June 1, 2018—The 8th Beijing International Film Festival “Science and Technology Section” and the 8th CSTM Popular Science Film Panorama took place at the China Science and Technology Museum (CSTM) April 5 to May 6. This film festival, hosted by CSTM, was themed “Film, Making Technology More Wonderful” and was divided into five activity sections, including Popular Science Film Panorama, Science Popularization Events, Excellent Works Selection, Exhibition and Exchange, and Academic Forum.

Thirty six of the latest films from 10 countries were shown during the film festival, including Oceans: Our Blue Planet, Backyard Wilderness, The Story of Earth, Hello Earth, Australia’s Great Wild North, Planet Power and other excellent works. Nineteen of the films had their premiere on mainland China during the festival. 

A number of professional information exchanging conferences were held from 15 April 15-17 at CSTM, which attracted 85 popular science venues and over 170 representatives from enterprises in China. The opening ceremony was held at CSTM on April 15. The opening ceremony featured the giant screen film Oceans: Our Blue Planet, which was also the film’s Asian premiere.

The festival also included many events such as a special-effects film development forum, 3D laser technology presentation in the giant screen theater, film trade show, film exhibition and more. New technologies like the NEC35000 lumen dual color laser digital projector and True8K Digistar 6 Digital Dome system were presented during the technology presentation. In the special-effects film development forum, five keynote reports were given by industry experts with topics including (i) “Development of Film Technology and Application of New High Tech,” (ii) “Dome Theaters in Science and Technology Museums,” (iii) “How to Play with a 8K 3D Dome Theater,” (iv) “Oceans: Our Blue Planet and the Exhibition of Unseen Oceans,” and (v) “Investigative Report on the Current Situation of Special-Effect Theaters in STM.”

 

   

In the section of Excellent Works Selection, five experts with 200 audience members together chose the Best Audience Recommendation Film: America’s Musical Journey; Best Domestic Film: The Loess Plateau; Best Special-Effect Design Film: Hello Earth; Best Creativity Film: Backyard Wilderness; and Best Scientific Communication Film: Oceans: Our Blue Planet. The award ceremony was held on April 16 at CSTM.

 

   

As one of the important elements of BJIFF, the CSTM Popular Science Film Panorama was widely reported by more than 30 mainstream media, such as CCTV, which has received extensive attention and recognition.

 

   

 

Submitted by Rosie Wu, China Science and Technology Museum