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Film award ceremonies are when movie professionals break out the red carpet, dress to the nines, and vote for the best acting performances, best special effects, best screenplay and so on. However, in China, film award ceremonies never had this new revolutionary category before: Best movie poster.

Now, unexpectedly, during the 4th Silk Road International Film Festival, this important category finally gets the recognition it deserves. 

The first annual Fuzhou International Film Poster Awards were held in Fuzhou, southeast China's Fujian Province on Saturday, as a part of the 4th Silk Road international Film Festival. The organizers have picked 500 movie posters from around the world, and the judges, who included famed movie producers, directors and actors, shortlisted them to 50. Six were nominated eventually, and the poster "Seventy-seven Days" eventually won the award.

Shortly after the awards, we interviewed movie producer, screenwriter, and the awards’ chief organizer Cheng Zhongping. He said that as an academy of fine arts graduate, it’s been his dream to include movie posters in a Chinese film award, and finally he did it. 

He went on to explain that a good movie poster visually shows the concept and value of the movie, using iconic, memorable, and simple aesthetics, and could bring in millions more to the box office and give a movie a lasting effect even years after the movie debuts.

Mr. Yuan, an audience member at the ceremony, said that he hoped good movies, and good movie posters could bring people closer, especially people along the Belt and Road Initiative countries, because the power of good art can break different language and cultural barriers.