Under the blockbuster films, you can also see interesting art films, all thanks to them

"All-China Art Federation": the behind-the-scenes promoter of literary films

China Newsweek reporter/Qiu Guangyu

Published in the 2023th issue of China Newsweek magazine on June 6, 5

Every year at the turn of spring and summer in April and May, when the Beijing Film Festival is held, the vicinity of Xiaoxitian in Beijing will be particularly lively. This is a familiar pilgrimage site for literary and artistic youth, whenever there is a film festival and literary screening, movie fans will come from all corners of the city to watch their long-awaited films at the Art Theater of the China Film Archive.

However, what few people know is that in addition to the famous film archive, Xiaoxitian also has an institution closely related to the film industry - the "National Art Film Screening Alliance" (referred to as the "All-China Art Federation"). This spring, a piece of news put the name "All-China Art Federation" on the headlines. At that time, the "All-China Art Federation" removed 239 theaters that did not broadcast art films as agreed to be removed from the alliance, and this move to maintain the broadcast environment of literary and art films was appreciated by the industry and fans.

Despite its fame, many people still don't know what kind of organization the All-China Art Federation is. In fact, the "All-China Art Federation" is an alliance with the support of the Film Bureau and led by the China Film Archive, which unites cinema lines, creators, distributors, ticketing platforms and other forces to specifically screen art films. Many of the organization and publicity work of the All-China Art Federation are undertaken by the staff of the China Film Archive. In recent years, Chinese audiences have seen films such as "Bohemian Rhapsody", "Three Billboards", "A Fei", "Water Moon in Hand", "Father Trapped in Time", "Detective Conan: The Undead of Baker Street" and other films have been screened in theaters by the "All-China Art Federation", which not only achieved good box office results, but also deeply touched people's hearts.

It has been more than six years since the establishment of the All-China Art Federation, and with almost no financial support, it has organized the largest theater line in China, allowing more films with character and characteristics to be seen by the public by recruiting franchised theaters, organizing themed film festivals and accurately recruiting audiences. Starting from 110 theaters, as of May 2023, the All-China Art Federation has 5,2937 franchised theaters, including 3527,311 screens, covering <> cities.

The battle between commercial and literary films

Talking about the news of the withdrawal of non-compliant theaters in March, Ying Qi, head of the theater line of the "National Art Federation", explained that they chose to withdraw these franchised theaters out of helplessness. As early as 3, the "All-China Art Federation" launched a set of management measures for cinema franchise, which stipulates the basic conditions for the star rating and scale of franchised cinemas. And their requirements for joining theaters have been simple since their inception: as long as they ensure that they arrange 2019 prescribed movies every day and 3 golden performances per week. But not long after the introduction of the regulations, the epidemic came, the film industry suffered collectively, and considering that the industry was still collectively solving the new problems encountered, this assessment standard was not implemented. Until this year, they re-combed through the theaters they had joined, and found that some theaters had closed down, and some had serious violations. For example, for the two literary films that need to be released this year, "The Son Trapped in the Heart" and "Otto Who Is Unloveable", many theaters have no scheduled films at all. In order to maintain the quality of the All-China Art Federation, they chose to retire these 10 theaters.

It is in this way that through the strict maintenance of the movie-watching environment, the "All-China Art Federation" protects the living space of literary and artistic films. The reason why this organization was born is also because literary films and commercial films have completely different characteristics in operation and need to be protected by a special operation method. The so-called literary films are films with a small theme and content, with a high degree of personality and artistic pursuit, usually with relatively low cost and a small audience. Whether at home or overseas, the commercial value and number of moviegoers of literary and artistic films generally cannot catch up with commercial blockbusters.

On the other hand, in China, before the establishment of the "National Art Federation", although there were also self-organized literary and art theaters such as "Shanghai Art Federation" and "Rear Window Screening", most literary and artistic films could only spread word of mouth through film festivals, and then return to China to enter commercial theaters. These niche films from production to distribution, funds and resources are not sufficient, but also in the same market as commercial blockbusters to compete for the opportunity to arrange films, no matter from which point of view, they are unlikely to fight commercial blockbusters, once the expected number of films is not obtained, many literary films may directly disappear from the audience's field of vision.

The brutal fight reached its peak in 2015, before the establishment of the All-China Art Federation. It was a year when the overall box office of Chinese films reached a new high, and "commercial blockbusters" became easier and easier, but the volume of literary films became smaller and smaller. At that time, the two blockbusters "Monster Hunt" and "Fast and Furious 7", which were in the top two box office of the year, had a total box office of more than 24.2015 billion yuan, but there was not a single literary film in the top list of the box office list that year. Ying Qi, the head of the theater line of the "All-China Art Federation", was deeply impressed by the situation of literary and art films at that time. In 300, when he was still working at Che Guevara, he participated in the distribution of the literary film "Where Water and Grass Flourish", he felt very helpless at that time, the film was released on the day of its release, only more than 82 performances were lined up nationwide, and the final box office was only about <>,<> yuan, which was very dismal.

The filmmakers behind the scenes are well aware of the importance of content creation, and they are determined to maintain the spark of literary films. By May 2016, a landmark event broke the impasse. At that time, in order to make director Wu Tianming's posthumous work "A Hundred Birds and Phoenixes" noticeable, producer Fang Li "kneeled" the audience to enter the theater to watch through fierce methods such as kneeling and shouting in the online live broadcast. In the end, through this extreme publicity, the box office of "A Hundred Birds and Phoenixes" exceeded 5 million yuan. And because of this tragic marketing, people have also noticed the embarrassing situation of literary films in distribution.

In fact, long before this, many people who care about literary films have begun to take action. In 2014, the China Film Archive began to set up an "art cinema line project team", intending to brew a cinema line specifically for literary films. They conceived many forms for this soon-to-be-born art theater line, such as franchise, direct operation, self-built cinema, etc. But in the end, none of these forms seem realistic. The first reason is that the number of commercial cinemas and screens in China has been saturated, and the cost of building self-built cinemas or cinema lines is too large, and second, there are regulations in the construction of cinema lines in China, and existing cinemas can no longer repeatedly set up "line in the middle line", that is, cinemas that have joined commercial cinemas cannot rejoin the art cinema line.

Finally, under the direct leadership of the Film Bureau, after several rounds of research, the China Film Archive chose to let cinemas in various places form an alliance and organize literary and art theaters in the form of screen and cinema joining. The lead party, the China Film Archive, organizes the operation of the entire alliance in the form of responsible for theater operation, publicity and promotion, organizing academic activities, distributing copies, etc., and does not participate in the distribution and distribution of films. In October 2016, at the 10th Changchun Film Festival, the "All-China Art Federation" was officially announced, and 100 assessed cinemas became the initial members of the alliance.

How the All-China Federation of Arts promotes the screening of literary and artistic films

In April 2019, when director Wan Ma Tsedan's work "Hit and Killed a Sheep" was preparing for release in commercial theaters, it happened to hit the popular American blockbuster "Avengers 4" and was also released at the same time. At that time, other new films were withdrawn because they did not want to connect with commercial blockbusters. Later, Wong Kar-wai, the producer of "Hit and Killed a Sheep", personally called Sun Xianghui, the head of the "All-China Art Federation" and director of the China Film Archive, expressing his desire to change the film to the "All-China Art Federation" special line. This quick move made this movie the only new film in that schedule to appear in theaters with "Avengers 4", and formed a unique landscape. The film has received more than 4 million box office, and it is also the best result of domestic literary and art films screened on the special line since the establishment of the "All-China Art Federation".

All this is also thanks to the efforts of the "All-China Art Federation" to screen and jointly promote literary and art films on many previous occasions. In August 2017, the imported sub-account film "Manchester by the Sea" became the first literary film to be screened on the art union's special line, and the film had already recovered its cost when it was screened overseas half a year ago, and it was released in China without any box office pressure. The screening of it is also the first opportunity for the National Art Federation. Although "Manchester by the Sea" was launched on the domestic network platform at that time, and the number of screens of the art federation joining the theater was less than 8, but it finally got more than 300 million box office, through this screening, the art union special line made a name for itself in the industry, and many movie theaters learned that they could also open up channels for literary and artistic films alone, and began to apply for joining, and the email sent to apply even crowded the mailbox of the film archive.

In the special line screenings one after another, the "All-China Art Federation" explored more skills to promote the box office of the special line screening. They know that literary films have their own unique personality and audience, have a completely different temperament from commercial blockbusters, and the cost of marketing publicity is also very low, and they must not adopt "viral marketing" that excessively strives for traffic, nor can they determine the life and death of the box office in just one or two days. Maintaining a high-quality viewing environment for literature and art, as well as doing a good job in the organization of long-term screenings and viewing groups and seminars, is what they should focus on. Therefore, at the beginning, their fan group was still dominated by fans of the Film Archive, and scholars from the Film Archive would be organized to join the viewing group to strengthen the interaction and stickiness between fans.

The "All-China Art Federation" first spent the most energy on studying the content of the film to consolidate the fan base. This is what they think is key. Films released on the special line of the Art Federation must pass the strict selection of films by experts and staff and strictly check. In addition, because the indicators of art imported films screened by the "Art Federation" are not within the quota of general commercial theater imported films, but a separate extra quota, some overseas excellent literary and art films that want to enter the Chinese market, especially many films on the Oscar nomination list, will also take the initiative to contact the "All-China Art Federation" to enter China for special line screening, which has also become a convenient condition. In 2018, "Three Billboards", which was nominated for the Oscar for Best Picture, was screened on the "National Art Federation" and finally won a box office score of more than 6000 million yuan.

In terms of special screenings and long-term screenings, the "All-China Art Federation" has also accumulated experience through screenings. In 2020, they screened the documentary "Water Moon in Hand", which tells the life of poetry master Ye Jiaying, through a special line. After analysis, the staff found that the audience of this film is not necessarily traditional art film lovers, but may be concentrated in niche circles such as literature and history lovers. They chose to do ultra-long-term screenings, and also organized Ye Jiaying's Nankai University Alumni Association to do a viewing group. In the end, "Water Moon in Hand" was released for a total of 119 days and the box office reached 790.<> million yuan, which was the best documentary among the films screened by the Art Federation that year.

Some interesting marketing methods will also bring unexpected box office gains. In 2019, the music biopic "Bohemian Rhapsody", which won four Oscars that year, was also released online by the Art Union. This movie has long been popular in China, and there are many places that can be used in marketing publicity. According to the highly musical characteristics of the film, during the film screening, the "All-China Art Federation" not only organized a lot of ordinary movie-watching activities and music fans chartered the venue, but also creatively introduced a copy of the "KTV version", and screened this copy in a number of KTV, so that the audience could sing along with the concert in the plot while watching. In the end, the film achieved a super high box office of more than 9900 million, which is also the record for the highest box office of "Art Union Line" to date.

In the process of promoting domestic art films by the All-China Art Federation, 2019 is a special year, this year, the Office of the National Film Industry Development Special Fund Management Committee issued a declaration guide to make financial subsidies for the distribution of literary and art films, and the film party can get a grant after passing. The "All-China Art Federation" will help the films distributed by its special line to apply for this fund. Although the amount of funds is not large, it is also a rare encouragement for literary films whose cost itself is relatively small.

In addition to the funding application of single films, the National Film Special Fund Office also promotes the distribution and screening of domestic art films through film festivals. Just this past May, with the support of the National Film Special Fund Office, the All-China Art Federation held the "Art Film Exhibition - Spring and Summer Theme Screening" in five cities across the country, promoting and screening 5 domestic literary and art films of high quality in the past two years, including the high-profile "Space Exploration Editorial Department", "Light of the White Tower", "Umbilical Cord" and other excellent works recognized by the industry. The screening event also held 5 "Seminars on the High-quality Development of Art Films" in 10 cities, and organized the main creators, experts and scholars of the screened films to carry out a number of post-screening exchanges. This kind of themed film festival is also the "reserved repertoire" held by the All-China Art Federation every year, aiming to provide a display platform for excellent domestic art films that lack publicity.

Connect content to audiences

In the view of Wang Xiaonan, the film selector of the "All-China Art Federation", the work she and her partners have done is to let these films in their hands find "the right cinema and the right audience", hoping to let the theater form the habit of showing literary and art films after long-term operation, and also accurately recruit more fan groups to cultivate the habit of watching for more audiences.

It sounds simple and straightforward, but it is a long-term and meticulous job. The staff of the "All-China Art Federation" has always maintained close contact with film fans and viewing groups across the country, and once a new movie is released, they will provide the latest publicity materials and expert resources for the group owner as soon as possible, and help local movie lovers organize exchange activities. Among the loyal audiences of these literary films, some group owners will spontaneously organize relevant viewing activities. The group leader of the Hangzhou station of the "National Art Federation Viewing Group" is one such movie lover. Since 2017, he has cooperated with the "All-China Art Federation" to organize some film festivals and run a WeChat public account for films. Since April 2022, Fengzi has creatively designed an activity to "salvage" literary films, named "Golden Field Salvage Plan". He cooperates with the cinema, and every Thursday, he will select a few zero-row films from the theatrical films released two weeks after the release, or niche literary films with fewer rows, and initiate a vote on the public account, and the film with the most votes will be screened at the theater prime next Wednesday, and fans can collectively go to buy tickets, watch movies, and communicate with each other. Fengzi said that doing so will make the group of fans around him have a psychological expectation every Wednesday, and it will also form a movie-watching atmosphere. Under the "salvage" of him and his companions, many literary and art films have also achieved a counterattack at the local box office.

In addition to the efforts of the staff of the "All-China Art Federation", the heads of theaters under the alliance also contributed to the promotion of literary films. Many of them are veteran fans themselves, and they will also use their own way to fight for a place in literary and artistic films full of personality again and again. Wang Zheng, chairman of Beijing Central Spring Cinema Management Co., Ltd., is a cinema operator with a passion for movies. He often customizes some unique viewing activities. In 2020, when the documentary "Water Moon in Hand" about the life of poet Ye Jiaying was released on the National Art Federation, he combined the content of the film and organized a poetry recitation activity with a local reading club. After years of accumulation, Wang Zheng has clearly known which "friends" in the city will come to his theater, and of course he will continue to maintain this interaction.

Nowadays, there are more screens, and the professionals of the "National Art Federation" are thinking more about how to fill these newly cultivated needs with more and better content. As Wang Xiaonan thought, in France, where literary and artistic films are the most developed, there are several film festivals in each city, and more than 7,000 films are released a year, and the audience has a dizzying array of optional content. She hopes that one day, Chinese audiences can also face this kind of "more" and abundance, which should be a happy trouble.

(Reference: "Exploration of Domestic Art Cinema: A Practice on the Art System", author: Zou Hope)

China Newsweek, Issue 2023, 20

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