracts with the Social Security Fund, and announce the first batch of pension fund management institutions.

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  Jong Li said that the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security has implemented the Measures for the Administration of Investment in Basic Endowment Insurance Funds, and has set up a working group with relevant departments to formulate relevant plans.

  "At present, some provinces have formulated specific plans and formed plans for entrusted investment. The next step will be to organize the first batch of entrusted provinces to sign contracts with the Social Security Fund Council during the year. At the same time, the Social Security Fund Council will take the lead in organizing the review Committee, select the first batch of pension fund management institutions, and officially start the investment operation. " Jong Li said that under the premise of ensuring safety, the life-saving money of ordinary people will be truly preserved and increased.

  China Banking Regulatory Commission speaks to the property market: strictly control the risks of real estate financial business.

  On October 22nd, official website of China Banking Regulatory Commission released the contents of the third quarter economic and financial situation analysis meeting of China Banking Regulatory Commission.

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  The meeting proposed that banking financial institutions should continuously improve the level of risk management and effectively resolve the credit risk in the overcapacity field; Strictly control the risks of real estate finance business, strictly implement the regulatory requirements and policies of real estate loan business, prudently carry out the business related to real estate agents and housing enterprises, standardize the management of various loan businesses, strictly prohibit the illegal distribution or misappropriation of credit funds into the real estate sector, strengthen the investment management of wealth management funds, strictly prohibit bank wealth management funds from illegally entering the real estate sector, and strengthen the compliance operation of real estate trust business; Strengthen the management of liquidity risk, strengthen the management of inter-bank, wealth management and investment, and reasonably match the term structure of assets and liabilities; And prevent external risks from spreading to the banking industry.

  9 provinces and cities college entrance examination registration time determined

  It is reported that nine provinces and cities including Beijing, Jiangsu and Anhui have announced the registration time for the 2017 college entrance examination. Judging from the announcement, the registration time for the college entrance examination is mainly concentrated in November. See the specific stamp map ↓ ↓

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  Fares for routes below 800 kilometers will be liberalized, and there will be more special short-distance air tickets.

  The Notice on Deepening the Reform of Domestic Air Passenger Transport Fares in Civil Aviation issued by the Civil Aviation Administration of China and the National Development and Reform Commission (hereinafter referred to as the Notice) will be implemented on November 1, and the notice requires to further expand the range of market-regulated routes, and the passenger transport fares for routes below 800 kilometers and above 800 kilometers that compete with high-speed EMU trains shall be independently set by airlines according to law.

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  At the same time, the notice stipulates that the specific fare types, levels and applicable conditions for airlines to formulate and adjust market-adjusted price routes should be announced to the public at least 7 days in advance. On the basis of full fare, the cumulative fare increase of airlines on each route shall not exceed 10%, and no more than 10 fare increase routes shall be allowed in each season.

  Samsung Note7 can’t get on the plane!

  On October 26th, official website of the Civil Aviation Administration issued an announcement: In order to ensure the safety of air transportation, from October 27th, 2016, the Civil Aviation Administration prohibited passengers and crew members from carrying Samsung Galaxy Note 7 mobile phones with them or in their hand luggage; It is strictly forbidden to put the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 mobile phone into the consignment luggage; It is strictly forbidden to collect and transport Samsung Galaxy Note 7 mobile phones as air cargo.

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  The Civil Aviation Administration requires airlines, their ground service agents and air sales agents to fulfill the obligation of informing the above provisions in the aspects of ticket sales, check-in procedures and cargo collection and transportation. Those who violate the above provisions will be severely dealt with by public security organs and civil aviation administrative organs according to the circumstances and relevant state laws and regulations.

  A number of enterprises signed an anti-"speculation" agreement and "swipe the bill" will be cancelled.

  On October 25th, the signing ceremony of the anti-speculation information sharing agreement was held in the National Development and Reform Commission. Representatives from eight enterprises, including Alibaba, Tencent, JD.COM, 58 Tongcheng, Didi Kuaidi, Baidu, Qihoo 360 and SF, signed an anti-speculation information sharing agreement.

  When shopping online, people often refer to the credit rating or users’ evaluation of merchants. Merchants with high credit rating and high praise will undoubtedly gather higher popularity. "Speculation of letters" is the use of various ways and means to conduct suspected false transactions, speculation of credit and other acts.

  Under the framework of Anti-speculation Information Sharing Agreement, a blacklist of "speculation letters" will be established and regularly shared, which will be pushed to enterprises, law enforcement departments and other units to jointly punish the organizers of "speculation letters". Penalties mainly include restricting newly established accounts, shielding or deleting existing accounts, restricting the release of goods and services, restricting participation in various marketing or promotional activities, deducting credit points, and lowering credit rating.

  The State Administration for Industry and Commerce carries out supervision and law enforcement in key areas of online consumer rights protection.

  The State Administration for Industry and Commerce recently announced that it will take about three years to carry out supervision and law enforcement in key areas of online consumer rights protection, effectively curb infringement and counterfeiting in the Internet field, and further improve the level of online consumer rights protection. In the future, online shopping rights protection will be easier.

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  The State Administration for Industry and Commerce requires that the quality sampling inspection of online commodities be included in the annual sampling inspection plans of various places and make overall arrangements. Highlight key commodities such as digital electronics and household appliances that are hot-selling online and consumers have concentrated their problems, and carry out targeted sampling inspection of online commodities. At the same time, supervision should adhere to the problem orientation, investigate and deal with illegal cases of online commodity quality according to law, increase the punishment for illegal acts of online commodity operators selling unqualified commodities, and order them to immediately stop selling and delete illegal commodity information.

  It involves commodities that endanger personal and property safety and do not meet mandatory standards, and at the same time requires the relevant online trading platform providers to immediately block illegal shops or commodity information and stop providing trading platform services for related commodities.

  The method for identifying destitute people is announced: the aid and support system is more open.

  The Ministry of Civil Affairs recently promulgated the "Measures for the Identification of Extremely Poor Persons". The method focuses on the identification conditions, identification procedures, and evaluation criteria for the self-care ability of poor people. In terms of identification conditions, the method clarifies the "three noes" applicable to the identification of extremely poor people, that is, no ability to work, no source of income, no fixed maintenance, maintenance, and the inability of the maintenance obligor or its legal obligor to perform its obligations.

  The method is clear. If the total income is lower than the local minimum living standard, and the property conforms to the provisions on the property status of local destitute personnel, it shall be deemed as "no source of income" as mentioned in these Measures. In terms of the identification procedure, the method refers to the minimum living security review and approval method, and refines the work requirements of the application, acceptance, review and approval of assistance and support for poor people.

  Five ministries and commissions issued a document to strengthen basic medical and health care services throughout childbirth.

  Five ministries and commissions, including the National Health and Family Planning Commission, recently issued "Several Opinions on Strengthening Basic Medical and Health Care Services in the Whole Birth Period". The Opinions pointed out that it is necessary to adjust and expand maternal and child health service resources as soon as possible, actively promote the sinking of high-quality maternal and child health service resources, focus on improving the ability of pregnant women and newborns to treat critical illness, comprehensively strengthen the training and use of urgently needed professionals, and strive to solve the contradiction between supply and demand of maternal and child health service resources in the early period of the 13 th Five-Year Plan, and strive to increase the number of obstetricians and midwives by 140,000 during the 13 th Five-Year Plan period.

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Create a box office miracle and gain industry recognition. In 2023, female filmmakers will go further.

[Global Times special correspondent Dong Ming] In the coming year of 2023, female filmmakers will shine brilliantly. In Europe and America, from the Oscar at the beginning of the year to the Cannes Film Festival and summer file in the middle of the year, and then to the nomination of the Golden Globe Award at the end of the year, a series of works dominated by women, focusing on women’s themes and paying attention to women’s perspectives, have taken a huge step forward this year, both in box office appeal and artistic level. Compared with male filmmakers, although the overall proportion of women, especially those behind the scenes, is still not high, this trend is gratifying. At the same time, there is still room for women to break through and stabilize in many aspects of the film and television industry.
"She changed the status quo."
Last week, Cannes Film Festival announced that female directors, screenwriter and actress greta gerwig will be the chairman of the jury of the main competition unit in 2024, and she will become the first American woman to play this important role in Cannes history. Cannes announced that "greta gerwig is a hero of our time, and she has changed the status quo in this highly standardized film industry and this era that needs careful examination".
This extremely high evaluation of Cannes also received Gerwig’s own enthusiastic feedback: "I love movies, like to create movies and comment on movies. As a movie lover, Cannes has always been the peak of the language of movies. I am surprised, excited and honored to be the chairman of the Cannes jury, and I can’t wait to feel this experience. "
Gerwig, who just turned 40 this year, is not only the youngest chairman of the Cannes jury after Italian actress sophia loren in 1966, but also the first American female directors to hold this position. The last time female directors was the chairman, it was jane campion from New Zealand in 2014. In the history of Cannes, it is usually a veteran filmmaker, a world-recognized master director and an honorary acting star who can serve as the chairman, and Gerwig can win the favor of the organizers precisely because her work Barbie, which was released this summer, "shocked the world", achieved unprecedented success at the box office and word of mouth, and really "changed the film industry".
On December 4, 2023, greta gerwig, California, USA, attended the 2023 San Francisco International Film Festival Awards Gala. (Source vision china)
Barbie, a comedy with a female theme and created by women, earned $1.4 billion at the global box office. Gerwig also surpassed China female directors and actor Jia Ling to become the world’s highest-grossing female directors, even more dazzling than Oppenheimer, which was dominated by men in the same period. In the list of finalists for the Golden Globe Awards announced not long ago, Barbie led with nine nominations. Both Gerwig’s previous works, Frances Ha, as an actor, and Lady Bird Little Women, as a director and screenwriter, have reflected a unique female perspective, and created a suitable stage for Saoirse Ronan and Margot Elise Robbie, which can be regarded as a master of current female filmmakers.
"superhero" in reality
Coincidentally, another Berlin Film Festival, which is very important in the world film industry, recently announced that lupita nyongo, an African-American actress, will be the chairman of the main competition next year, which is the first time in the film festival history that a Hollywood colored actress has held this important position. With her talent and hard work, this Kenyan actress not only gained a firm foothold in Hollywood, but also won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress (12 Years a Slave) and gained high popularity in superhero movies like Black Panther, which is enough to inspire more women of different ethnic groups and cultures to enter this industry.
At the Oscar ceremony at the beginning of this year, "Instant Universe", starring Chinese actress Yang Ziqiong and telling the life and affection of Asian American women, won seven awards, including best film. At the age of 61, Yang Ziqiong became the first Asian woman to win the Oscar for best actress.
Yang Ziqiong, who holds a golden statuette, encouraged Asian teenagers to pursue their dreams bravely at the award ceremony, telling women never to give up and not to accept other people’s definitions easily, especially mothers all over the world deserve thanks, because they are "superheroes" in reality. After The Instant Universe and Yang Ziqiong won the Oscar, more and more similar themes began to explore the strong, brave and persistent side of women, and promoted the continuous emergence of female filmmakers.
"This year is a great progress."
Nowadays, it is an indisputable fact that women’s themes are very popular around the world and there are many excellent works by female filmmakers. In the past, films, awards and film festivals dominated by men had to face up to this trend. Not only Cannes and Berlin invited women to chair the jury, but also Cate Blanchett, Kristen Stuart and Julian Moore held this position a few years ago, and the jury led by women will also pay more attention to the works directed by women.
This year, the best film in Cannes was awarded to the French female directors Justine Trier’s The Trial of Falling, which is the second time that female directors won the Palme d ‘Or in three years after Titanium in 2021. It’s not that the female judges are leaning towards female directors. In fact, the high artistic level of The Trial of Falling has been widely recognized, including the European Film Festival at the end of the year and many professional awards, which are also praising this serious work about criminal trial. "The Trial of Falling" and "Barbie" are both an art and a business, which prove that in the current world film industry, female directors can also shoot what a male director can shoot, and female directors can also earn what a male director can earn.
Manorak Dargis, a columnist in The New York Times, is quite optimistic about the "feminine style" in the world film industry: "For the first time in history, I am optimistic about the performance of women in the film industry. Since Viguero’s hurt locker won the Oscar in 2009, we are experiencing a drastic change in women and movies, an upgrade in quantity and consciousness. "
According to the analysis of the Golden Globe nomination, Forbes said, "This year is a great progress. After all, the last time a woman won the Best Director Award, it was back in barbra streisand in 1984. In the history of Golden Globe Awards, only nine female directors were nominated, and this time, two female directors were shortlisted (Ge Weige and Celine Song’s Past Life), indicating that Hollywood has made remarkable progress in the inclusiveness and diversity of women. "
However, although the prospects are encouraging, it does not mean that female filmmakers are on an equal footing with men. According to statistics, among the 250 films with the highest box office in 2022, only 24% came from female directors, only 7% were female photographers and 21% were female screenwriters. Among the top 1600 films at the box office from 2007 to 2022, 80% were directed by white men, only 4% by white women, and only 1% by ethnic minority women. Barbie has created a box office miracle this year, but it will take some time to accumulate and grow in the future to produce more "big-name female directors" and "gold-medal producers" like Gerwig and Robbie, who can really lead the project, attract investment and decide the cast.
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