The 1st West Lake International Documentary Festival (IDF2017) is an international grand meeting of professional documentaries that is co-hosted by Administration of Press, Publications, Radio, Film and Television of Zhejiang and China Academy of Art. China Central Television Documentary Channel (CCTV-9) is the strategic partner, IDF2017 took place in China Academy of Art, by the side of West Lake from 20th April to 22nd April, 2017.
IDF2017 has four sections including D20 Nomination Competition Section, Lessons from Masters, CCTV-9 Pitching Session and IDF Forum, which will be a humanity and artistic platform with documentary awarding, screenings, pitching and forums.
The 1st West Lake International Documentary Festival with the theme of “Things & Sentiment”, demonstrated on-site and real-time shot documentaries recording various aspects of social life and embodying sincerity and humanity.
The festival invited more than 200 documentary directors, scholars and professionals gathering in Hangzhou for “Glory of Documentary” in order to dig out the most revelatory, most professional, most intimate and most speculative documentaries. 26 documentaries from eight countries on three continents have been screened in Hangzhou, with Xiangshan campus of China Academy of Art as the main venue, three cinemas and 3 universities as the sub-venue, screening for 52 times including 40 times of Q&A with the director, which attract 13210 audiences. “IDF Forum”includes IDF Youth Documentary Talent Training Forum and “I Documentary Fact”Summit, which invited more than one hundred professionals from domestic and overseas universities and industries participating in the forum. About 2200 professionals at home and abroad attended the opening ceremony and the closing ceremony and 400,000 audiences watched the online live streaming. More than 60 medium including CCTV, SMG, ZJTV,Phoenix TV,China Daily, Zhejiang Daily, Qianjiang Evening News, Xinhua News, People.cn, PhoenixNet, Netease, Sohu, Doc China gathered in Hangzhou reporting the grand occasion of IDF. After the festival, CCTV4, CCTV6, Doc China and several TV channels did special reports on IDF about the events as well as awarded documentaries. Professional film publication “Contemporary Cinema”published five papers about IDF. More than 11600 entries were searched for “West Lake International Documentary Festival”. SSD,YIDFF, FIPA, MOMA, CNEX, SIFF and FIRST sent the congratulation email to IDF. Under the careful guidance of the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television of P.R.China and the relevant ministries, under the leadership of Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television of Zhejiang Province and the supports from universities, the 1st West Lake International Documentary Festival was successfully concluded on 22nd April.
The 1st IDF has preliminary met the conditions for international quality and scale of professional documentary festival, which is influencing the development and process of the Chinese documentary industry, becoming one of the most academic, professional and international documentary film festivals in China, and presenting a good Chinese brand and word-of-mouth effect in the international market.