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Abstract For the past 30 to 40 years, Chinese films had ventured into overseas industry through the efforts of several generations of filmmakers. At the Western International Film Festival, Chinese art films achieved many accomplishments as indicated by the number of awards and the types of awards attained. These achievements successfully positioned Chinese films as the center-stage and focus from the global cultural perspective. Art films have great influence globally, and it is a type of film style that exhibits cross-cultural exchanges amongst nations in the development of Chinese films overseas.
As how the Chinese films are accepted and embraced by foreign audience is greatly determined by the selection and recognition criteria of the Western International Film Festival, Chinese art films have become the most commonly watched Chinese films by foreign audience. Therefore, to a certain extent, the Western International Film Festival is not only an important platform for the Western world to understand Chinese movies, Chinese social life, Chinese political culture and humanities, but also to provide a window for foreign audience to view China. With the Western International Film Festival as the basis of observation, this paper aims to study the co-relation of the operations of the Western International Film Festival and the production of Chinese art films, particularly the well-represented and highly-publicized award-winning films, award-wining producers and the relevant critics and ideologies that evolved,and focuses on the interaction and dynamic development between surveyor and surveyed. At the same time, in order to enhance the credibility of the viewpoint and construct an objective and effective stand, this paper appropriately combines the first-hand information such as the promotional information and critics of significant film festivals, the US market box office, the (Internet) general audience, the mass media and the evaluation of specialists. This is to avoid subjectivities in the study to explore the possibilities and feasibilities of the acceptance of Chinese films by foreign audience, paying attention to the cultural differences between the East and the West and making an effort to provide a perspective of Western context. As such, this paper hopes to inspire more future research on the spread of Chinese films and their acceptance overseas.
Keywords: International Film Festival, Art Film, Fifth and Sixth Generation
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