NFB Honored at China’s Sichuan TV Festival

MONTREAL: Kicking off today until November 8, the Sichuan TV Festival is honoring the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) on its 70th anniversary with an array of activities that provide Chinese audiences an opportunity to discover more about Canada.

The NFB events at Sichuan are being presented in collaboration with the Canadian Embassy in China. Tom Perlmutter, the government film commissioner and chairperson of the National Film Board of Canada, will be delivering talks on the NFB and on the future direction of audio-visual creation in the multiplatform digital universe. Screenings of NFB films at the Sichuan TV Festival begin today with a special Canada Day presentation for attendees at the International Conference Centre in Sichuan. The screenings will be introduced by Perlmutter. On November 7, Perlmutter will be presenting NFB digital-media initiatives at the festival’s mobile TV seminar. On November 8, he will introduce an NFB screening at Sichuan Normal University. 

In the way of exhibitions, the festival will feature a selection of images from the NFB that were part of the outdoor public exhibition organized with the National Capital Commission in Ottawa from last Spring to October. The exhibit takes a look at Canada and Canadians, as seen through the lens of the NFB. 

Two NFB animated shorts have been nominated for the Sichuan TV Festival’s International Gold Panda Awards for Animation: The Spine by Chris Landreth and Runaway from Cordell Barker. 

"The homage at the Sichuan TV Festival is a tribute to the importance with which this quintessentially Canadian institution is viewed around the world," said Perlmutter. "Canada needs to engage with China as it emerges as a global powerhouse. The Sichuan Festival is a unique opportunity to build links with the Chinese audio-visual industry by presenting Canadian creativity and Canadian stories to Chinese broadcasters and audiences."