On Dec. 19 at 7 PM, an outdoor screening of the film A Cool Fish began at Luhuitou Park in Sanya. The warm atmosphere created by returning to this old-fashioned way of movie-watching brought a bit of warmth to the Sanya winter evening.
An outdoor screening on the lawn of the Aranya Community in Sanya. (Photo by Wang Chenglong / Hainan Daily)
Li Man and Chen Shilong, a newlywed couple from Liaoning, came an hour before the movie began to make sure they got good seats. "Yesterday, I saw someone sharing photos of watching an outdoor movie screening at Luhuitou, and it seemed very exciting, so today we came here just to experience it," gushed Chen.
Sitting behind them was a family of three from Sanya. "Yesterday we saw Rob-B-Hood and the kid couldn't stop laughing, so we came again today." Father Deng Hongliang said that they not only enjoyed seeing the movies, but also listening to the movie music concerts and playing the interactive games. The whole family had a fantastic time.
An outdoor screening on the lawn of the Aranya Community in Sanya. (Photo by Wang Chenglong / Hainan Daily)
Since the start of the 5th Hainan Island International Film Festival (HIIFF) on Dec. 16, movie madness has swept across the island province, with outdoor screenings popping up on hilltops, lawns, and beaches, as well as a wide variety of other movie related activities bringing the joy of film to all. The HIIFF is bringing movies to audiences everywhere in Hainan, with screenings in multiple venues open to the public.
This year the festival is putting on a "Golden Coconut Carnival", with activities held on the lawn of the Aranya Community in Sanya, in Riyue Bay, Wanning, and many other areas. The screenings were combined with dining, accommodation, transportation, vacation, shopping, and entertainment options, providing an immersive movie-going experience. In Sanya, Haikou, Danzhou, Wuzhishan, Lingshui, Ledong, and other areas, many of this year's "Golden Coconut Award" shortlisted and special exhibition films are playing at cinemas, giving movie lovers another way to watch.
An outdoor screening on the lawn of the Aranya Community in Sanya. (Photo by Wang Chenglong / Hainan Daily)
"For film lovers, the Hainan International Film Festival is not only a film event, but also our very own festival!" Zhu Ziran, a Hainan University Student, said that she made a special trip to Sanya over the weekend to watch the movies L'autre Laurens and Center Stage. On the 21st, she plans to see the film Invisible Friends with her classmates at a theater in Haikou.
Currently, there are 112 movie theaters located across Hainan, and as of Dec. 14, total 2023 box office revenues for the province stood at 403 million yuan, an increase of 86.29% over the same period in 2022. The total number of moviegoers this year so far in Hainan is 9.475 million, an increase of 4.26% over last year’s figures.
The love and support of the audience is the best support for the development of the film industry. "This year, Hainan's box office numbers have kept going up, and more movies are choosing filming locations in Hainan or to make movies about Hainan, and so we are more confident in the production, distribution, and screening of films." ZOSE Cinema chairman Liu Yang said that the increased public interest in films and film festivals provides not only an important foundation for the success of these festivals, but also a source of confidence for workers in the industry to keep up the hard work.
