Our annual festival Odyssey: a Chinese cinema season closed its curtains in June this year. The one-month festival showcased over 60 films about Greater China, hosted 10 discussion panels to support UK-China film collaboration as well as a series of exclusive Q&As. It was the biggest presentation of films related to China in Europe. We are now planning for the 2023 edition of Odyssey and calling for volunteers. Do you want to join our adventurous journey?

The next edition of Odyssey: a Chinese cinema season will take place between May and June next year in the UK, presented by UK-China Film Collab. Not long ago, we have already announced the theme of the coming edition: ‘Global Sustainability’.  We have also published a call for film submissions following 5 strands and a competition category below.

5 Main Strands (short & feature films, all genres)

Under the central theme of ‘Global Sustainability’, there will be 5 main strands in the festival programme, inspired by and respond to the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): ‘EQUALITY’, ‘JOURNEY’, ‘ENVIRONMENT’, ‘URBAN DEVELOPMENT’, and ‘BIODIVERSITY’. The one and only competition category this year is ‘Sustainable Corporate Culture’, a section aimed to inspire practical operations of sustainable goals in the business sector. 

Read the full Call for Submission here.

Call for Volunteers

We are now looking for volunteers to support our film festival next year, in four particular departments: Curation, Marketing & Campaign, Public Relations and Operations.

 

 

Curatorial Assistant x 5:

This role will assist the Lead Curator and 2 Assistant Curators of the festival. Volunteers will learn about the curation process for an international film festival, to participate in its programme selection, to review submissions from our open call, and to take part in writing curatorial statement for the selected films. This role will also allow you to share your cinephile knowledge, to suggest any film that you would like to promote via this opportunity. The Curation team is responsible in selecting and curating the content for the festival.

Here is a video clip capturing our festival’s Opening Film screening this year, which took place at Fulham Road Picturehouse. 

Marketing & Campaign Assistant x 5:

This role will assist the Lead of Marketing & Campaign of the festival. The aim for this team is to reach out to our audience, as diverse as possible. You will have an outstanding and creative communication skill and be passionate about telling a story. You will be working as a team to deliver different marketing campaigns in order to maximise the festival’s outreach, in both languages. What are the best ways to inspire a new group of audience? This is a challenge for you to take on. In addition to marketing, the festival will also aim to carry out several awareness campaigns responding to UN’s 17 SDGs. Are you the ideal candidate for this role?

Public Relations Assistant x 5:

Do you believe in journalism? A film festival’s PR role is the ideal opportunity for you to test out your press related skills. A film’s reception is oftentimes determined by the press or a piece of review. How can you help the festival’s selected films to receive a decent press coverage or media exposure? What is the relationship between the storytelling in a film and the storytelling in a media coverage? This is a question that all volunteers will enjoy an opportunity to think about and experiment. Your role will be supporting the PR department and the Lead of Public Relations by performing various activities and tasks in order to maintain and enhance the perception of the festival among press and public stakeholders.

Operations Assistant x 5: 

This role will assist the Lead of Operations with operational issues related to the festival, offline and online. All volunteers will have an opportunity to learn about the latest online festival streaming platform technology (Shift 72) with tailored workshop and training. In particular, all volunteers will learn about how to transfer film content and related meta data to the online festival platform, as well as knowledge to support digital marketing such as SEO. The Operations team will also be responsible for planning and coordinating all offline screenings, including both of our Opening and Closing Galas. The team of Operations is crucial for any film festival and the experience gained will be valuable.

If you are interested in joining the festival’s organising committee for 2023 as a volunteer, please send your CV and statement to Odyssey 2023’s Lead of Operations Liaoliao Wu via liaoliao.wu@ukchianfilm.uk. Deadline: 20 January 2023.

We look forward to hearing from you!