Six films that stood out at the Shenzhen Science Film Week 2023 and the eighth Handle Climate Change Film Festival will be available for free screenings to communities, schools, grassroots organizations, and relevant television stations, aiming to raise awareness and disseminate knowledge about climate change.

The climate change-themed films were unveiled at a ceremony of the Shenzhen Science Film Week 2023 and the eighth Handle Climate Change Film Festival, which opened in Longhua District on Saturday.

The festival received a total of 987 entries from 103 countries and regions, and selected six award-winning works. The gold prize went to a Greek film, while a Chinese and a Spanish film claimed the silver prizes. Additionally, a Turkish and two Chinese films received the bronze prize.

Winners from the professional group of the 2023 Kelei Cup, the top prize for China’s science films and television shows, pose for a photo at the closing ceremony of the Shenzhen Science Film Week 2023 at Dalang Fashion Town in Longhua District yesterday. Wang Haolan

Themed “Fighting Climate Change Demands Urgent Action,” the festival features exhibitions, professional forums, film and television works evaluation ceremony, and science popularization lectures.

The professional forums include a main forum and three sub-forums, inviting professionals from various government departments, nongovernmental organizations, enterprises, and research institutions to come in person or share their insights through videos.

Liu Jianzhong, chief expert at the China Science Film and Video Association, stated that the combination of climate and film is a pioneering move. The most important thing is not the awards themselves, but the selected films, which will be offered for free public screenings.

Over the past eight years, 76 films have been screened nearly 300 times at 60 schools and communities, accumulating almost 3 million online views and reaching nearly 30,000 in-person viewers, according to Liu.

Both U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Xie Zhenhua, China’s special envoy for climate change, have extended their best wishes to the festival.

The Shenzhen Science Film Week 2023 and the eighth Handle Climate Change Film Festival, which ran until yesterday, are jointly hosted by the China Association for Science and Technology and the Shenzhen Municipal Government.

The Shenzhen Science Film Week was initiated in 2016 and is committed to integrating films and videos with the latest science popularization efforts.