Qingdao aspires to become UNESCO City of Film

A Film Cities Summit of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network (UCCN) was hosted by the Qingdao government from June 6 to 8 to brainstorm ideas and cheer for Qingdao's application to be named a UNESCO City of Film.

More than 100 distinguished guests from the China Film Association, the China Film Group Corporation, CCTV Movie Channel, 1905 (Beijing) Network Technology Co, Qingdao West Coast Development Group Co, five UCCN film cities -- namely Bradford of Britain, Rome of Italy, Sydney of Australia, Santos of Brazil, and Bitola of Macedonia -- as well as China's Beijing and Shanghai, UCCN cities in design rather than film, took part in the event.   

A Forum on Film and the Sustainable Development of Cities was held on June 6 to discuss issues related to the development of the global film industry, developments and trends in the Chinese film sector and the outlook of Qingdao's film and creative industry.

During the forum, all the film cities and the applicant city Qingdao jointly released the Qingdao Declaration of Film Cities, an initiative put forward in support of the goals set by the UCCN and to promote sustainable development of creative cities.   

The UCCN was created in 2004 to promote cooperation between cities that have identified creativity as a strategic factor for sustainable urban development. It currently consists of 116 members from 54 countries, covering seven creative fields: Crafts & Folk Art, Design, Film, Gastronomy, Literature, Music and Media Arts.

The 116 cities work together towards a common objective: placing creativity and cultural industries at the heart of their development plans at the local level and cooperating actively at the international level.

To date eight Chinese cities have joined the UCCN: Shenzhen (2008), Shanghai (2010), and Beijing (2012) are in the catalogue of Design Cities; Hangzhou (2012), Suzhou (2014), and Jingdezhen (2014) are Cities of Crafts and Folk Art; Chengdu (2010) and Shunde (2014) are classed as Gastronomy Cities.

Eight cities so far have been named film cities: Bradford of the UK, Sydney of Australia, Busan of South Korea, Galway of Ireland, Sofia of Bulgaria, Bitola of Macedonia, Rome of Italy, and Santos of Brazil.   

Qingdao is poised to become the "Oriental Hollywood" as the city is home to the world's largest film studio, the $8.2 billion Oriental Movie Metropolis, built along the city's West Coast New Area, which combines film and television production with a theme park.

The modern metropolis, blessed with mountains and sea and dotted with red roofs and green trees against the blue sea and sky, has made great contributions to China's filmmaking industry over the past century. Many old Chinese movies were filmed there.

The Qingdao Seamen's Club, built in 1902, is the home to the first-ever cinema in China.

Hailed as a "natural studio", the city welcomes more than 200 film crews every year. It's also the cradle of movie stars. Gold-plated celebrities from Qingdao include Tang Guoqiang, Huang Bo, Fan Bingbing, Huang Xiaoming and Chen Hao.   

The Qingdao government recently released preferential policies on film and TV production, a loan-related risk compensation mechanism for the industry, and facilitated IPO financing for film and TV program producers.

In consideration of the city's natural environment, history, talents and its promising film industry, the Qingdao government put forward the idea of applying to become a Film City in 2015, in a bid to enhance the city's creative potential for sustainable urban development through exchanging know-how and cooperating on an international level.

In accordance with UNESCO's procedures, applications for creative cities will be closed on June 16. The appraisal and selection process will start in August and results will be announced on October 31.

Good Luck, Qingdao!