Zhang Yang

    nicolezyyy@163.com

    THE climate change film festival accepted anything from phone videos to feature films. As long as it was about climate change, the organizers of the 2015 Handle Climate Change Film Festival would take a look at it, said Mao Xia, vice director-general of Shenzhen’s weather bureau.

    “We didn’t limit the film’s type or the year it was made in hopes of encouraging more people to make films on the subject of climate change,” said Mao at a press conference yesterday.

    Thirty-four films will be screened for free from Sept. 19 to Sept. 26 in nearly 100 screenings in seven public locations in Shenzhen, including Shenzhen Science Museum, Shenzhen Children’s Library, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen International Low-carbon City, Golden Carnival Center Cinema and Dongmen Shopping Street.

    The organizer of the film festival received 1,245 entries from 93 countries and regions since March. Forty-nine of them, including 27 Chinese works, will contend for 10 top awards.

    A forum to discuss media coverage of climate change will be hosted during the festival, with 500 prominent individuals including film and television producers, climate protection activists, academics and entrepreneurs being invited.

    “By sharing professionals’ ideas about climate change in the forum, we intend to highlight this topic for the public and encourage people to take action in their daily life to protect the climate,” said Liu Xiaoting, general manager of Handle Cultural Investment Co. Ltd., the organizer of the festival.

    Liu added that with the support of the National Development and Reform Commission, some of the films showcased at the festival will be shown in “China’s Corner” during the U.N. Climate Change Conference, which will be held in Paris at the end of the year.