Shanghai TV Market launches a dual-venue format to boost Chinese exports
This year’s Shanghai International Film & TV Market will launch a new two-venue format at the Shanghai Exhibition Center, with separate areas for international corporate pavilions and a dedicated arena pairing Chinese content sellers with buyers from major markets including the United Kingdom, France, Brazil and Canada.
The International Pavilion brings together institutions from Thailand, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Brazil and Spain, with programming focused on foreign production shows and location promotion for Europe and the Middle East. The Chinese promotional venue will host matchmaking sessions organized by category – films, drama series and microdramas – in addition to international industrial salons and cultural tourism route promotions.
Chen Guo, general manager of the Shanghai International Film & TV Events Center, said this year’s TV forum programming will focus on facilitating global content deals. “This thematic forum will bring together decision makers from major global platforms for in-depth dialogues on the latest market trends, key purchasing needs and various collaboration opportunities,” she said. Variety. “Together they will explore new avenues and possibilities for Chinese stories, including microdramas, to ‘go global.’”
The market is also introducing an official award category for microdramas this year, recognizing outstanding short productions across four assessment dimensions: value orientation, story and creativity, production and audiovisual quality, and distribution and reputation. Chen says the awards are intended to address uneven production quality in the sector. “We strive to discover and celebrate outstanding microdramas that possess ideological depth, artistic warmth and contemporary characteristics,” she says. “The introduction of this award is intended to leverage the exemplary and leading role of the Magnolia Awards in moving the industry toward premium manufacturing.”
The broader market is entering what Chen describes as a recovery cycle after a period of inventory consolidation, with AI tools attracting younger creators and raising the bar for storytelling. “Audiences never stop pursuing high-quality content,” she says. “Although the industry has evolved rapidly in recent years, the changes have mainly been in the forms of expression: between horizontal and vertical screens, long or short content, traditional TV broadcasts versus online streaming, all among others.”
Last year, foreign guests accounted for 12% of total market visitors, with creative staff representing the largest professional category at 35.54%. Chen says the market’s core purpose this year goes beyond one-off transactions. “We aim not only to facilitate single-project transactions, but also to encourage Chinese and foreign institutions to sign annual strategic partnerships, long-term purchase agreements and joint development framework agreements,” she said.
The Shanghai International Film & TV Market runs after the Shanghai International Film Festival.
