SHANGHAI (Reuters) – One of China’s longest-running and largest independent film festivals has suspended operations “indefinitely”, with the organizers saying it was now “impossible” to organize a festival with a “purely independent spirit”.
The China Independent Film Festival (CIFF), which was established in the eastern city of Nanjing in 2003 and has held 14 sessions so far, made the announcement late on Thursday.
It did not provide more details of what pushed it to such a decision, but the move comes amid growing media censorship in China, which has seen regulators crack down on content they believe to violate “socialist core values”.
“We believe, that under current local organizational conditions, that it is impossible to organize a film festival that truly has a purely independent spirit and which is effective,” the CIFF said on its official WeChat account.
“Of course, to those grassroots film festivals that under the mask of security still try to…
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