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(China Daily)
Updated: 2010-09-29 08:03

Show spotlights cross-Straits art

Twelve artists from across the Taiwan Straits are holding a group show at E-Space, Jiuchang Art Complex in northern Beijing.

Organized by the China Art Collectors Society from Taiwan, the exhibition presents more than 50 works by heavyweight painters from Taiwan and the mainland, including Wu Qiang, Bu Lieping, Li Jingzhong and Chen Jinli.

"I hope the joint exhibition can serve as a bridge for art communities from across the Straits," says curator Zhang Zai-xing from Taipei.

Actress Zhou Xun is flying solo

Actress Zhou Xun has left Huayi Brothers, the agency she was in for four years, and opened her own studio. Her latest work, Legend of Four Nights: The Nail Trimmer, adapted from a short story by Hong Kong director Pang Ho-chenung, is a 40-minute love story about an eccentric girl who eats nail-clippings. Pang also produces the film, directed by youthful Derek Tsang and Jimmy Wan.

Known as a talented actress, Zhou feels good about being her own boss. She can try out more things, she says, not only projects in the entertainment industry. She has been one of the most active environmentalists among celebrities.

The film is in production and will be released on the Internet.

Film festival set for Jiangyin

The 19th Full Blossom Film Festival, known as the Chinese mainland's Academy Awards, will kick off on Oct 12 and last five days, in the city of Jiangyin, Jiangsu province in East China.

Zhao Wei and her classmate at Beijing Film Academy, Chen Kun, have been nominated for best actress and actor.

Nominee for best director is Feng Xiaogang, whose romantic comedy If You Are the One raked in more than 300 million yuan ($44 million) in 2009.

The competition for the best film is fierce, between Founding of A Republic, which gathers more than 100 stars; The Message, a widely praised spy thriller; and Bodyguards and Assassins, starring kungfu star Donnie Yen.

Initiated in 1962, the festival features a session of voting by 101 viewers. They will select the final winners from the nominees on the evening of Oct 16.

10 artists heading abroad

Ten young Chinese artists have won the opportunity to do further research abroad, with full financial support from the Chinese Artists Association, the top-level official artists organization.

A launch ceremony in Beijing over the weekend kick-started the annual Overseas Research Project for Young Artists.

Most of the chosen artists are teachers from the nation's major art academies. Selected from more than 1,000 candidates from across the country, each winner will carry out six months of research in art history or art techniques and trends, in several art academies and universities in North America and Europe later this year, according to Chinese Artists Association deputy chief Wu Changjiang.

China debuts 3-D film

China has made its first IMAX 3-D film in cooperation with US specialists.

Titled Legend of Daming Palace, the film is a 30-minute love tale set in the Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907). It was filmed in Daming Palace theme park, a replica of the Tang palace in Xi'an, Shaanxi province.

Director Jin Tiemu teamed up with Reed Philip Smoot, a senior cinematographer with rich experience in making IMAX films, and Peter William Anderson, director of cinematography for a number of 3-D films.

The box office triumph of Avatar, especially its IMAX 3-D version, has inspired many local filmmakers in China to try the new film form.

China had only 300 3-D screens in 2009, but by March it boasted 1,100 3D screens and will have 2,000 by October. About 15 Chinese 3-D films including animation, kungfu and disaster genres will hit screens this year. But Jin's work is the first Chinese film to combine the technologies of 3D and IMAX.

The film will premiere on Oct 1.

China Daily

(China Daily 09/29/2010 page20)