Documentary film festival set to open in Guangzhou

The 5th Chinese Documentary Film Festival will be held in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, from Sept 22 to 24, organizers announced at a news conference in the city on June 30.

Since its launch in 2022, the festival has grown into one of China's leading platforms for Chinese-language documentary filmmaking. Award-winning works, including Invisible Summit, The Great Journey, The Sinking of the Lisbon Maru, and Hotline Beijing, have received the festival's Golden Seagull Awards and have been permanently preserved in the National Image Archive project.

This year's festival will focus on showcasing China's rich traditional culture and its achievements in modernization, while promoting exchanges among documentary filmmakers across the ‘’Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and highlighting the cultural vitality of Guangzhou.

Xue Changxu, deputy secretary-general of the China Film Association, said the festival will introduce a series of innovative initiatives to enhance its international influence.

Zhu Qinxiao, deputy general manager of China Central Newsreel and Documentary Film Studio (Group), said that documentary films serve as an important cultural medium for telling China's stories and promoting Chinese culture to wider audiences.

As one of the festival's flagship programs, the Chinese-language Documentary Film Solicitation and Recommendation initiative has opened for submissions from production institutions and filmmakers worldwide. Eligible entries include Chinese-language documentaries, science and educational films, and stage art films produced between Jan 1, 2024, and Aug 20, 2026, that have obtained a public exhibition license from the China Film Administration. The submission deadline is Aug 20.

Bao Wei, deputy director of the publicity department of the Communist Party of China Guangzhou Municipal Committee, said this year's festival will, for the first time, launch a documentary solicitation program dedicated to works about the city. The new initiative features four thematic categories — ecological conservation, technological innovation, urban culture, and international exchange — along with a separate short-video section under the theme "This Is Guangzhou".