FánHuā Chinese Film Festival

The 2024 event will be held on the occasion of the Lantern Festival, closing the Chinese New Year which celebrates the beginning of the Year of the Dragon.

Among the films screened, the protagonists of the 2023 Florentine edition are “Anima” by Cao Jinling, “The Cord of Life” by Qiao Sixue, “Chang’ An” by Xie Junwei and Zou Jing, and “The women of the lake of souls perfumed” by Xie Fei, Golden Bear at the 1993 Berlin Film Festival, now in a restored 4k version, to which is finally added “ Balance of the Five Elements ” by Jan Hinrik Drevs, directly from the archives of Cineteca Milano.

Milan, 13 February – The FánHuā Chinese Film Festival returns to turn on the spotlight for its third edition Milanese, which will be held from the 23rd to 26 February at the Cineteca Milano Arlecchino – on the occasion of the Lantern Festival , at the end of the Chinese New Year celebrations celebrating the Year of the Dragon. During the evening, speakers will be Matteo Pavesi , director of the Cineteca di Milano, Tommaso Sacchi , councilor for culture of the Municipality of Milan, Liu Kan, Chinese consul general in Milan, and Gianni Zhang , creator of the Festival and president of the FánHuā association and ZhongArt International .

The initiative – promoted by the FánHuā Association and Zhong Art International – is carried out in collaboration with the Cineteca di Milano, with the patronage of the Milan Municipality , the Consulate of the People’s Republic of China in Milan and the Italy China Foundation/Italy China Council Foundation . The program includes the best films by Chinese directors (in the original version with Italian subtitles), introduced by Paolo Bertolin, Artistic Director of the Festival (and member of the selection committee of the Venice International Film Festival).

“Varieties of flowers that bloom” : this is the meaning of the title of the exhibition, born in Florence in 2021, which now returns with the Milanese stage of its spin-off and brings the greatest successes of the Tuscan edition to the city, with its images poetics and the thriving production of cinematographic works that is developing in China, for a wide audience of enthusiasts and families. For a cultural meeting that can also broaden the prospects of mutual understanding and community of geographically distant peoples, thanks also to the collaboration of the Consulate and the Chinese community of Milan, and of the Confucius Institute of the University of Milan.

The exhibition opens on February 23rd at 8.30pm with the film that won the Audience Award at the FánHuā Chinese Film Festival in Florence, “The Cord of Life” by Qiao Sixue, the touching and intense story of the emotional bond between an elderly mother and her musician son, against the backdrop of the beautiful landscapes of Inner Mongolia.

Saturday 24 February continues with the screening at 7pm of “Anima”, a work by the emerging director Cao Jinling which touches on environmentalist themes through the story of an indigenous community that lives in profound harmony with nature, but which has to deal with floods and landslides caused by reckless deforestation.

On Sunday 25th we continue with a double screening: at 10.30 “Chang’an” by Xie Junwei and Zou Jing, a sumptuous new animated production, somewhere between history, epic and imaginative action , set in a besieged city, where the poet Gao Shi relives the moments of splendor of his life. At 3pm, “The Women of the Lake of Perfumed Souls” by Xie Fei arrives, the film that won the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival in 1993, which now returns in a new version, restored and digitized in 4K.

The review ends on Monday 26 February with the screening at 7 pm of “Balance of the Five Elements” by Jan Hinrik Drevs, directly from the Cineteca Milano archives, the magnificent images of a journey to today’s China in search of balance and life in harmony according to the ancient holistic philosophy “Wu Xing”.

The films will be screened in their original version with Italian subtitles.

General Information

Organization : FánHuā Association and Zhong Art International 

Contact: info@fanhuafestival.com

Contact: info@zhongart.it

Tel. 055/5385702