The China Film Directors Guild (CFDG) and the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television (SAPPRFT) kicked off the CFDG Young Directors Support Program in Beijing on Saturday. The project aims to select five of the most talented young filmmakers in China, who will then work under the tutelage of renowned veteran directors to produce their own big screen works.
Feng Xiaogang, a major figure among China's fifth generation of directors, will act as chairman for the first project.
With its increasing number of screens throughout the country, to date the Chinese film market has already set a new box office record of 40 billion yuan ($6.1 billion) for 2015, and an increasing number of new names appear on silver screens. While theaters were still dominated by films from veteran directors like Feng Xiaogang, Chen Kaige and Zhang Yimou not too long ago, recent years have seen quite a few commercially successful films from new directors, such as Lost in Thailand, Jian Bing Man, and Goodbye Mr. Loser.
"Chinese film has been around for more than 110 years… Young filmmakers are the successors of the film industry," Zhang Hongsen, director of watchdog organization SAPPRFT, said in an opening speech.
"As a supporter and promoter, we have already provided 10 million yuan to start the project. Various policies and capital investment [to support the project] will follow."
The application period for the project began on Saturday and will continue to January 20, 2016. Any Chinese citizens (between the age of 18 to 38) with at least one directorial work but no more than two feature films already shown in theaters qualify for the program.
Thirty individuals will be selected to participate in a series of training events, with five finalists ultimately receiving one-on-one guidance from veteran directors, who will act as executive producers for these young directors' big screen works.