China-EU Film Festival ends: Image exchange meets new AI production tools

 The 8th China-EU Film Festival was held in Brussels, Belgium from September 23 to 29.The film festival has set up the “Meet China” international communication unit, youth short film screenings, and exchange activities between Chinese and European universities and youth to bring together video creators from different cultural backgrounds.This event is also dedicated to discussing artificial intelligence imaging and future narratives, and how movies can transcend language and enter another life experience, which has become a theme throughout many exchanges.

The “Meet China” section screened a number of international communication works and awarded awards to works from teams such as People's Daily International Department, Xinhua News Agency European Branch, China Daily, Phoenix TV, etc.The content of the screening did not stop at the macro concept. Many creators chose the work and family of ordinary people as the entrance.The audience first gets to know a specific person, and then approaches larger social changes from his daily life.

The winning work - My Distance, My Road - focuses on the Hungary-Serbia Railway.The film follows Hungarian farmers who expect their agricultural products to reach further markets, Chinese engineers who left their hometowns to participate in construction, and Serbian drivers who drive Chinese-made EMUs.The technical data of railway construction is brought into real life: some people are concerned about whether goods can be transported faster, some are faced with the unfamiliar environment of cross-border work, and some sit in the cab every day and see with their own eyes that the lines are changing little by little in the cities along the way.

This narrative approach lowers the threshold for cross-cultural understanding.The audience may not understand the full background of a multinational project, but they can understand the feelings of farmers waiting for orders, engineers missing their families, and drivers adapting to new trains.Bernardz Zako, the final judge, said at the event that cross-cultural communication requires respect for different cultural backgrounds and lifestyles.The value provided by images is to allow differences to be seen first, and then allow understanding to occur naturally from the characters' experiences.

The film festival also brings AI into creative discussions.Thomas Kucera, chairman of the “Artificial Intelligence Imaging and Future Narrative” unit, believes that AI will continue to affect the film industry. The production speed and cost may change, and the quality of the film still depends on the director and the story.Generating pictures, auxiliary translation, sound processing and material sorting can shorten part of the process. How the creator chooses shots, organizes characters and determines the position of the work is still the key to whether the finished film can be established.

For transnational communication, AI tools also have more direct uses.When a Chinese work enters Europe, it requires subtitle translation, cultural information interpretation, and different versions of materials; when a European work enters China, it will also face the same problems.Automatic transcription and preliminary translation improve processing efficiency, and content involving tone, metaphor, and regional experience still needs to be calibrated by people familiar with both cultures.A word is translated accurately, but it may not convey the emotion of the character when speaking.

Special screenings of short films for young people communicate with colleges and universities, bringing these discussions back to those who are studying film.The cost of short films is relatively controllable, and they are more suitable for trying new shooting and post-production tools.Students from different countries can compare approaches to the same subject, observing how shot length, character distance, and use of sound change understanding.The creative experience is broken down and exchanged on site, making it easier to form subsequent collaborations than simply showing a completed work.

The China-EU Film Festival was founded in 2015 and continues to provide opportunities for Chinese and European audiences and creators to meet.By the eighth edition, cross-cultural communication and AI production have entered the agenda at the same time, which also reflects the two real changes the film industry is facing: works spread further and production tools are updated faster.Technology can pave the way shorter. What really allows a film to reach unfamiliar audiences is still clear characters, believable emotions and the patience to understand each other.