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History of the Munich Chinese Film Festival in Germany

The Munich Chinese Film Festival is a Chinese film exhibition plan organized by the Confucius Institute in Munich. The film festival aims to create a local cultural exchange platform in Munich. Communication and interaction between German filmmakers. As a non-competitive film festival, the Munich Chinese Film Festival is based on the overseas dissemination of Chinese culture, aiming to showcase the development of Chinese contemporary film art and promote the exchange and mutual appreciation of Chinese and German cultures.

Founding background

With the continuous advancement of globalization, it has become easy to experience foreign cultures, in which film plays a very important role in dissemination.

With the strengthening of China’s national strength, Chinese films are also blooming everywhere. Whether it is the proportion of the international film consumption market or the development momentum of domestic films, they are showing their vigorous vitality to the world. In 2016, the total box office of Chinese films exceeded RMB 45 billion. There are various types of films released, and there are many well-made box office winners and topical works.

Various media-related topics have also frequently caused heated discussions among the whole people. The Chinese film industry, which is increasingly in line with international standards, is also gradually developing in a professional and rational direction.

Although the domestic film environment is very hot, the channels and platforms for overseas audiences to contact Chinese films are relatively narrow compared to domestic ones. In order to broaden the platform for Chinese films to spread overseas, and to provide more opportunities for dialogue and cooperation between Chinese and German audiences and film practitioners, the Munich Chinese Film Festival will use the vision of its own platform to gather resources at home and abroad, and look forward to film exhibitions and films. The forum contributes to the role of cultural bridge in a parallel manner.

Holding history

From 2013 to 2015, the Confucius Institute in Munich cooperated with the Chinese Department of the University of Munich and successfully held three Chinese Film Festivals. In 2016, the Confucius Institute in Munich started to hold the film festival independently with the help of its own platform resources and experience.

On the evening of June 12, 2017, the 5th Munich Chinese Film Festival, hosted by the Confucius Institute in Munich, opened in the southern German city of Munich.

In 2017, the Confucius Institute in Munich continued to focus on building a window for local Chinese films. The focus of this year’s film festival is still to promote successful Chinese-language films. All films will be screened in original sound form with English and German subtitles. In addition, the addition of classic old films and documentaries also added a lot of color to this film festival.

Special unit: interactive dialogue and expert dialogue, this film festival also set up a film salon, which aims to provide a communication platform for filmmakers from China and Germany as much as possible.

On September 29, 2019, the 7th Munich Chinese Film Festival kicked off in the southern German city of Munich. This one-week film festival will showcase 17 outstanding Chinese films including “The Unknown”, “A Good Show” and “Warriors”. In addition to arranging screening units such as tribute to classics, humanities documentary, art theaters, and best film express, this film festival will also hold a forum for dialogue between Chinese and German filmmakers, allowing Chinese and German film circles to collide with each other and interact with the audience.

This film festival coincides with the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China. The China Film Archive and the Confucius Institute in Munich jointly launched the “Looking Slowly” – 70 Years of New China Excellent Movie Posters Exhibition, exhibiting excellent posters from various periods of the People’s Republic of China work.

Latest news

According to a report by DPA Munich on April 7, 2020, the organizers announced on the 7th local time that the southern German city of Munich will not hold the annual film festival this year.

The official website of the festival said: “The essence of the festival is to bring together filmmakers from all over the world to discuss and communicate together. Unfortunately, it is unrealistic to continue planning such an event now.”

Festival director Diana Illine said the decision was difficult, noting that the team had put “a lot of energy and enthusiasm” into this year’s festival. But the personal safety of guests, tourists and staff comes first. The Munich Film Festival was originally scheduled to run from June 25 to July 5.