Recently, Kidhood Flows, a short film created by Luo Xianyao, Li Bohan, Xue Kai, and Chen Yipei, students of the 2020 class majoring in Digital Media Art (Internet and Intelligent Media Design Pathway), Department of Future Media, School of Animation and Digital Arts, Communication University of China, under the guidance of teachers Zhou Yinan and Shen Wei, was selected for the 44th VGIK International Student Film Festival - International Competition. The film was also selected for the main competition section of the 4th In Moments Film Festival and the special focus section of the 5th Beijing International Children's Film Festival, bringing great honor to the school.
The Kidhood Flows unfolds a series of fantastic stories about Xiao Ming, the protagonist who is at a loss amidst the bewilderment brought by environmental changes. He visits a ruined park and encounters an old man and an astronaut. The director employs mild and unhurried audio-visual language to present the fantastic effects, conveying a sense of melancholy towards the disappearance of simple and pure childhood joys amid the urban transformation, thus creating an atypical fantasy children's film through this austere style.
The VGIK International Student Film Festival, founded in 1961, is one of the oldest student film festivals. The inaugural award-winning film was "The Steamroller and the Violin" by Andrey Tarkovsky. The 44th VGIK International Student Film Festival, supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation, the Presidential Grant Program, and the National Copyright Holders Fund, will be held from November 11 to 15, 2024, with the primary aim of recognizing and encouraging young talent.
Over the years, the VGIK International Student Film Festival has honored a constellation of iconic figures in the global film industry, such as Andrei Konchalovsky, Andrei Tarkovsky, and Nikita Mikhalkov. The Russian State University of Cinematography (VGIK), located in Moscow and founded in 1919, stands as the world's oldest cinema college. Some of the renowned directors who taught here include Lev Kuleshov, Sergei M. Eisenstein, Mikhail Romm, and Vsevolod Pudovkin. Among its prominent alumni are Andrei Tarkovsky, Sergei Bondarchuk, Sergei Parajanov, and Alexander Sokurov.
The outstanding achievements of the finalist work this time not only testify to the creativity and techniques of the students of China Communication University (CUC) but also reflect the outstanding achievements of the CUC Animation and Digital Arts School in promoting the integration and innovation of art and technology. The school will continue to adhere to our school's educational philosophy of "humanities as the foundation, technology as the application, and art as the method", with innovation as the core, technology as the support, and market as the direction, and make unremitting efforts to cultivate more excellent film and television creators.
(Editor: Wu Xinyan)
