Interview with Jessica Kiang at 2023 Belfast Film Festival: from Film Critic to International Film Programmer
English version article
The Co-founder and Lead Curator of the Mint Chinese Film Festival Yixiang Shirley Lin visited the 2023 Belfast Film Festival and had an interview with Jessica Kiang who is an international film critic, jury and programmer. Kiang participated in the 2022 and 2023 Belfast Film Festival as a programmer and a jury member. We are delighted to have Dr Peize Li (PhD in Film Studies, youth programmer of the 2020 Belfast Film Festival), who worked at the inaugural MINT CFF as panel editor to jointly conduct this special interview.
Jessica Kiang and Yixiang Shirley Lin at the after-part（photo by Shaoyang Wang）
Different from the previous collections, the 2023 Belfast Film Festival added an international feature film competition and changed its festival calendar from April to November since Jessica Kiang joined the programmer’s team.
Since its inception in 1995, the Belfast Film Festival primarily functioned as a local event, engaging with filmmakers, professionals, and audiences on the island of Ireland. The introduction of an international film festival competition represents a significant shift for a festival rooted in the local scene. This expansion poses the potential for strategic, creative, and brand image transitions. What motivated the Belfast Film Festival to embrace these changes? How is the festival preparing to confront the challenges that lie ahead?
In this interview Yixiang and Peize will be talking with Kiang about latest updates and exciting news from the Belfast Film Festival and how Kiang handle multiple professional roles at international film festivals.
Jessica Kiang at CLOSING GALA BFF 2023 （photo by BFF）
Jessica Kiang has served as an international film critic for Variety since 2016, covering new releases and international film festivals such as Cannes, Venice, Berlin, Karlovy Vary, San Sebastian, Sundance, Busan, Shanghai and Toronto. She will continue reviewing for Variety. She also contributes to Sight & Sound, The New York Times, The LA Times, The Playlist, Rolling Stone, Film Comment and Criterion. Kiang is a regular on festival juries, having recently adjudicated the main competition at the 2021 BFI London Film Festival; the main competition at the 2021 International Documentary Festival Amsterdam; and the 2019 Platform competition at the Toronto International Film Festival. Kiang was also a mentor at the Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) Critics Campus in 2018, and will again be at MIFF in that capacity next month. She has also been a panellist for the Locarno Critics Academy, Gotham Awards, Indie Spirits and Venice Biennale College.
Question: Mint Chinese Film Festival
Answer: Jessica Kiang
Q1: As someone with multiple roles at a film festival, managing both watching and writing about films in a short and busy timeframe, how do you approach the selection of films and organize your schedule for the festival?
A1: It's an interesting one for me. I mean Belfast approached me to take the programming job last year, I think it was in March of 2022. Belfast Film Festival 2022 was my first go at this. It was very much one of the reasons that I was able to do it is that it’s not really a submissions festival, it's more of a curated selection.
I am most of the time a film critic and I go from festival to festival to festival. It's really a matter of me, you know, it's kind of the dream job and it's kind of the perfect programming job because it dovetails, it fits very nicely with my actual job as a film critic. So I can basically go to all of the big festivals and some of the smaller festivals around Europe. I was just in Busan so sometimes in Asia as well wherever I go in the world. I was in Sundance last year as well.
While I'm doing my job as a Variety critic especially oftentimes, I will have a long list of films that I have to see for review. But also then keeping one side of my brain kind of active for Belfast and thinking what might suit the Belfast audience. Also, there are a whole lot of logistical issues, so if I see something in January and I'm really excited about it, for example, Past Lives, a film I really loved, Celine Song’s Past Lives that played in Sundance in January. I was immediately like, if we can, if it all works out I would love to bring Past Lives to Belfast. However, Past Lives has its own ‘past life’ after Sundance and the release dates have worked out so that Past Lives is actually being released here in advance of our festival. So obviously that's not what I'm going to program in the festival.
So most of the time for me, when it comes to splitting my brain those multiple identities that you're talking about it's mostly about just keeping things in the back of my mind for the beginning part of the year. And then going back and checking to see what their release strategies are, and also where they might fit in our program. Because last year was my first year, as I said, and Belfast had never had an international competition before. So that was my innovation, I suppose.
CLOSING GALA BFF 2023 （photo by BFF）
I decided one of the ways that we can up the profile of the festival is by having this international competition, but it was a very deliberate decision early on that we would only feature first and second films. We want to try and be about the future, about emerging filmmakers, because of my necessarily kind of my global travels and my global interests, that the profile of that competition is also deliberately designed to be very global. This year it's only eight films, and they're always first and second features from the filmmakers. This year we have a film from the UK which is unusual. I wouldn't normally have those but they would just both happen to be very strong. Then we have a film from Sudan, we have a film from Mongolia, we have a film from Vietnam and we have a film from Norway, so it's to try and when you're curating a selection for a competition, as I'm sure you will find very soon, it's that thing of trying to get as much of a broad spectrum, not just geographically but also generically.
You want your jury to be able to differentiate between these films. You don't want all the films to be coming-of-age stories or all the films to be one type of film. It's kind of a juggling act, and sometimes it's kind of a strange one because you're approaching a certain production company or a certain distributor or a sales agent because you would really like to put this film into the competition. If there's some reason that you can't get that film it actually also has a knock-on effect for other films. You might then want to program something else that you wouldn't necessarily have if you had got that other film. So it's all about this sort of sense of balance and to be able to present as broad an idea of what's happening right now and will be happening in the future globally in cinema. This sounds like a very highfalutin thing for this small festival, but I think that the one thing that doesn't cost us anything is to have big ambitions and we do have big ambitions, and I really personally believe, not just as a programmer but also as a critic, in celebrating new voices, and what I think is interesting as well is like how many of those new voices are female directors. It just sort of naturally seems to happen that a lot of our competition tends to be pretty well gender parity between male and female filmmakers. It's been a sort of make it up as you go along kind of thing, but in a way, that's been very freeing. It means that we are able to build this from the ground up and make it exactly what we want it to be – we’re not beholden to anybody.
Q2: While your film reviews are now widely published on international platforms, how did you take the first step on your journey as a critic？
A2: Like everything in my life it was a total accident, I don't have any plan, nobody has any plan, nobody plans to end up doing this. I'm Irish and I was born and raised in Dublin, Ireland, I worked in advertising as an advertising copywriter for more than a decade in Dublin and then got very sick of that and left Ireland and that job. I studied film at university film has always been my first love and during my advertising years it was my biggest hobby. I suddenly realized I was actually even when I was making money doing advertising, all I ever spent my money on was travel and movies. So the way I have managed to do my life at the moment, I don't make any money, I'm very poor, all film critics are very, very poor, but I get to do travel and I get to watch movies so I cut out the middleman of trying to make any money on this. So, essentially, I was living abroad with my boyfriend at the time, I was living in South America.
I started writing just casually like on a voluntary basis for this. At the time it was a small log called The Playlist. Pretty soon after I started writing for them, they got brought into the Indiewire network as it was then. Indiewire used to have this network of blogs that were independent but were under the Indiewire umbrella. That suddenly meant that we had actual money, we had advertising money, we could actually pay people, we could send people to film festivals, so I started writing for them and in that voice and I really loved that. I still do really love that blog, they're still my friends, and it's still kind of my home on the Internet in a little way.
I just started writing reviews for Indiewire, then Variety at some point noticed what I wrote and they liked the way I wrote, they contacted me and asked me if I would like to come and start writing for Variety. As soon as you write for a big trade or a big global publication like Variety, that's when you start to get more noticed of course. Your reviews are syndicated, there often pull quotes are pulled from them and put on posters. It's regarded as a good marketing tool. But for me, it was just a huge category leap up in terms of my career as a film critic. And everything that I've got since then I think it's because of the Variety, because of my exposure as a Variety critic. I've been writing for bigger and bigger outlets and I've been doing New York Times and LA Times and Rolling Stone and Sight and Sound a lot in the UK. That all came about I think because I've started to build up quite a big back catalogue of reviews for Variety. As you say they get globally syndicated. I would love to say it's all because of me and how great my writing is, but it's actually just because of the outlet, it's because of Variety.
Q3: How long did it take for you to reach the level of being featured in publications like Variety?
A3: They asked me to write for them in 2015 and I had been the features editor of the Playlist blog for about three years before that, and been writing for them in total for about five years. The landscape for film criticism especially changes so fast that this sort of idea that I could have voluntarily started writing for a blog. Also, I was supplementing my income back then with like freelance advertising gigs, so I could only do that. I only had the luxury of doing that because I was making money elsewhere and to live. But very quickly after that, it took me probably about four or five years of writing exclusively for the Playlist and writing a lot for the Playlist. I mean they did start paying me as soon as they could, but my god did they get their money's worth? I used to write like four or five features every week and they would be like 2000 words long things or entire retrospectives of certain directors or whatever it was.
And it was a great way for me to be able to hone my voice if there is such a thing. But also, it was really useful for me because I was living at the time in Penang, Malaysia, and I lived there for nearly two years. It's not exactly a central place for new movie releases, I wouldn't have been able to do a lot of day-to-day reviewing there because just the films weren't being released there. My very first film festival was Marrakech, and they invited a Playlist writer and that's how I got to go there and to start writing reviews of new release films. And was through that channel, again, I'm not sure that that kind of channel exists anymore for people. It's the landscape is so much more crowded now and it's I think it's a lot more difficult now. My way in had its own challenges but I think that those challenges exist still today and there are more of them as well, because there's just more people trying to get into this. It seems to me there's more people fighting for a smaller and smaller share of people's attention.
Q4: When working as a jury member or programmer at film festivals, does this role provide you with a different perspective for evaluating films? Additionally, what do you personally value the most in a film?
A4: When I'm on a jury, which I love doing juries, I was just on the jury of Film Fest Ghent, an amazing festival in Ghent, Belgium. It was a huge jury, it's a seven-person jury, that's unusual. I had a wonderful time. It was strange because there were twelve films in our competition, some very big ones like Yorgos Lanthimos’ Poor Things was in our competition, Past Lives was in our competition. So there were these very big films and there were a couple of really great Belgian films that I hadn’t seen. Bas Devos was here, for example. All the twelve films that were in that competition I had already seen ten of them and actually reviewed I think all ten of those. So my personal thoughts on those films were already freely available for anybody to know. So it was strange like being on the jury.
I went to as many of the films as I could with my jury, because I think that's an important thing as well to bond with your jury and to get a sense of how the films are playing. So there is a slightly difference you use a slightly different set of criteria when you're on a jury than you do if you're writing a review but that said I'm pretty proud of myself for not changing my opinions. I don't tend to watch films again and think: ‘Oh my god, I got that totally wrong.’ The process of writing the review in the beginning should I think be as thoughtful and as considered as possible and I try not to write things that are very dashed off and very like first thought. So if I have a talent I think it's for being able to get quickly to a position when I'm writing which is going to stand the test of time, I hope. So in the event of Ghent, for example, the film that one was The Delinquents which is a film that I had seen in Cannes and reviewed for Variety and I'm on the poster for it, so it could almost seem like a conflict but it's actually not, because there were all these six other people, and I didn't try and influence them in any way except as you do in a jury, where you're putting forward your own opinion. It was really gratifying actually to see how harmonious we all were and it kind of made me feel like: ‘Yes, actually I'm a genius reviewer, I got it totally right from the very beginning.’ When you're on a jury, you're trying to reach a consensus, which I think is a different thing from when you're writing by yourself. You're actually just trying to formulate your own thoughts as clearly and as eloquently as you can. So it uses a slightly different muscle. But I think it's all within the same, within the same sort of general direction.
Q5: The Belfast Film Festival took a big step that brings important changes in 2023 editions including the new international feature film competition and new festival calendar. We also noticed there are many women professionals in your festival crew.
As one of the heads of the programming team, would you like to share your ideas and vision regarding the significant changes? You mentioned a curated selection; could you elaborate on your role as a curator and the ethos guiding your work within an international film festival?
A5: Yes, I mean again I can't really speak to how other festivals do it and I am very conscious that I'm extremely blessed here in Belfast. They have been very good to me and basically, I really was given cart blanche to set up whatever I wanted to make this competition and to make the selection entirely in the image of what I thought it should be. The only thing I think I can really say that I brought to it was like I mean I have now whatever ten or twelve years experiences of going to a lot of festivals. I think by the end of this year I'll have been to twenty festivals or twenty-one festivals. I, from the other side, like not ever realizing how difficult it is to put together a festival I was often consuming festivals and I know what I enjoy and I know what plays well.
And also, as I was saying before, what I really wanted to set up here was something that showcased as much diversity as possible and as much of the sort of richness of what I get to do. I get to see these films and it's a very privileged position to be. I get to go all over the world, watch films that have not been released yet and sort of gauge the health of the global cinema industry, so for me, formulating the competition was just a new way of grouping certain things together. I think none of the films that I have put in the competition is unworthy of being in a general selection either.
However, especially in a small market like Belfast, I mean we get small audiences, this is a small festival. It can be a little bit difficult and a bit daunting when somebody is presented with a program with all of these things that are sort of just scattered all throughout and how do they know? So in a weird way the eight film competition has become already in only its second year. I'm conscious it's kind of become a thing and people know that from last year and if they like that type of programming, if they're the kind of cinephile who wants to be on the edge of something new, then this is a whole section that they know that more or less anything in that section will scratch that itch for them. So for me, it's very much about showcasing being as broad-minded as possible but also being careful to not necessarily like there are a lot of very high profile first and second films. Last year for example, we closed the festival with Aftersun which is technically a first film and could have been in our competition. However, it felt to me already at that stage like it was a big film. It was already it already had its distribution deal, and it was going to be released in cinemas here anyway. So we didn't put it into our competition and we kept our competition for smaller things that could use the boost a little bit. So there's also those ideas play in your mind as well when you're setting up the ‘my vision’ or whatever for the competition.
It was mostly just because almost all of the films, maybe except for the two UK films because Belfast is technically UK, but almost all of the other films, it's a sad truth but it's a very big possibility that those screenings that we have here of those films in the festival will be the only opportunity that Belfast audiences will have to see these films certainly on the big screen. Many of them may eventually get on a streamer or be picked up by movie or something like that, but actually to see them on the big screen which is the way they're meant to be seen, this is probably the only opportunity. So I was also very flattered and very gratified by how much sales agents and production companies and the directors and producers themselves, how grateful they are that we've put together this competition and how much they want to be in the competition. There's no reason that they should have really been trusted us that way so much even from the beginning. But it really does just point to how needed things like this are.
It's funny I work in the festival ecosystem now, but I do think that the festival ecosystem, the whole global film festival thing is the best thing that we have going, but it is also kind of a broken model. So trying to work around those ways that it's broken and trying to help film, this is we're all on the same side here. We're all trying to uplift the art of cinema. We're all trying to help small films that are coming from corners of the world that don't have huge resources or huge support. We're trying to get those to be as visible as possible in our very small little way. And if in our very small little way here in Belfast, if we can contribute even just a little bit to the life cycle of one of these amazing, wonderful films, if we can in some way help these emerging filmmakers to get their next film made, if they can just say: ‘look, we were selected in Belfast’, this is one other thing that they can then bring forward into their careers then I'm very, very happy. That's what we're really here to do.
Q6: I noticed that some of your competition films are from this year's Cannes or Berlinale. Could you briefly share your experience on how you go about inviting high-quality films to submit to your competitions?
A6: This is what I was saying, it's amazingly easy and people are amazingly open to it. I mean certainly with smaller films, although obviously Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell is not a small film and it's three hours long. With films that do not have big studio backing, I find it very easy in fact. Oftentimes I'm approaching some of these films, we have lots of other films in our program, in our new cinema section and they cut range from the very big films from well-known All of Us Stranger. We're opening with Andrew Haigh’s All of Us Strangers, we're closing with Yorgos Lanthimos’ Poor Things, we have William Oldroyd’s Eileen, which is a big one, we have The Zone of Interest which is obviously the big one. So it's actually more difficult to get those. Those are the ones that should cause me heartache but they're the ones that we know lots of people will want to come and see, so they're guaranteed kind of thumbs on seats for us and they're also amazingly good films.
I mean I would never compromise on quality in order to fill seats, so these are incredibly good films but they're the ones where there's Disney or Universal or some of the big distributors are involved and then there's a lot of process that you have to go through. With the smaller films which are the ones that we're really hoping that there's a kind of a halo effect and people who are obviously going to go and see Poor Things will might also then go and see Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell or something as well. With those smaller films, it is not a problem. I mean you will be surprised if you just look through the listings you find their sales agent and you contact them, and a good sales agent certainly will be back to you within the day and usually with a very positive response if they can, if it suits their release schedule.
So I am also aware that I'm in a slightly privileged position where I am a critic so a lot of times people might have known me as a critic, and a lot of times these films I might actually have reviewed them for Variety then I can be like: ‘Hello, I reviewed your film very positively for Variety.’ So you know you “owe” me. Obviously I don't do that, that will be a terrible conflict of interest but from my point of view, it is not a contradiction at all. Because I will see a film and maybe review it or maybe not, but if I love it then, of course I'm only going to bring the films that I love to this festival.
I think if you can communicate your enthusiasm for a particular film and if you can tell the story, I mean I often say this I love doing intros so I do the intros to all of the films that I've programmed during the festival and last year I think I did 35 intros. I was going backwards and forwards from all these different places and doing all these intros. One of the things I try to do to tell the audience who's there is like a birth in an international festival or in any festival even a little festival like Belfast is part of the story of the film. You're not just here to watch the film and to absorb the story that is in the film itself. You are actually creating part of the film's life in the world. I love communicating that to audiences and making them feel like they are part of the life cycle of these amazing films.
So I often say where I first saw the film, The Hypnosis, for example, which is in our competition is a film from Norway, I saw that at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival in the Czech Republic. I reviewed it there, I really enjoyed it there and I've like watched it sort of progress since and I think it's really lovely to be able to communicate to the audiences who have come to see it here that they are part of this continuum. They're part of this journey, they're part of the story of the film now just by coming to it. That's I guess if anything that's kind of my ethos. If you could close your eyes and imagine a map of the globe and the way where a film is born, you know Goodbye Julia, a film from Sudan which is in our competition born in Sudan, very much about Sudanese issues, then reviewed there and these little points of light along its journey and one of those points of light now is going to be Belfast. I just find that incredibly gratifying and lovely. A lovely thought.
Q7: We would like to invite you to briefly share your insights on the changes in the UK creative sector, focusing on aspects such as diversity and inclusion, as we mentioned earlier.
A7: That's a difficult one, it's a big question. I mean we could have a whole interview just about that. Again, I'm not probably the best person to ask about the yeah UK sector specifically because I don't live in the UK. I live in Berlin and travel most of the time so I come here as an international programmer to bring a global perspective onto the films we bring here. I have a co-programmer Rose Baker, who is nominally in charge of the UK and Ireland programming so she might be better positioned to talk about that specifically.
I think in general, in the global film industry there is a very welcome push towards more inclusivity, and more diversity. There are other problems that immediately pop up, of course. There's a lot of disgruntlement around the idea that people are sort of tokenistically getting their films funded and I think ironically enough even though my competition is for first and second films.
One of the real challenges I find now, especially with first-time female filmmakers is actually not them getting their first film made, it's them getting their second or third film made. So this is the other thing that I think is important about this, even a little win from Belfast helps these filmmakers go on to have a career after their first film. Making your first film is such a huge endeavor and such a huge undertaking, but I think that a lot of new filmmakers think like if I can just get this thing made then that'll be everything then it'll be just plain sailing after that, and then they realize as soon as they have managed to get something made, even if it can be very well received, and you know have played lots and lots of festivals, that actually it's the next stage that is really difficult for them. So that's one thing. One area in which I think the film industry globally is still struggling, and it’s still really difficult to maintain that level of diversity, to maintain that level of enthusiasm, and to maintain a filmmaker's momentum in their career can often be really difficult.
I mean there are so many myriad problems with the global film industry and I'm not sure that we're going to be able to solve them all on this Zoom call. But yes, steps are being taken and there are a lot of initiatives and programs and things that I think are really promising. But I am also a little bit not cynical but I suppose a little bit disillusioned in some cases about those programs and those initiatives and those workshops and those labs and everything being very good about helping people get to that first film, but after that, you're kind of on your own again. And I wish that there were some ways that we could continually support new filmmakers.
Fin
Co-founders and the festival team are preparing the brand-new MINT Creative Programme, competition sections, special film programmes (including Emerging Women Filmmakers Showcase and Retrospective Screenings), panel discussions, workshops, and cultural activities for the 2024 edition from 1st to 4th February at Keswick Alhambra Cinema. So far, we’ve received more than 400 entries from Chinese film creators spanning across the UK, China, East and Southeast Asian countries, Europe, North America, and even further regions. The Young Film Selectors and the Selection Committee are working hard to review the entries and the results will be announced on the official website and social media after the New Year.
Special Thanks to:
Belfast Film Festival
Interviewee: Jessica Kiang
Interviewer: Dr Peize Li, Yixiang Shirley Lin
Translator: Yingjie Wang
Editor: Dr Peize Li, Yixiang Shirley Lin, Zilue Zhang
中文版专访文章：专访杰西卡·吉昂:从影评人到国际电影策展人
薄荷紫华语电影节的联合创始人兼主策展人林怡翔参加了2023贝尔法斯特电影节，并采访了国际影评人杰西卡·吉昂（Jessica Kiang）。吉昂在2022及2023贝尓法斯特电影节（Belfast Film Festival）担任评委兼策展人。我们很高兴能邀请到李佩泽博士共同进行这次特别采访，她是电影研究博士、2020贝尔法斯特电影节的青年策展人、首届薄荷紫华语电影节专题编辑。
拍摄于2023贝尔法斯特电影节 杰西卡·吉昂与林怡翔于节后派对
2023贝尔法斯特电影节，自吉昂加入后，增设了国际长片竞赛单元，并将电影节举办时间从由4月改至11月。
自1995年成立以来，贝尔法斯特电影节主要作为爱尔兰岛的本地活动，主要与当地电影人、专业人士和观众互动。新增设面向全世界的国际电影竞赛单元对这个本地规模的电影节来说标志着重大转变。这种扩展为电影节的战略、创意和品牌形象的发展带来了可能性。贝尔法斯特电影节为什么做出这些改变？该电影节如何应对未来的挑战？
在此次采访中，林怡翔和李佩泽博士将与吉昂讨论贝尔法斯特电影节转向国际化进程的最新动态，以及吉昂如何在诸多国际电影节中身兼多重电影节职业身份的话题。
杰西卡·吉昂在2023年贝尔法斯特电影节闭幕式上演讲（来自BFF2023）
自2016年起，吉昂作为国际影评人为国际电影周刊Variety（《综艺》）撰写新上映影片和国际电影节的文章，涉及的国际电影节包括戛纳电影节、威尼斯电影节、柏林电影节、卡罗维发利电影节、圣塞巴斯蒂安电影节、圣丹斯电影节、釜山电影节、上海电影节和多伦多电影节。她之后将继续为《综艺》撰写影评。她还为Sight & Sound （《视与听》），The New York Times（《纽约时报》），The LA Times（《洛杉矶时报》），The Playlist，Rolling Stone（《滚石》），Film Comment（《电影评论》）和Criterion等国际综艺和电影刊物供稿。吉昂是欧洲大型电影节评审团的常客，近年曾担任2021伦敦电影节主竞赛单元、2021阿姆斯特丹国际纪录片节主竞赛单元和、2019多伦多国际电影节“站台”竞赛单元的评委。吉昂还曾于2018年担任墨尔本国际电影节Critics Campus的导师，她下月将再次以导师身份参加该电影节。吉昂还曾以座谈嘉宾身份出席洛迦诺影评人学院、哥谭奖、独立精神奖、威尼斯双年展电影学院的活动。
提问：薄荷紫华语电影节 - 薄荷紫
回答：杰西卡·吉昂 - 吉昂
薄荷紫：您在电影节身兼数职，在有限时间里既要看电影又要写影评，您如何选择您自己的片单和规划日程？
吉昂：这个问题很有趣。大概去年三月，贝尔法斯特电影节找我去做策展。我之前没做过这种工作。我能接手这份工作很重要的原因是这个电影节的展片不是完全由收到的投递影片决定的，更多是从策展角度选择的。
我大部分时间作为影评人在各个电影节跑来跑去，所以这份策展工作很适合我，和我作为影评人做的工作很契合，简直梦寐以求。我基本能去欧洲所有的大型电影节和一些小型电影节。有时候我也会去亚洲或世界其他地方。比如我刚从釜山回来。去年我也去了圣丹斯电影节。
我在给《综艺》写影评时，经常会有一长串的电影要看要评。但现在，除了那些工作外，我也会一直想着贝尔法斯特电影节，思考哪些电影适合这个电影节的观众。还有很多其他问题。比如我一月份在圣丹斯电影节看了席琳·宋（Celine Song）拍的《过往人生》（Past Lives），很喜欢。当时我就想，要是能行，就要在贝尔法斯特电影节展映这个电影。但《过往人生》在圣丹斯电影节后确定了发行日期，在贝尔法斯特电影节开幕之前就会发行。所以我肯定不会把它再放在电影节上。
大多数时候，当我需要身兼数职、多线并行时，我会在年初把事情都放在脑袋里。然后不时回看，比如一些电影会怎么发行，和我们的影节规划相不相符。去年是我第一年做策展人。贝尔法斯特电影节之前没有国际竞赛单元。增设这个单元大概就是我的创新吧。
2023年贝尔法斯特电影节闭幕式上的观众（来源2023BFF）
这也是我用来提高贝尔法斯特电影节知名度的方法之一。但我们一开始就想好只展映是导演前两部作品的电影。我们想关注未来，关注新兴电影人。因为我总在世界各地飞来飞去，我的兴趣点也不局限于某地，所以这个竞赛单元也很国际化。今年这个单元有八部电影。它们都是导演首作或第二部作品。其中有一部英国电影，这在贝尔法斯特电影节很少见。我选片时没考虑这些，但恰好就成了现在这样。我们还有来自苏丹、蒙古、越南、挪威的电影。为竞赛单元策展时要尽可能去拓展选择。你肯定很快就会意识到这点。这种拓展不能只是地域上的，影片类型上也要拓展。
你得给评委一些区分度。不能所有电影都在讲同一类型的故事，比如青春成长类。确定展映电影很复杂。你很想让某部电影在竞赛单元放映的话，就需要去接触制片公司、发行商或者销售代理。如果因为某些原因这部电影没法在电影节展映，这也会影响到其他电影。你可能就会做一些其他的东西。如果那部电影能顺利放映，这些东西你就不一定会做了。平衡是关键。这种平衡是为了尽可能广泛地展示全球范围内电影界正在发生什么以及未来会发生什么。贝尔法斯特电影节规模不大。我说上面那些话显得很自不量力。但怀有远大抱负没有坏处。我们也确实有远大抱负。不仅作为策展人，也作为评论家，我真心认为，我们应该为新导演的处女作喝彩。同时我也关注这些新导演当中有多少是女性。我们的竞赛单元在性别平等方面做得很好。这是自然而然形成的。有点边做边想的感觉，也非常自由。因为相当于我们在从零开始，完全按自己的想法来设计，不受制于任何人。
薄荷紫：您的影评现在广泛发表在国际平台上。那您是如何踏上影评人之路的呢？
吉昂：我生活中充满了偶然，选择这个职业也是个意外。我不做计划。没人能计划出自己最后去做了什么。我是爱尔兰人，在都柏林出生长大，又在那儿写广告文案写了十多年，实在是烦得不行，就辞了职离开了爱尔兰。我大学专业是电影。我一直很喜欢电影，做广告的那些年看电影也是我最大的爱好。我突然意识到我做广告挣的钱都花在了旅行和电影上。现在我写影评，赚不到钱。我很穷。所有影评人都非常非常穷。但我能旅行，能看电影。相比之前不用再为做这些而去赚钱。
最开始的时候，我和我男朋友住在南美。当时我只是随便写写，就是兴趣。那时候The Playlist只是个小博客。 我开始给The Playlist写影评后不久，它就被并入了IndieWire。IndieWire旗下曾有许多独立博客。突然间，我们有了实际资金。我们有钱去做广告、发工资、派人去电影节了。我也开始正式为The Playlist写影评。我很享受这份工作。直到现在我仍然很喜欢那些博文，它们还像是我的朋友。在某种程度上，它们是我在互联网上的家。
我开始给IndieWire写影评后，《综艺》（Variety）注意到了我。他们喜欢我写的东西，就联系我，问我想不想给他们写文章。一旦你为像《综艺》这样全球性的刊物写文，你就自然会受到更多关注。你的评论会被多家媒体发布，里面的话会被摘出来放到海报里作为有力的营销手段。对我来说，这是我作为影评人的职业生涯中的巨大飞跃。从那时起，我认为我获得的一切都是因为《综艺》，因为我《综艺》杂志影评人的身份。我服务的媒体规模越来越大，有New York Times《纽约时报》、Los Angeles Times《洛杉矶时报》、Rolling Stone《滚石》，和英国的Sight&sound《视与听》。我都给这些刊物写过很多文章。我觉得这都是因为我给《综艺》写了很多影评。像你说的那样，这些影评在全球范围内都得到了传播。我很想把这一切归功于我自己和我的写作，但实际上只是因为我的文章发在《综艺》上。
薄荷紫：从开始写影评到能在《综艺》这样的刊物上发表文章您用了多久？
吉昂：《综艺》在2015年邀请我给他们撰稿。我当时已经在The Playlist当了大约三年的专题编辑，写东西是已经写了大约五年。电影评论的大环境变得很快，也因此我有了志愿给博客写文的想法。当时我还接一些广告零活来补充收入。当时也只能那样做。我能不要报酬地去写文章也是因为我有其他挣钱的渠道供我生活。但之后很快我就开始专门给The Playlist写稿，写了大概四五年，也写了不少。The Playlist有资金后就立马开始付我稿费。但他们的钱花得值吗？过去我每周写四五篇文章，每篇可能有两千词，有些是对一些导演的回顾研究。
这很有助于练习写作。我当时住在马来西亚槟城，在那儿待了快两年。那儿不是新电影发行的中心。也因为没新电影上映，我没法做日常的新片影评。我没机会去媒体试映会或其他提前放映的活动。我当时写的东西其实在哪里都能写。但在槟城的日子让我能和The Playlist的编辑建立联系，这样我才可以适合我的做电影评论的方式。我去的第一个电影节是马拉喀什国际电影节。当时The Playlist有一个受邀名额，我就去了，也就开始给新片写评论。这个机会也是通过我和The Playlist编辑的联系获得的。我不确定这种情况现在还存不存在了。现在电影评论这个赛道更拥挤了，想靠写影评为生也比以前难多了。我自己走上这条路后遇到了不少挑战，现在更是只多不减。因为越来越多的人正涌向这个行业。随着竞争者的增多，他们能争到的关注其实是越来越少的。
薄荷紫：电影节评委和策展人的身份会为您评审电影提供不同的视角吗？另外，您个人最看重电影的什么特质？
吉昂：我很喜欢做评委。我才担任了比利时根特电影节的评委。那个评审委员会总共七个人，规模比较大，不太常见。整个评审过程我感受很好。那个竞赛单元里有十二部电影。有些是大制作，比如《过往人生》(Past Lives)和约戈斯·兰西莫斯（Georgios Lanthimos）的《可怜的东西》（Poor Things）。还有些我没看过的很棒的比利时电影。这十二部电影里有十部我之前就看过，而且还写过影评。所以我个人对这些电影的看法已经公开了。再去做评审就感觉有点怪。
我尽可能和其他评委一起又去看了这些电影，因为我觉得和其他电影节评委建立联系、了解电影的放映情况很重要。在影节做评委时我的标准和平时写影评会稍有不同。话虽如此，我还是为没有改变自己的观点而自豪。我不会想要再次看完电影后想到：“天哪，我原来全理解错了。”在我看来，一开始写影评时就应该尽可能深思熟虑，要尽量避免草率的、第一印象的东西。如果说我有什么天赋的话，那就是在写作时能迅速进入状态，我希望这能经得起时间的考验。根特电影节的竞赛单元有The Delinquents这部电影。我在戛纳就看过这部电影，还给《综艺》写了影评，电影海报上还有我的名字。这看起来和我的评委身份冲突，但并不是。因为评审团除我之外还有六个人。我没有试图以任何方式影响他们的判断，就只是在讨论中提出我的观点。我们评审团非常和谐，我真的很高兴。这让我感觉：“实际上我是个天才评论家。从一开始我就完全正确。”你作为一名电影节评委时就要努力达成共识。这和自己写影评是两回事。后者就只是尽可能清晰有力地表达自己的想法。它们的侧重点略不相同。但我也认为大方向是一致的。
薄荷紫：去年和今年贝尔法斯特电影节都有重大变化转折，比如增设“国际长片竞赛单元”并更改了影节举办时间。我们也注意到电影节团队中有许多女性。
作为策展团队的负责人之一，您是否可以分享一下您对这些转折的想法和对电影节未来发展的愿景呢？另外，您之前提到了选片和评审过程，您能再展开谈谈您作为策展人的工作，以及您对国际电影节工作所秉持的理念吗？
吉昂：我不了解其他电影节具体是如何运行的，但我很清楚我在贝尔法斯特电影节的工作开展得很顺利。工作人员对我非常支持。基本上我可以完全按照自己的想法去设置新增的竞赛单元、去选片。我只能说我唯一的优势是我有10到12年的参加电影节的经验。到今年年底，我参加过的电影节加起来得有二十多个。但从另一方面来说，我之前意识不到办电影节有多困难。我就只是参加，知道我喜欢什么，知道某个电影节哪些部分做得好。
就像我之前提到的，我想让贝尔法斯特电影节选片尽可能多元化和有丰富性。策展人这个职位是不平淡的。我能到世界各地去看还没发行的电影，评估全球电影产业的状况。对我来说，设计一个竞赛单元就是把一些东西重新组合起来的新方法。竞赛单元里的电影并不是资格不够入围其他单元。
贝尔法斯特电影节规模不大，观众不算很多。如果电影节设计得很散，观众的体验就不会太好。他们在寻找自己想看的电影时就会比较困难。我们这个共八部电影的竞赛单元在设立第二年就稳定下来了，虽然形式稍微有点怪。我感觉去年观众就知道这个竞赛单元是什么性质了。如果他们喜欢这种选片模式，是那种想要捕捉新风向的电影迷，这个单元里一定有戳中他们的东西。对我来说，尽可能拓宽观众视野很重要，但同时也要注意，不一定要在一个单元放很多关注度很高的导演首作，或第二部作品。比如，去年《晒后假日》（Aftersun）是我们的闭幕影片。它的确是导演的处女作，能被放在竞赛单元里，但当时我感觉这部片子会很火，分销协议已经定了，不管怎样它都会在爱尔兰上映，所以我们没把《晒后假日》放在竞赛单元。我们想多选关注度小的电影，希望用这个单元提升大家对那些电影的关注。这就是我在构思这个单元时想到的东西。
因为十分可惜，贝尔法斯特电影节大概率是这里的观众在大银幕上看到那些电影的唯一机会。两部英国电影可能除外，毕竟贝尔法斯特属于英国。这个单元里的很多电影最后可能都会在流媒体上映，但其实大银幕才应该是它们的归宿。各销售代理、制片公司、导演、制片人很感谢我们设置这个单元，他们也很想让影片参加这个单元，这让我受宠若惊，非常开心。他们没理由从一开始就这么信任我们。但这也确实说明我们有多需要这样的竞赛单元。
我现在在电影节这个系统里工作。我认为其中最好形式的就是国际电影节，但它也不是没有缺陷。我们的共识是要想法设法绕过那些缺陷去帮助电影制作。我们都在努力让电影艺术更好。我们都在努力扶持世界各地那些关注度不高的电影，那些电影缺乏资源和支持。我们试图以我们微薄的力量让这些电影得到更多关注。如果我们能在小小的贝尔法斯特为这些精彩电影的生命周期作出些许贡献；如果我们能在某种程度上帮助新兴的电影人制作他们的下部作品；如果这些电影人会说，“我们入围了贝尔法斯特电影节”，这次入围增添了他们对自己的职业生涯的信心，我就非常非常高兴了。这就是我们真正在这儿做的事情。
薄荷紫：我注意到竞赛单元里有些影片也入围了今年的戛纳电影节和柏林电影节。您能解释您如何让这些优秀影片参加贝尔法斯特电影节吗？
吉昂：其实非常容易，大家都很好交流。对不背靠大型制片厂的电影来说，洽谈比较容易，比如三个小时长的《金色茧房》（Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell）。很多时候我也会接触到背靠大制片厂的电影，我们电影节里也有很多这样的电影展出，比如像是在New Cinema单元里。我们今年以很有名的安德鲁·海格（Andrew Haigh）的《都是陌生人》（All of Us Stranger）开幕，以约戈斯·兰西莫斯（Yorgos Lanthimos）的《可怜的东西》（Poor Things）闭幕。我们还展出了《利益区域》（The Zone of Interest）和威廉·奥德罗伊德（William·Oldroyd）的《艾琳》(Eileen)，这两个都是大作。能展出这些片子花了我不少心思。但我们知道很多人都会想来看这些电影。这些非常棒的电影其实保证了观众人次和好评度。
但我绝不会为了填满座位而在影片质量上作出妥协。刚刚提到的那些电影很棒。但它们背后是迪士尼、环球影业等大型发行商，洽谈的过程极其繁琐。对于那些我们很想帮助到的关注度低的电影，事情就简单多了。我们想让那些为了看《可怜的东西》来到电影节的人也会去看《金色茧房》。对于那些较小的电影，这不是个问题。对这些电影，联系完它们的销售代理，你会惊讶的。好的销售代理当天就会回复你，而且只要展映和它们的发行计划不冲突，通常他们回复的内容很积极。
我也意识到我（选片时）洽谈时有些许优势。很多时候人们已经知道我影评人这个身份，很多时候对于一些电影我已经在《综艺》上给它们写过评论了。因此我其实可以这样说：“我在《综艺》上对你的电影评价非常高，因此你欠我个人情。”当然，其实我不会这样做。可能有人会觉得这和我自己的利益冲突，毕竟我想让贝尔法斯特电影节展出多种多样的电影，但我一点儿都不这么觉得。因为我看电影后可能会写影评也可能不会，但如果我喜欢某部电影，我肯定会试图在贝尔法斯特电影节展出它。
我觉得需要传递出自己对某部电影的热情且能够围绕它讲故事。我常说我喜欢给电影作介绍。我给贝尔法斯特电影节我策展的所有电影作了介绍，去年大概做了35个。我在不同的地方来回奔波去做这些介绍。我想告诉观众的是，在每一个国际电影节，或每一个电影节，甚至是像贝尔法斯特电影节这样的小型电影节，展出的电影都会再诞生一次。这也是那些电影故事的一部分。观众来到电影节并不仅仅是看电影，也是在了解所看电影本身的故事。观众实际上参与创造了那些电影的生命。我喜欢向观众传递这一点，让他们觉得自己参与到了那些非常棒的电影的生命周期中。
我经常这样说。比如我们竞赛单元里的《催眠》（The Hypnosis），我第一次看到这部挪威电影是在捷克的卡罗维发利国际电影节。我在那边就写了影评，我真的很喜欢那部电影，我也一直在关注它的进展。我觉得能和来看这部电影的观众交流，告诉他们他们也是电影的一部分，是很美好的事。他们是这个旅程的一部分，他们现在通过来到这里成为了电影故事的一部分。我想这就是我的理念。你闭上眼睛想象一张世界地图，《再见，茱丽叶》（Goodbye Julia）就诞生于苏丹。这部电影也是我们竞赛单元的入围影片，聚焦于苏丹问题。这部电影入围了许多电影节，有很多故事随之产生，现在这部电影到了贝尔法斯特，新的故事又在这里诞生。我觉得这个过程非常美好。
薄荷紫：我们想请您简单分享一下您对英国创意行业变化的看法，尤其是关系到我们之前提到的多样性和包容性的那些方面。
吉昂：这个问题很大、很难回答。光就这个问题就能再做个采访了。而且我大概不是回答这个问题的最好人选，因为我不住在英国。我住在柏林，大部分时间都在旅行。我是以国际策展人的身份来到贝尔法斯特电影节，是想带来一种全球视角。同我合作策展的罗斯·贝克（Rose Baker），她名义上负责英国和爱尔兰方面的策展，所以她可能更适合来具体讨论这个问题。
但我认为总体而言，全球电影产业在朝着更包容、更多样的方向发展。当然随之也出现了一些问题。很多人对自己的电影只是象征性得到资助感到不满。我感觉很讽刺，尽管我们的竞赛单元只针对导演首作和第二部作品。
我发现，现在真正的挑战之一，尤其是对于首次拍摄电影的女性制片人来说，其实不是她们能否拍出自己的第一部电影，而是她们能否拍出自己的第二部或第三部电影。因此，这也是我认为非常重要的一点，哪怕这些电影人只是在贝尔法斯特电影节拿了个小奖，这份鼓励也能帮助这些电影人在拍出第一部电影后继续发展事业。拍摄自己的处女作需要很多努力，但我认为，很多刚拍电影的人都认为，如果我能把第一部拍出来，那就万事大吉了，之后就一帆风顺了。但当他们成功把电影拍出来后，他们就会意识到，即使这部电影广受好评，入围了很多电影节，但下一阶段才真正困难。这是一方面。我认为全球电影产业仍在苦苦挣扎，要保持多样性、保持热情、保持电影人的动力往往非常困难。
全球电影产业存在很多问题，我们这次Zoom通话没法一一解决这些问题。但的确有一些措施在实施了，也有很多我觉得非常有前景的倡议和计划。我也没有很愤世嫉俗，只是在某些情况下，我对这些项目、计划、研讨会、实验室以及所有帮助人们拍摄第一部电影的好的做法没有很高的期待。因为导演总归还是要靠他们自己。我希望有一些方法可以持续支持新导演。
结语
影节主创及团队正在为2024薄荷紫华语电影节积极开发筹备全新的创意节目、竞赛单元、特别电影展（包括新锐女导演首映和华语经典回顾）、论坛、工作坊、户外及文化活动。自全球征片开启至今，我们已累积收到来自英国、中国、东亚和东南亚国家、欧洲、北美等全球范围内超过400位投稿者的作品。青年选片人及选片组委会真正在紧锣密鼓地审阅复核报名影片，竞赛单元入围结果将于新年后在官网及社交媒体公布。
致谢：
贝尔法斯特电影节
受访者：杰西卡·吉昂
采访者：李佩泽博士、林怡翔
翻译：王颖洁
编辑：李佩泽博士、林怡翔、张紫略
