Magnolia Awards jury members: A good show will always impress
Wang Xiaoqiang (left to right), Han Zhong, Hai Qing, Yan Jiangang, Eirwen Davies, Andy Friend, Li Yuesen, Yang Lei, and You Yongzhi appear at the festival.
The 29th Shanghai Television Festival Magnolia Awards attracted a great deal of attention as soon as they were announced and, at the June 26th jury meeting of the Magnolia Awards, the jurors elaborated on their criteria for judging the works. They believed that truly outstanding works, regardless of category, could impress the audience.
The Magnolia Awards is divided into Chinese drama, foreign drama, animation, and documentary. With 10 entries in each section and 15 variety shows, a total of 55 films were selected for the Magnolia Awards.
Speaking about the judging criteria, Chinese director Yan Jiangang, chairman of the drama section of the jury, said: " Regardless of the angle of the discussion, no matter what the category is, anything that is good is what I value."
He promised the jury would reach an agreement based on a thorough discussion with every jury member.
"I was very surprised by the number of countries from which films were nominated," said Eirwen Davies, a jury member for foreign drama who adopts a broad approach.
"As a professional filmmaker, I might look first at the content of the story, but as an audience member, I prefer to see how it touches me and why it moves me," she said.
Chen Liaoyu, (left to right) Mari Okada, Frederic Puech, Vikram Channa, Xiao Han, and Ton van Zantvoort appear at the festival.
In addition to judges of the domestic and overseas drama sections, the judges of the animation and even the documentary shared the same viewpoint and judging criteria.
Mari Okada, a Japanese animation director, and Chen Liaoyu, a Chinese animation director, both agreed that animation was an expression thatwais close to the heart, which could transcend languages and nationalities, and a really good work could move everyone.
Documentary has always been a form that takes real life as its creative material and shows its truest essence. In the perception of many people, this form tends to be boring but, this time, the judges of the documentary section of the Magnolia Awards had a higher standard of judgment.
"The shortlisted documentaries this time are all outstanding," said Indian director Vikram Channa, chairman of the documentary jury. "The work that will eventually win the award must be inspiring in its theme and it must have a certain structure. Based on these two points, I would like to put forward a higher requirement that it should fully interact with the audience until it has reached the level of impressing the audience, that is to say, impressing me."
