Today's Highlights：
1. Beijing International Film Festival's "Star Horizon Visual Content Project" Opens Call for Entries, with Honors Including Star Horizon Mini Series
2. Awards Ceremony of the Second "Jianzhou Cup" Micro-Short Drama and Micro-Video Competition Held
3. "Shanghai Wonton·Sinan Living Room" Comes to a Warm Close, Pan Hong Looks Forward to Filming Shanghai New Year's Eve Dinner
4. In 2025, Emerging Industries in Jinshui District, Zhengzhou "Break Out of the Cocoon," with Mini Series Leading a New Growth Track
5. Going Viral Through Mini Series: A Small Village Finds Fame
6. Jiuzhou Wenhua's Wang Weizhi: Leveraging AI to Bring Mini Series into the Era of Public Creation
Beijing International Film Festival's "Star Horizon Visual Content Project" Opens Call for Entries, with Honors Including Star Horizon Mini Series
On January 5, the new round of the "Star Horizon Visual Content Project" officially opened for submissions. As part of the 16th Beijing International Film Festival, Star Horizon Visual Content Project will continue to focus on a model driven by creative excellence and industry collaboration. Through authoritative selection, resource integration, and project incubation support, the project aims to discover outstanding works that tell compelling Chinese stories while demonstrating strong creative value and industrial potential.
With the rapid evolution of the mini series sector, the industry is expected to enter a "content-first" era in 2026. At this new stage of development, creators continue to move forward with strong momentum, while their cultural commitment runs in parallel with the mission and responsibility upheld by the Star Horizon Project.
The "Star Horizon Visual Content Project" will present 12 honors, including: Star Horizon Mini Series, Star Horizon Director, Star Horizon Screenwriter, Star Horizon Producer, Star Horizon Actor, Star Horizon Actress, Star Horizon AIGC Mini Series, Most Innovative and Creative Mini Series, Mini Series with the Best Production Quality, Mini Series with the Greatest Cultural Communication Value, Mini Series with the Greatest Commercial Value, Mini Series with the Strongest Brand Communication Power.
Awards Ceremony of the Second "Jianzhou Cup" Micro-Short Drama and Micro-Video Competition Held
On December 31, 2025, the awards ceremony of the Second "Jianzhou Cup" Micro-Short Drama and Micro-Video Competition was held in Jian'ou, Fujian Province. With the theme "Min-style Excellence · Filmed in Jianzhou," the event aimed to respond to the National Radio and Television Administration's "Mini Series+" action plan, implement Fujian Province's strategy to cultivate "Min-style" high-quality cultural works, promote the deep integration of mini series and cultural tourism, and showcase the enduring cultural charm of the thousand-year-old city of Jianzhou. Jian'ou is one of the earliest counties established in Fujian, and the name "Fujian" itself is derived from Fuzhou and Jianzhou. As a flagship competition within Min-style film and television, this year's event achieved notable results. Nearly 500 works were submitted, 30 were shortlisted for the final review, and 18 outstanding works were finally awarded.
Closely aligned with the NRTA's "See Brands Through Mini Series" initiative, the competition introduced a special track themed around "Lady Lianshi", along with creative support incentives and filming guarantee mechanisms. The competition platform was further extended to townships and enterprises. By advancing a talent strategy focused on attracting, nurturing, retaining, and effectively utilizing creative professionals, and by accelerating the development of the "Filmed in Jianzhou" film and television base, the event carried forward the Min-style cultural tradition of being down-to-earth, warm in tone, and rich in cultural substance. By exploring Jian'ou's rich cultural heritage, it promoted the integration of the "Jianzhou IP" into the Min-style film and television industry, injected sustained momentum into the deep integration of "cultural tourism + film and television + brand," allowing the ancient city to flourish anew through the power of visual storytelling.
"Shanghai Wonton·Sinan Living Room" Comes to a Warm Close, Pan Hong Looks Forward to Filming Shanghai New Year's Eve Dinner
After 75 days of companionship, Shanghai Wonton·Sinan Living Room officially came to a close on January 3. Producer Gu Xiaodong, director Wu Tiange, screenwriter Jin Ying, lead actress Pan Hong, and other members of the film's creative team visited the venue to meet audiences in person. They talked about Shanghai-dialect films and made vegetable and pork wontons together. As Shanghai's first film-themed pop-up store created to promote a movie, Shanghai Wonton·Sinan Living Room transformed Sinan Mansions into an immersive cultural space. A three-story historic Western-style house was reimagined as scenes from the film, complete with a curated "Shanghai Coffee" retail area, film-themed immersive check-in zones, and a "Shanghai Wonton" cultural activity space. This distinctive "wonton-themed building" opened on October 21, 2025. With the active participation of the film's creative team, more than 20 cultural salons—ranging from poetry readings to music events—were held. Every day, visitors gathered here to experience Shanghai culture and engage in conversations about Shanghai cinema.
The film Cai Rou Hun Tun (Shanghai Wonton) is expected to be adapted into a stage play, while many of its unfinished stories will continue to unfold through other art forms. One such storyline involves Ahua from the park matchmaking corner, who is subtly hinted in the film to have feelings for Lao Jin. Their relationship will be further developed in a mini series. Screenwriter Jia Hongyuan said, "We hope to further explore the world of Shanghai Wonton and create a new work, Shanghai New Year's Eve Dinner, that better carries forward the spirit of Shanghai." "Feeling reluctant to say goodbye? That's okay—let's wait and have the 'New Year's Eve dinner' together," Pan Hong said.
In 2025, Emerging Industries in Jinshui District, Zhengzhou "Break Out of the Cocoon," with Mini Series Leading a New Growth Track
In 2025, Jinshui District set its sights on building a high-level hub for the mini series industry. With a clear industrial positioning and a well-developed support system, the district achieved rapid growth from a zero foundation to an industry leader—emerging as a new highlight in the innovative upgrade of Zhengzhou's culture and tourism industry. At present, Jinshui District has formed an industrial framework anchored by three core hubs: the Dazhi Film and Television Base, the Mengying Film and Television Base, and the Henan Zhengdao Sino-Foreign Film and Television (Base) Cultural Exchange Center. Among them, the Dazhi Film and Television Cultural Industry Park, a key site for the 2025 Mini Series High Quality Development Conference, has shown strong spillover and demonstration effects. "Since operations began in May 2025, we have hosted more than 1,200 production teams, generated over 30 million yuan in output value, and contributed more than 2 million yuan in tax revenue," said the park's director. To address industry bottlenecks, Jinshui District has innovatively established the Henan (Zhengzhou East Area) Mini Series Review Service Center, creating a model of "local review, national distribution." The review cycle has been shortened by over 30%, greatly improving industry efficiency. At the same time, the district has built a "mini series + culturlal tourism" matchmaking platform, linking characteristic neighbourhoods such as Zhengzhou Memory·1952 Creative Park to develop "filming scene experience tours." As a result, visitor traffic to related areas has increased by about 10%, achieving two-way empowerment between content creation and cultural tourism consumption.
By the end of 2025, Jinshui District's mini series industry had initially formed a full industry chain, encompassing creation, filming, production, review, distribution, and derivatives. Looking ahead, further plans are already in progress. "One of our key tasks in 2026 is to advance the construction of a mini series industrial park. In addition to accelerating the second phase of the Dazhi Film and Television Base, we will establish a 'Central Plains-themed Short Drama Creation Fund' to support 10 high-quality mini series each year. We also plan to work with scenic areas to develop filming scene experience tours, cooperate with cultural and creative enterprises to develop IP-derived products, and build a '100,000 offline screens' matrix, further strengthening the closed-loop ecosystem of 'content-traffic-consumption,'" said an official from the Jinshui District Bureau of Culture, Tourism and Sports.
Going Viral Through Mini Series: A Small Village Finds Fame
In the cold winter season, a scene of warmth unfolds inside an old rural house in Beiliangjiazhuang Village, Zhuhai Sub-District, Qingdao West Coast New Area, Shandong Province. A locally produced short drama, Han Dong Nuan Yang (Warm Winter Sun), written, directed, and performed by village residents, is being filmed there in full swing. In June 2025, the village's first short drama, Hua Kai Shi Shang (Flowers Bloom on Stone), officially started shooting and quickly ignited enthusiasm across the whole village. More than 80 villagers signed up to participate—including barbers, self-employed shop owners, and elderly farmers. No longer just witnesses to rural life, they became storytellers of their hometown. Once released online, the drama quickly went viral, amassing over 320 million views within just two months, turning the once little-known Beiliangjiazhuang into a "viral village."
More importantly, villagers expanded their skills and broadened their horizons. Through hands-on participation in filming as well as targeted e-commerce training, many residents learned short-video production and livestreaming operations. Some began independently recording behind-the-scenes clips and promoting local products online. Villager Li Deqiang is one such beneficiary. By livestreaming seafood sales, he now earns over 1,000 yuan a day—truly experiencing how mini series can empower rural development.
As its popularity continued to grow, Beiliangjiazhuang pushed forward with further exploration. In November 2025, the village released its second short drama, Feng Yv Nuan Chun (Warm Spring After Storms), co-produced with a cultural media company. On its first day alone, the drama surpassed 20 million views. Building on this momentum, Zhuhai Sub-District rolled out a series of supporting measures: cultivating "film and television + e-commerce" talent to drive development in surrounding villages; integrating distinctive farm products such as zong leaves and sweet potatoes to form year-round industrial linkages; building 1960s-1970s-style sets to create spaces that combine filming, tourism, and photo check-ins; and widely collecting villagers' real-life stories to develop more down-to-earth, meaningful, and high-quality scripts.
Jiuzhou Wenhua's Wang Weizhi: Leveraging AI to Bring Mini Series into the Era of Public Creation
Wang Weizhi, Vice President of Jiaxing Jiuzhou Wenhua Media Co. (hereinafter referred to as Jiuzhou Wenhua), recently said that the requirements outlined at the Central Economic Work Conference are highly aligned with the company's current strategy of using AI to drive the mini series development. Jiuzhou Wenhua plans to implement concrete measures in the following areas: First, in terms of expanding domestic demand, the company intends to leverage AIGC technologies to improve the accuracy and diversity of content supply, thereby stimulating user consumption. For example, through its self-developed AI tools, Jiuzhou Wenhua enables intelligent text-to-video production, rapidly generating mini series that align with market preferences. These works will be distributed across platforms such as Douyin and Kuaishou, reaching hundreds of millions of audiences.
Second, in terms of optimizing supply, Jiuzhou Wenhua seeks to connect industry, academia, and research through various activities and creative programs. These efforts aim both to create employment opportunities and to expand the content library. The company aspires to push mini series from being merely "watched by the public" toward being "created by the public," positioning them as a vibrant form of people's art in the new era. To this end, Jiuzhou Wenhua will organize systematic AI mini series creation camps. Through case-based instruction and hands-on training, it plans to cultivate a new generation of cultural creators proficient in both culture and technology, turning creation from "individual experimentation" into a "widely accessible possibility."
In terms of improving quality and increasing output, Jiuzhou Wenhua focuses on original AIGC animated content, adopting a dual-track strategy. On the one hand, the company is developing its own online fiction business, transforming fans of top IP novels into mini series viewers. On the other hand, it adopts a data-driven approach to original content creation, quickly testing market feedback and forming a model characterized by "low-cost trial and error with high-return monetization."
