Top animators get rewards

On Dec 4, the 10th annual Academy Awards of the Animation School of Beijing Film Academy was wrapped up in Beijing, giving out awards in nine professional categories and 10 kinds of scholarships to recipients.

Themed as "Specialty, Artistry and Originality", the three-day event provided a platform for animators at home and abroad to showcase their artworks and communicate with each other.

During the awards ceremony, an activity of "Global Animation Rally by a Hundred Universities" was launched. The activity, which will last for one year, marks the first animation rally in the world.

Beijing film fest planned

The first Beijing International Film Festival, organized jointly by the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television and the Beijing Municipal government, will kick off on April 23, 2011, and last six days.

Among the festival's highlights are various academic forums, screenings and trade fairs, including a forum that brings together well-known Chinese and international directors and a fair to promote Chinese films to international buyers. There will also be a forum where chairmen of international film festivals discuss the influence of such festivals on a city's economy and culture.

Beijing is the center of China's film arts and industry. About 80 percent of film studios in China are located in Beijing. Of the 500 feature films produced in 2010, 260 were made in Beijing. An estimated one-eighth of the box office earnings come from the city.

New TV travel channel

China Network Television (CNTV), the country's major Web-based multilingual TV broadcaster, launched its travel channel in Changshu, Jiangsu province, on Dec 3.

It features numerous original video travelogues, vignettes and articles about various travel destinations in China.

The opening ceremony also marked the strategic partnership between CNTV and Changshu, a city boasting four sites rated AAAA on China's national tourism scale, including Yushan Mountain and Shanghu Lake.

Chinese culture abroad

The 9th "Strategy of Chinese Corporation Goes Abroad" Forum will be held at the Great Hall of the People on Dec 10. It is jointly hosted by the WRSA Entrepreneur Alliance and China Overseas-Educated Scholars Development Foundation.

According to Feng Zhicheng, founder and director of WRSA Entrepreneur Alliance, the past eight forums have seen high-level government officials, scholars and entrepreneurs sharing their experiences and views about working overseas and have sought to promote the internationalization of Chinese enterprises.

Xu Changdong, co-director, said the Chinese cultural industry should play an increasingly important role in economic development and seize opportunities to be showcased abroad. The theme of the 2010 forum is how Chinese culture industries can work with international partners.

More than 700 representatives from the United States, the United Kingdom, France and Japan will participate.

Good to eat, better seen

Elle Decoration China's 2010 Dining for Design awards put the spotlight on the best restaurant interior designs in China's first- and second-tier cities.

Tiandi Yijia and Maison Bouluda Pekin in Beijing; Yongfoo Elite and Franck in Shanghai; and Hutong in Hong Kong were voted as being the best representatives of local culture, while Green T House in Beijing; Table No 1 in Shanghai; Steam House at Amanfayun in Hangzhou; and The Pawn and 208 Duecento Otto in Hong Kong; were deemed to have the best interior design.

The restaurants offering the best views include Capital M in Beijing; 100 Century Avenue, Vue at Hyatt on the Bund, and Mr & Mrs Bund in Shanghai; and Sevva in Hong Kong.

The awards also looked at eco-friendly restaurants, which include Paper in Beijing; Downstairs with David Laris, and Wu Guan Tang in Shanghai; Dragon Well Manor in Hangzhou; and Shi Yang Culture Restaurant in Taipei.

Poetic oil paintings

Ukrainian artist Mykhailo Guida is holding his first solo exhibition at the National Art Museum of China.

On display are more than 80 poetic oil paintings, including some works inspired by his decade-long stay in eastern Zhejiang province.

Guida carved a name for himself in landscape and portrait painting in the early 1980s, in Ukraine. He has taught at universities in Zhejiang since 2000 and was endowed with a West Lake Friendship Award in 2006 as an outstanding foreign expert in art education.

Organized by Artron.net and Hangzhou municipal government, the exhibition ends on Dec 9 in Beijing.

Shitai's diplomatic gloss

A photo album of "The Most Beautiful Original Regions of China" was presented in Beijing on Nov 30.

Sponsored by Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries and People's Government of Shitai in Anhui province, it puts together selected photos taken by 60 diplomats from 30 countries who were taken on a three-day visit to Shitai in April.

The presentation ceremony was attended by 150 envoys from 110 countries and more than 10 managers of domestic and overseas travel agencies.