The 2025 Golden Panda International Culture Forum opened in Chengdu, the capital of southwest China's Sichuan Province, on Saturday, with international jurors and filmmakers highlighting the event's role in bridging global cultures through cinema.

Themed "Harmony in Diversity, A Future in Unity," the forum is one of the main events of the second Golden Panda Awards and saw participation from professionals across five continents.

"This kind of international exchange and collision of ideas is especially meaningful—it's a rare and valuable opportunity," said Shu Nan, a juror of the award ceremony.

This year's competition received 5,343 submissions from 126 countries and regions, with overseas entries accounting for 73.2 percent of total submissions. Nearly half of the 27-member judging panel consisted of members from outside China.

"I think new competitions like this are really, really important. It creates another opportunity for different cultures to get together and to learn from each other. And this feels like a very, very international competition, so that's a real opportunity here when you have people from different countries around the world meeting different producers and going sharing a passion for the same stories that there could be some great opportunities out of this," said Josie Day, juror for the Television Drama Category from New Zealand.

Swiss documentary juror Olivier Grandjean acknowledged China's growing influence in the entertainment industry.

"The Chinese cinema industry and also the Chinese TV industry are at the same level for me now, as a lot of high-quality works. You can be proud as Chinese workers," he said.

American director Dimitri Devyatkin added "China is rising very quickly as a strong economic power, and now we see also cultural partner. And the culture of China is very impressive. I believe that all human beings, whatever country, whatever culture, have much more in common with each other."

The forum featured screenings, keynote speeches from seven international speakers, and a dialogue session titled "Building bridges of mutual learning through the art of filmmaking."

Concurrent events included the "See the world with the panda" film exchange program and public screenings of classic films throughout Sichuan province.