MUMBAI: On 18 April, at a ceremony held at the China Film Museum, the Motion Picture Association (MPA) joined the organizers of the 16th Beijing Student Film Festival (BSFF) and the China Film Copyright-Protection Association (CFCPA) to announce the winners of the third China-wide short-video competition on IPR protection.
 
This year’s competition marked the third year of the MPA’s support for the IPR awareness campaign aimed at inspiring young people across the country to take a fresh look at the value of intellectual property, especially in the movie industry, and how piracy damages that value. This year’s competition received over 150 high-quality entries – an impressive 50% increase over last year’s event – many of which demonstrate an increasing awareness among students of piracy trends, such as Internet piracy, and the damage caused to China’s domestic film industry.
 
After careful discussion and several rounds of voting, the panel unanimously selected Wang Shufang, a 23 year-old student from the Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, as the overall winner. In addition to Wang, 26 other entrants were recognized for their creativity and production efforts.
 
Shufang’s flash animation "Let’s go see movies" describes the life of a movie fan over several decades, reflecting the transformation of the movie-going experience due to the effects of piracy. Though fictional, the story highlights the possibility that if we don’t root out piracy, we could all end up "seeing movies" as cultural relics in museums one day.
 
The awards were presented by special guests vice minister of National Copyright Administration of China and La Peikang Yan Xiaohong, deputy general director Film Bureau State Administration of Radio, Film and Television. Also attending the event were a number of popular movie stars and TV personalities including Cui Yongyuan and Xu Gehui from China Central Television and Phoenix TV.
 
Also, for the first time, the importance of addressing IPR issues in creative education courses has been acknowledged with the award of a special "Best Organization Award". The award was presented to Professor Yu Shui of Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, for his inclusion of anti-piracy issues in teaching students majoring in art and related fields.
 
"The anti-piracy video competition has now become an integral part of the Beijing Student Film Festival and the Festival organizers, the China Film Copyright-Protection Association and the MPA are extremely pleased to see increasing numbers of students becoming aware of, and addressing, important issues surrounding piracy. Tackling IPR theft and reducing movie piracy require a broad-based coalition of stakeholders and the young people entering this competition – some of the country’s brightest – are ideally suited to create messages that will resonate with their fellow students," said MPA Asia president and managing director Mike Ellis.