The opening ceremony of 2023 China Film Festival successfully kicked off in Moscow. Photo: China Film News

The opening ceremony of 2023 China Film Festival successfully kicked off in Moscow, Russia, pulling in hundreds of moviegoers to watch the opening drama film Home Coming, starring Zhang Yi. The successful cross-cultural communicator interacted with the audience after the screening. 

This film festival also screened outstanding Chinese films for moviegoers with rich themes and diverse genres such as the comedy film Hi, Mom, science fiction comedy Moon Man, drama film Lighting Up The Stars and the non-heritage documentary film The Magical Craftmanship of SuZhou. 

It was another significant event under the China-Russia collaboration, after the Russian Film Festival which took place in three cities across China: Beijing, Heihe in Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province and Suzhou in East China's Jiangsu Province, running from August 27 to September 3. This was the first time the Russian Film Festival project split screenings across three cities in China, according to a media report by Sputnik News. 

The six movies to be screened in China include disaster film Three Minutes of Silence by Boris Khlebnikov, sport dramas Bull Terrier by Vasiliy Bystrov, Nachat snachala (Start Over) by Irina Gobozashvili, and Eleven Silent Men by Alexey Pimanov, crime drama In Limbo by Aleksandr Khant and Philipp Yuryev's road movie The Whaler Boy, which was the winner of the Venice Days Director's Award at the 2020 Venice Film Festival, according to Sputnik News.

The China Film Festival will split screenings among three cities in Russian over 11 days. The film festival started in the Russian city Kazan, featuring free movie screenings from September 7 to 10. In Moscow and St. Petersburg Chinese films will be shown from September 14 to 17.

Hosted by China, Russia is the China Film Festival's 8th leg of the tour. The festival was also held in a number of countries and regions in 2023 such as Singapore, Nigeria and Colombia, among others. 

Under the framework of the Overseas Movie Day project, the China Film Festival was co-hosted by the Russian Cultural Center and the China Film Administration, and organized by Roskino and the China Film Art Research Center. 


Global Times