Mini movies motivate young directors

It was a hot summer in 2010. Shen Ao, then a 23-year-old who had just graduated from the Beijing Film Academy, took a ride on a long-distance bus.

On the journey, which departed the Chinese capital bound for a far-flung fishing village in Xiangshan county, East China's Zhejiang province, the bus got stuck in traffic jams in Beijing and Tianjin that lasted for a few hours.

To kill the time, he came up with an idea for a short film about a middle-aged businessman's reunion with a love interest from his youth, but the plot takes a dark turn.

The trip was organized by the Nine Minutes Film Competition, an event which is jointly hosted by the China Film Critics Association and the Beijing Film Academy to help young filmmakers realize their cinematic dreams.

All the 30-plus passengers－consisting of five film teams－on the bus were nominated participants of the competition.

That journey has become the best summer memory for Shen, who ended up winning the top prize of the competition with his traffic jam-inspired story, which was honed into the event's Best Picture winner, titled Tide and Wave.

Nine years on and Shen has directed dozens of projects－mostly advertising－but for the Beijing native, the summer of 2010 is still the most free and happiest period he has enjoyed as a filmmaker. It was a time where he could focus on what he was really interested in, rather than the interests of his projects' financiers.

Recently in Beijing, Shen recalled the journey at the launch ceremony of the 2019 Nine Minutes Film Competition, which is the eighth edition of the normally annual event that was unfortunately suspended last year due to a shortage of funding.

Qiu Qi, initiator of the event, says that this year's competition has so far drawn more than 70 film teams, as well as over 500 story ideas.

From early August to late September, 18 teams will be shortlisted, and will each be financed to the tune of 150,000 yuan ($21,800) to make a 9-minute-long film. The shoot will mostly take place in Dongtai, Jiangsu province in East China, and Chengdu, in Southwest China's Sichuan province.

A highlight of this year's competition is that it has also expanded its locations to feature foreign countries. Two of the nominated teams will shoot their short flicks in either Los Angeles in the United States or Yokohama, Japan.

"Making a film can be an enjoyably absorbing experience. We hope the event can help these talented young directors develop their passion and love of cinema," says Qiu.

Starting his career as a director in 2007, Qiu recalls how upset he was to discover that things could be complicated and tough for a rookie to handle.

He notes that there are gray areas in the film industry that can easily dampen the enthusiasm of young talent, but the aim of the competition is to help the young people who love making films to follow their dreams.

"Nowadays a lot of insiders in the industry are too focused on earning money or winning big budgets, but actually a good story doesn't mean a film must cost a fortune," says Qiu.

"Back in the 1980s and 1990s, China produced a flood of acclaimed directors who made many influential art house films, earning Chinese cinema recognition around the world," he says, adding that he hopes young filmmakers can revive the tradition.

Over the past eight years, the Nine Minutes Film Competition has financed 121 short films made by 115 young film teams that have won 158 awards domestically and overseas.