The 2004 Guangzhou International Documentary Film Festival (GZDOC 2004) will be held in December of this year in Guangzhou, China. It is a continuation of the 2003 Guangzhou International Documentary Film Festival.

The organizers of the 2004 Guangzhou International Documentary Film Festival underline their intention of combining the success of the 2003 Festival with a fresh new emphasis on developing distribution channels and on building international linkages with the Chinese documentary industry. The adoption of this new direction has further clarified the philosophy for this and future Guangzhou International Documentary Film Festivals, the goals of which are:
1. To host thematic and inspiring academic seminars for documentary films.
2. To award documentary filmmakers and their work.
3. To build a channel of communication between documentary investors, producers and distributors.
4. To promote Chinese documentary films and filmmakers to the international market.

GZDOC 2004 will consist of the following sections: Screenings & Competition, Documart, Forum and a one-time broadcast on Guangzhou Television. The theme of GZDOC 2004 is "Children and Teenagers". Entries for competition at GZDOC 2004 will cover the following aspects of the theme: today's children and teenagers, their life, their development and their place in our society.

Winners selected by GZDOC 2004 jury will be awarded prizes. For details, please refer to the Competition Regulations Section and the Awards Section.

The 2004 Guangzhou International Documentary Film Festival is intended to build a communication and trade channel between international documentary film investors, producers and distributors. Participants, namely, international producers, television stations, distributors, advertising companies and investors will find GZDOC 2004 a good opportunity to explore future cooperation. Please refer to Festival Program, Regulations for Documart and Participant List for more information.

The topics for the seminars in the Forum will include lives of today's children and teenagers, problems they face and the issues related to the making of documentary films concerning children and teenagers.

The 2003 Guangzhou International Documentary Film Festival attracted people from different walks of life: producers, scholars, distributors, journalists, representatives from television stations and education entities and college students. The participants came from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Australia's Special Broadcasting Service(SBS), the Australian Film Television and Radio School, the China Television Association Television Documentary Film Academic Committee,China International TV Corporation,the Beijing Broadcasting Institute of China, China Intercontinental Communication Center, China State Council Information Office, China Science Movie & Television Institution,China Central Television, China Beijing Television, China Shanghai Television, the School of Journalism at Fudan University, China Sichuan Television, China Guangdong Television, China Guangzhou Television, China Shandong Television, China Dalian Television, Guangzhou Jinan University, the Science and Technology Film College of France, the Documentary & Experimental Film Center of Iran, RKB Mainichi Broadcasting Corporation of Japan, Documentary Section of the Polish Filmmakers Association, Discovery Channel of the US, the Asian American Studies Department of the University of California at Berkeley, WGBH from the US and London xxx Latin Media Co., Ltd.

Some well-known figures in the documentary field have attended the 2003 Festival. We would like to extend our thanks to Mr. Mohammad Afarideh, Mr. Vikram Channa, Mr. Chen Hanyuan, Ms. Cheng Chunli, Ms. Annick Demeule, Ms. Mitzi Goldman, Mr. Li Jinyuan, Mr. Edmond Moukala, Mr. Zvi Dor-Ner, Mr. Michael Noll, Mr. Wang Ling-chi and Mr. Koji Watanabe for their attendance and support.

The 2004 Guangzhou International Documentary Film Festival will be held at Dongfang Hotel, Guangzhou.