Animal Nature Future Film Festival and its transnational organisational structure
Introduction
Since the 2000s the number of environmental film festivals around the globe has increased significantly; we have witnessed a diversification within eco-themed film festivals, including events focusing on wildlife and environment protection, sustainable food cultivation, animal ethics, and human/animal relations. Among these is Animal Nature Future Film Festival (ANFFF), which was established in 2023 as one of the few competitive annual film festivals dedicated to animal and environmental issues.[1]
With its not-so-long history of only two editions, ANFFF is organised by a group of overseas Chinese students who received their education in the UK, and who bring their experience with eco-film festivals in the West to bear on the new initiative in China. The main festival unit is set in London, while it also does complementary themed screenings in collaboration with institutions in different cities of China. The first edition of ANFFF was held between 14-20 July 2023 in London followed by a series of themed screening events in China. The second edition was held between 27 September and 5 October 2024 in London, while the screening tours in China are still being planned. The festival’s unique selling point is that it forms an in-between space between the West and the East for environmental discourse.
There has been some research on the promotion and circulation of eco-films through film festivals, and on ways in which these events raise green awareness and build communities.[2] In this review, I would like to contribute to this burgeoning field by focusing on the transnational organisational structure of the specific case of ANFFF to shed light on how it is distinguished from other ecologically-themed film festivals to initiate social change.
Animal Nature Future Film Festival: A tale of two countries
Animal Nature Future Film Festival (originally named International Animal Future Film Festival) aims to build up a cross-border platform that ‘champions positive storytelling and creative expression about the natural world’.[3] After the first edition, the festival organising team found it was a bit limited to include just animals as its target subject. This led to some exceptional ecological films being overlooked. Therefore, the team decided to change the festival name, to include the broader environmental world as its target subject in the second year.[4]
With its mission remaining mostly unchanged, the festival has put its focus on exploring different formats of holding events. The main film festival screening unit in London and complementary themed screenings in collaboration with institutions in different cities in China are the two modes ANFFF has been practicing. The festival is registered under the names of two companies: International Nature Bond CIC in the UK, and Mimaoku Culture & Media Ltd. in China, in order to hold screening events in both countries more conveniently. It is worth noting that the company set in the UK is a community interest company, which is a form of social enterprise working for the benefit of the community. ANFFF is operating the main festival unit in London under this community interest company to help promote their festival concept and to attract people from different communities to focus on the welfare of animals and the environment via the tool of eco-films. The festival is also embracing the commercial collaborative opportunities derived from the festival events, but in the name of another company in China. At this point, the dividing line between a festival carrying an entrepreneurial spirit and a festival constructing an alternative public sphere might need to be interrogated.[5]
The different festival modes derive from the supportive resources available in the UK and the lack thereof in China. The history of eco-filmmaking is relatively long in the UK and there is quite a lot of legislation in terms of making films when animals are involved.[6] The policy also gives support in the sense that there are many funding resources in Europe and the UK that encourage film creation with environment-related topics. One of the screening venues of ANFFF in London, the Barbican Center, also encourages young people who have no curating experience to enter the industry and provides them with some professional courses. The UK has relatively diversified support in terms of funding, venues, and training resources, etc. Whereas in China, the topic of ecological filmmaking is relatively new and there is currently no such systematic support. The awards mechanism and event organisation in China are all intended to support curators who already have some experience in the industry, which is not so friendly to newcomers.[7]
Apart from these different modes ANFFF is practicing, the festival is also trying to bridge the two sites as much as possible. It aims to create an in-between space that forges the bond and dialogue between the UK and China. Byanka Gan, one of the curators of ANFFF, told me in a text interview that setting up the main festival unit in the UK allows for easier communication between the East and the West. Like a mediator, it could link ecological films from the globe with Chinese platforms; meanwhile, via the platform of ANFFF, some Chinese eco-films gain an opportunity to access the UK audience. It is also very convenient for festival organisers to attend different film festivals in Europe, the cradle of the film festival phenomenon.[8] There will be more opportunities for them to be exposed to high-quality eco-films with diverse topics and communicate with industry personnel and directors from around the globe. That is how the festival was initially designed.[9] The in-between space generated by ANFFF is exemplified by how it brings mature modes of making, producing, and exhibiting eco-cinema into China as well as how it translates the Chinese eco-film scene to the outside world.
There is no doubt lots of translation work is needed for the smooth running of the festival, which targets both Western and Eastern audiences. Whereas the translation work for ANFFF is not just a content-transporting activity, but an ongoing process of local and strategic adaptation to the local regulatory framework.[10] Especially for the Chinese market, a certain level of innovation and transformation has been made to the festival mode to better fit into the local social and cultural contexts. This could be seen from its adoption of the mode of themed screening events in China. Theatre screenings in China normally need to go through a censorship process. Cooperating with other film festivals or screening institutions in China, such as serving as one of their screening units, is currently a feasible way for ANFFF to reach the Chinese audience. The festival organisers are still waiting for the right opportunity to take root in China; however, it is not suitable to do so at the initial stage.
Two main target markets yet different strategies
As the main film festival unit, the screenings in London are relatively concentrated, showing films in batches in different exhibition venues across London. The exhibition venues for the first edition included Rich Mix Cinema, the Barbican Centre, Curzon Mayfair, and the Garden Cinema. It is worth mentioning that the dog-friendly film screening was arranged at The Goat Chelsea, an Italian restaurant and cocktail bar, to promote the concept of animal-friendly culture and to strengthen the emotional bond between humans and animals. For the second edition, ANFFF chose to screen films at ODEON Tottenham Court Road Cinema, Curzon Soho, Barbican Centre, Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA), Phoenix Cinema London, Picture House Hackney, and Genesis Cinema, including both art spaces and theaters.
According to the curator of ANFFF, Byanka Gan, film curation does not necessarily take place only in theaters. Europe focuses on community screenings and screenings in informal spaces; this gives inspiration to their curating when choosing the screening venues. Depending on the type of films, they can be screened in different venues. What is more important is whether the work fits the theme of the festival.[11] This year the festival added a special screening session called Healing Movie Power with Therapy Dog at Refettorio Felix, a public church serving vulnerable people. Such a diverse choice of film exhibition spaces echoes the aim and pursuit of the festival that a more inclusive film-viewingenvironment needs to be constructed. There are also intensive panel discussions open to the public after the festival events to generate space for discussion on related topics, such as animal film scriptwriting, the ethics of including animals in films, and the transnational co-production of eco-films, etc. The topics of these lectures demonstrate the purpose of ANFFF is not just to focus on the cultivation of cinephilia or the appreciation of art, but to further care about the welfare of animals and the environment in real life.
After the main festival unit in London, ANFFF will begin its film screening tours in China. Depending on the different collaborative institutions, the festival appears in different formats and travels in different cities, such as the special screening unit Animal, Future, Ecology at Chongqing Youth Film Festival 2023, and the World Animal Day Screening of the ANFFF-awarded film Saving Mango: A Cat’s Story in Chengdu. The two-day Guangzhou event includes a pet photography salon that teaches pet owners how to capture every moving moment of their beloved pets; it also includes a symposium named Ecological Balance More than Symbiosis, which invites three guest speakers in the field of ecological filmmaking, nature education, and wildlife protection respectively to share their views on ecological balance and sustainable development. It once held an online sharing session with WildAid, a wild rescue organisation, which discussed the behind-the-scenes shooting story of the pangolin protection documentary Defenders of the Hidden (2024) and the current situation of pangolins in China. The festival has also cooperated with Doravet Veterinary Hospital, a pet hospital, to provide free physical examinations for pets in Shanghai, as well as invited Paixiaozhua, a stray cat rescue blogger, to launch some special lectures on therapy dogs and stray animals to increase people’s awareness of related issues.
These events contextualise the organisational logic of ANFFF in China as being a nomad film festival. Usually lacking acentral location, nomad film festivals travel among different locations and contexts which could increase the accessibility of certain films to the general public and develop a film’s educational potential.[12] However, it has more to do with the political and cinematic context of China – screenings in theatres are highly censored. This lays burdens on developing an institutionalised festival with a relatively fixed location and schedule. The organisers of ANFFF are seeking opportunities from these difficulties by adopting the alternative model of a nomadic festival. Different from other independent film festivals, which aim to establish a to-be-institutionalised field,[13] ANFFF detours from this pursuit to focus more on reaching the general public and creating a film-viewing environment that can bring people closer to nature and animals. Being a nomad, ANFFF moves from location to location and builds up ties with different screening institutions which includes film festivals, universities, art centers, galleries, film societies, etc. Taking a more combined approach which includes not just screenings but also some interactive activities is also one of its strategies to promote the film festival and reach a larger audience under such severe circumstances.
According to my personal talk with the festival founder, Kean Cao, cooperating with government-led film festivals in China requires a lot of approvals.[14] Detailed information, including the film themes, event details, and events processes, must be submitted to the government. The energy spent on the government’s approval is far greater than what they should spend on organising this event. However, the process is relatively simpler in the UK. There is no need to seek approval from a third party. Once the venue and the form of the event are determined, they can do it directly (only screenings that target children require reporting). This explains why they chose to land in the UK first, to then gradually expand into the Chinese market.
The event in Shanghai, Warm Winter Market, was originally going to be a screening event; but the day before its official announcement, the local government issued a red-letter document saying that from that moment on all documentaries would need approval before being screened publicly.[15] This caused a cancellation of the screening even though the original event had been in preparation for a long time. The whole thing has gone through huge revisions and the organisers of ANFFF changed the screening to an outreach event finally. This kind of state interference impedes the market expansion of ANFFF in China.
Future visions: A travelling festival
Even though the UK and China are the two main target countries that ANFFF is approaching, it does not define itself as a festival attached to a certain country or location.[16] It is trying hard to increase its outreach in China and the UK at the current stage while also embracing the opportunity of holding festival events in other countries, such as the ones in Africa and North America. ANFFF has already made such an effort in the past two years; for example, it held a small-scale service screening in Nepal in 2023. This year it is getting in touch with a wildlife park in conjunction with Duke University and is considering further collaboration on doing an outdoor screening. The festival is also seeking collaboration with the United Arab Emirates.
Even though the festival has removed the term ‘international’ in its name, we can still feel its international vision and ambition to promote its concept and pursuit of animal and environment protection across borders. The transnational collaboration ANFFF made creates a special circuit for the eco-films to circulate and forms an in-between space for people to discuss environmental discourse.
Wendy Wenxin Zhang (University of California, Irvine)
References
Armatage, K. ‘Planet in Focus: Environmental Film Festivals’ in Screening nature: Cinema beyond the human, edited by A. Pick and G. Narraway. New York: Berghahn Books, 2013: 257-274.
Chiu, B. and Arreglo, C. ‘The Intersection of Theory and Practice: Environmental Sustainability and Social Justice at the Finger Lakes Environmental Film Festival (FLEFF)’, Environmental Communication, Vol. 5, No. 2, June 2011: 221-227.
Berry, C. and Robinson, L. Chinese film festivals: Sites of translation. New York: Palgrave Macmillan US, 2017.
Cesaro, L. ‘Film Festivals and Ecological Sustainability in the Age of the Anthropocene’, Cinergie, No. 22, 2022: 83-96.
De Valck, M. Film festivals: From European geopolitics to global cinephilia. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2008.
Monani, S. ‘Environmental Film Festivals: Beginning Explorations at the Intersections of Film Festival Studies and Ecocritical Studies’ in Ecocinema theory and practice, edited by S. Rust, S. Monani, and S. Cubitt. New York: Routledge, 2013: 253-278.
Odabasi, E. ‘Gezici Festival: Multiple Identities of a Traveling Film Festival in Turkey’, New Review of Film and Television Studies, Vol. 14, No. 1, January 2016: 149-163.
Yee, W. ‘Of Activism and the Land: Ecological and Utopian Visions of Post-Handover Hong Kong Documentaries’, Ex-position, No. 42, December 2019: 119-137.
Yu, S. and Wu, L. ‘The China Independent Film Festival and Chinese Independent Film Festivals: Self-Legitimization and Institutionalization’ in Chinese film festivals: Sites of translation, edited by C. Berry and L. Robinson. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017: 169-191.
[1] Other ecologically-themed festivals are: Seoul Animal Film Festival, Animal Film Festival in California, Planet in Focus Environmental Film Festival, Jackson Wild, GREEN SCREEN Wildlife Film Festival, et al.
[2] For an overview of research on eco-film festivals, see Chiu & Arreglo 2011; Monani 2012; Yee 2019; Armatage 2013.
[3] ANFFF catalog, 2024, p. 4.
[4] I conducted a Zoom interview with the festival founder, Kean, on 29 March 2023. During the interview, she shared the reason why they changed the name of the festival.
[5] Cesaro 2022; Monani 2013.
[6] This information is from the interview with the CEO of Glasgow Film Festival conducted by ANFFF.
[7] The information is from the interview conducted by CAAN-Chinese Artists in America Network.
[8] de Valck 2008.
[9] I conducted a short text interview with the curator Byanka on Wechat.
[10] Berry and Robinson 2017.
[11] This information is from the interview conducted by CAAN-Chinese Artists in America Network.
[12] Odabasi 2016.
[13] Yu & Wu 2017.
[14] I conducted a Zoom interview with the festival founder, Kean, on 29 March 2023.
[15] In the same interview conducted on 29 March 2023, Kean told me that there was a documentary screening on LGBTQ issues in Xi’an; someone called the police and they arrested the organisers. After this approvals for screening films became very strict.
[16] This information is from the podcaster Undisciplined Planet, who conducted an interview with Kean.