By 1925, Chinese movie studios were turning out a full product line of motion pictures, many of them including filmmakers' social messages while entertaining the moviegoing public. As noted earlier, in 1925 these studios completed and released 54 full-length features (usually defined as one which is 4 or more reels in length. i.e. more than 30 minutes), and only 8 shorts. Mingxing again led the way, with 9 features, and 29 other studios churned out the rest.
To this point, we have been listing in our archival (filmography) categories all films released in a particular year. But the growing annual production output makes a total listing an impracticality. So with this post we initiate a new series, The Chinese Mirror Film Awards, recognizing the most noteworthy motion pictures of China's classical era, year by year. These awards are a total conceit, an invention of the editor's imagination, as China did not actually start bestowing awards on its motion pictures until the 1962 Hundred Flowers Awards. There were two fan votes prior to that, the "Four Great Dan" election of 1926, and the 1934 election to determine the "Emperor and Empress" of movies, but these were votes to choose fans' favorite performers, not best pictures as judged by industry professionals. While the Mirror awards are wholly imaginary, there is a sound basis for singling out these particular films for distinction: these are the movies which crop up repeatedly in Chinese film histories, and are cited in such standard film references as The Chinese Cinema Encyclopaedia (Shanghai, 1995) as being among the nation's best early productions.
The eligibility rules are as follows:
1. In determining to which year a film belongs, "year of release" is the operative phrase. The uniform practice among Chinese scholars is to list a film by year of production, whereas Western sources (e.g. the The Internet Movie Database) usually list a film by its initial release in country of origin, regardless of when made. So our years may differ from those given in Chinese sources. This practice will be followed in all subsequent Chinese Mirror posts: if a film's actual release date can be determined with certainty, that film will be counted as being from that year, otherwise we will follow the Chinese sources.
2. Since we have no box office or attendance figures to draw on, let alone a vote by the "members of the academy", the films are not ranked, but are listed in alphabetical order.
3. All of this year's nominees are lost films, so there will be no effort to avoid "spoilers," by giving away plot twists or endings.
So without further ado, the envelopes please. And the nominees are:
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