Hundred Flowers Film Awards Return to Beijing After 28 Years
The 38th Hundred Flowers Film Awards series officially opened on the evening of August 7 at Beijing Chaoyang Park, marking a historic homecoming for one of China’s most prestigious film awards. The event, themed “Hundred Flowers Return, Light and Shadow Original Aspiration,” marks the first time the awards series has been held in Beijing since 1998, according to Xinhua News.
The opening ceremony featured a “three letters” narrative structure connecting film with the people and the era, and screened the opening film “Secret Archives” (Mi Dang), directed by Zheng Dasheng and starring Yuan Hong and Li Yanxi. Hosted by actors Huang Bo and Liu Haocun, the ceremony was broadcast live on CCTV-6 and Beijing TV.
A Historic Return to the Birthplace
The Hundred Flowers Film Awards holds a unique place in Chinese cinema history. Founded in 1962 under the direct advocacy of Premier Zhou Enlai, it is China’s only national-level film award determined entirely by audience voting. The first edition collected 117,939 ballots through the “Popular Cinema” magazine over three months, establishing a precedent for nationwide mass film appreciation.
The return to Beijing carries deep symbolic significance. The first ceremony was held in the capital in 1962, and the last time the series was held there was 1998. This year’s event theme, “Hundred Flowers Swallow Return, Myriad Scenes of Beijing,” emphasizes a return to the original aspirations of Chinese cinema. As Beijing Daily via People’s Daily reported, Beijing has become the only city in China to host two major film festivals in the same year, with the Beijing International Film Festival in spring and the Hundred Flowers Film Awards in August.
Gao Shiming, Vice Chairman of the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles, delivered opening remarks, declaring: “The Hundred Flowers Film Award is our country’s oldest film award with the deepest mass foundation. As China’s only national-level award determined by audience voting, its most important value lies in what it constructs and witnesses: the relationship between film and the public, between art and the people.”
A Celebration of Cinematic Heritage
The opening ceremony brought together generations of Chinese film talent. Zhu Xijuan, the 88-year-old film artist who won the first Hundred Flowers Best Actress award for “Red Detachment of Women,” recalled her historic moment: “That was my first time coming to Beijing to receive an award. I was very happy and excited. But what I will never forget in my life was the dance party on the night of the awards ceremony. Premier Zhou invited me to be his first dance partner.”
Ge You, the actor with the most Hundred Flowers Awards in history, noted that the award is the first film award in New China where “the audience has the final say,” and that the trophy is held up by movie tickets and audience letters. As voting has evolved from “paper ballots” to “fingertip ballots,” Chinese film audiences have always been present, as China Youth Net reported.
Yang Zi, serving as the “Hundred Flowers Beijing Promotional Ambassador,” said: “The 38th Hundred Flowers Film Awards has returned to my hometown Beijing, to the birthplace of Chinese cinema, to the founding place of the Hundred Flowers Awards, to the place where countless filmmakers’ dreams came true.”
Four Days of Film Culture
The four-day series (August 7-10) encompasses a wide range of activities, including the opening ceremony, nominee recognition ceremony, Hundred Flowers Film Exhibition, Hundred Flowers Film Forum, film culture themed exhibition, charity performance, Chinese-language Youth Film Week, and the awards ceremony and closing ceremony. According to the National Film Administration, the nominee list includes films such as “The Little Me,” “Pegasus 3,” “Nezha: The Demon Boy Conquers the Sea,” and “The Ranger: Wind of the Desert,” with directors including Zhang Yimou and Yuen Woo-ping among the nominees.
The Hundred Flowers Film Exhibition will screen more than 70 films at 13 cinemas, 10 outdoor screening locations, and multiple public cultural spaces across Beijing. The city has also launched integrated cultural-commercial-tourism-sports activities under the theme “Beijing Splendor, City-Wide Bloom,” including film-themed night markets and a 20 million yuan summer film-watching subsidy program, as detailed in Beijing Time.
The opening film “Secret Archives” is based on the true historical events of the “Central Archives,” a secret archive hidden in Shanghai during the Japanese occupation in 1942. Over a dozen underground workers risked their lives to protect more than 20,000 precious documents containing core Party archives. According to Mtime, the film will be released nationwide on August 28, 2026.
What to Watch For
The climax of the series will be the awards ceremony on the evening of August 10 at the National Speed Skating Oval (“Ice Ribbon”), where 101 public judges will vote on-site to determine the winners across nine award categories: Best Film, Outstanding Film, Best Screenplay, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, and Best Newcomer.
This year’s event also introduces new units, including the Douyin Future Director Support Program, an AIGC recommendation unit, and a short drama honor unit, reflecting the awards’ efforts to embrace emerging forms of cinematic expression. As the Hundred Flowers Awards continues to evolve with the times, its return to Beijing represents both a nostalgic homecoming and a forward-looking reimagining of China’s mass film culture.