Filmmaker Jia Zhangke to head new Shanxi Film Academy

By Zhang Rui
0 Comment(s)Print E-mail China.org.cn, April 22, 2021
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Internationally renowned Chinese arthouse film director Jia Zhangke is to take on a new role—president of the newly founded Shanxi Film Academy.

Director Jia Zhangke poses for a photo. [Photo by Yang Jia/China.org.cn]

Communication University of Shanxi held a launch ceremony on April 17 to announce its move into filmmaking education. Jia, as a native of north China's Shanxi province, will helm the new film academy.

The university also announced that the academy will feature more than 10 leading film professionals as department heads, experts and guest professors, including directors Zhang Yibai, Ning Hao, Bi Gan and Li Ruijun.

"As a Shanxi native, today is a proud day for me since my hometown will have its own film academy," Jia Zhangke said at the ceremony. "As a filmmaker, I'm also grateful for this opportunity, which will allow me to do more for film. I'll do my best, with all that I have learned, to wholeheartedly promote the development of Shanxi Film Academy."

During the event it was announced that Shanxi Film Academy will be headquartered on the campus of Communication University of Shanxi, and feature two teaching and practice bases in Pingyao county and county-level city Fenyang. 

The facility in Jiajiazhuang village in Fenyang, which is Jia's hometown, will be composed of a teaching practice base, with construction expected to be completed this summer. A second base in ancient county of Pingyao will consist of existing venues of the Pingyao International Film Festival (PYIFF), which Jia founded, as well as a cultural industrial park, and will be responsible for film and television shooting and film education.

A digital rendering of the teaching and practice base in Jiajiazhuang village in Fenyang, Shanxi province. The base is currently under construction. [Image courtesy of Communication University of Shanxi]

Jia Zhangke has long used the PYIFF to promote local Shanxi filmmakers and films shot in the area. In 2020, he announced that it was time for him to hand over the film festival to the local government. Now the film academy will become his new endeavor.

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