Orient Star Media Inc holds its third campus promotional event for the 2014 Golden Panda North American International Short Film Festival at the Art Institute of Seattle on Oct 7. Nate Yu / For China Daily

The Golden Panda North America International Short Film Festival returns after a successful first year.

Primarily organized by CNTVNA.com, CCTV.com and Orient Star Media Inc, the festival, first held in 2013, provides a new platform for short-film enthusiasts around the world to connect and share their works and passions.

Dozens of short films made by young filmmakers in different countries and produced in different languages and styles were submitted in three months.

Six awards were given to the winning teams, and the winners were invited to a weeklong trip to China’s Chengdu ­— known as the hometown of Giant Pandas — in March. The award winners had a cultural-immersion trip, seeing giant pandas and visiting local cultural relics such as the Wu Hou Shrine and the Wenshu Monastery. They also met local people inside and outside the film industry.

Ermakov Vladislav, one of the award winners, was inspired after watching the Chinese opera performance. He gained a deeper understanding of Chinese traditional culture. “There are a lot of things I can’t forget about this trip,” Vladislav said.

Recognized as a channel for exchanges between different cultures, the film festival is dedicated to enhancing the power of short films, discovering more potential filmmakers and spreading the idea of multiculturalism around the world.

The festival, which began accepting entries Aug 1, includes a series of on-campus events to encourage student filmmakers to participate. Events have been held at the Art Institute of Vancouver, University of British Columbia, and the Art Institute of Seattle. More than 2,000 students from the institutes, who are either studying film or attempting to make their own films as a hobby, learned of the festival.

After a one-month online vote from Nov 11 to Dec 11, this year’s award-winners will be announced at a ceremony Dec 20, followed by a sponsored film. A cultural exchange trip to China is scheduled for early 2015.

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