Much more than just a movie event

"What we lacked with the system, we had to make up with human flesh," he says, referring to the production of The Wandering Earth.

"For one, we don't even have a standard format for screen scripts," he says. "In any other official paperwork, there are standard formats, such as agreed line width and letter spaces, but that is not the case in the film industry in China.

"Don't think of the script as a simple book filled with words-they are bricks that we build a film with."

Guo shares his observation about making China's first successful science-fiction film.

"When we create a situation when the Earth is about to be destroyed, people would normally try to run away, but it is only us, Chinese people, who have such a deep attachment to the Earth, who would want to run away with it," he says.

"This special attachment with the land is part of Chinese culture. I believe that's why the story found strong resonance in China."

This year, more than 3,900 films from 112 countries and regions were submitted for the Golden Goblet awards that take place during the SIFF. Turkish film director and screenplay writer Nuri Bilge Ceylan is the chairman of the seven-member jury for the Golden Goblet awards this year.