The Shanghai International Film Festival (SIFF), in Shanghai, China, is one of the largest film festivals in East Asia.
The festival’s 15th event was held June 16-24, 2012. Actor George Anton attended the event’s closing, an award’s ceremony, on Sunday, June 24th.
Anton was kind enough to share about this event and his film work in China, specifically his work on Red River Valley (2012).
Anton’s Background
George Anton is originally from Austria and lives in Beijing, China. He speaks Chinese and works in Chinese and international film, TV and theater productions. Anton is from Europe, but he is often seen portraying Americans.
Film Festival
SIFF, of which Anton attended, is one of the largest film festivals in Asia. Another such festival is that of Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF).
According to Wikipedia, Shanghai’s first festival was held from October 7-14, 1993, and was held biennially until 2001. In 2003 there was no festival due to the SARS (a severe acute respiratory syndrome) outbreak.
Since the festival’s beginning in 1993, Shanghai International Film Festival has grown to become China’s only A-category international film festival. SIFF was organized by Shanghai Municipal Administration of Culture, Radio, Film & TV and Shanghai Media & Entertainment Group.
Awards
At this festival the Golden Goblet Awards are given for best film, best director, best actor/actress, and other categories, as well as a Special Jury Award.
“The Shanghai International Film Festival is really quite an international affair, which you can see from this year’s award nominees and winners who came from countries such as Spain, Canada, Russia, Iran, or Mexico.
Actress Heather Graham was also one of the jury members. But in terms of guests and VIPs at the opening and closing ceremonies, the SIFF is one of the most important who-is-who events for Chinese top entertainment celebrities.
So it was quite exciting and a great honor for me to get to walk the Red Carpet this year together with the team of Red River Valley. I think I was actually the only local, China-based western actor among all the guests.
We are currently promoting the movie Red River Valley (Xin Honghe Gu) which is planned to be released in China in August. We had a press conference and media events scheduled around the festival. It’s a romantic movie, and I was very lucky to play the man at the side of beautiful Hong Kong-Canadian actress Theresa Lee.” – George Anton
Thank you George Anton for sharing your recent film festival experience. We look forward to your future film work.
To contact Anton go to Georg Anton. Also, fans can follow and enjoy SIFF at Facebook.
