''Eternal Spring'' () is a 2022 Canadian

adult An adult is an animal that has reached full growth. The biological definition of the word means an animal reaching sexual maturity and thus capable of reproduction. In the human context, the term ''adult'' has meanings associated with social an ...

animated documentary film written, directed and co-produced by Jason Loftus.Patrick Mullen
"Eternal Spring Review: Animating an Awakening"
''

Point of View Point of View or Points of View may refer to: Concept and technique * Point of view (literature) or narrative mode, the perspective of the narrative voice; the pronoun used in narration * Point of view (philosophy), an attitude how one sees or ...

'', May 1, 2022. Based around the animation of Chinese artist Daxiong, the film centres on

Falun Gong Falun Gong, also called Falun Dafa, is a new religious movement founded by its leader Li Hongzhi in China in the early 1990s. Falun Gong has its global headquarters in Dragon Springs, a compound in Deerpark, New York, United States, near t ...

's 2002 hijacking of broadcast television stations in

Changchun Changchun is the capital and largest city of Jilin, Jilin Province, China, on the Songliao Plain. Changchun is administered as a , comprising seven districts, one county and three county-level cities. At the 2020 census of China, Changchun ha ...

, and

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

's continued repression of ethnic and religious minority groups. The film premiered at the

Thessaloniki Documentary Festival The Thessaloniki Documentary Festival (TDF; ) is an international documentary festival held every March in Thessaloniki, Greece. TDF, founded in 1999, features competition sections and ranks among the world's leading documentary festivals. Since ...

on March 15, 2022. It was subsequently screened at the 2022

Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival The Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival is the largest documentary festival in North America. The event takes place annually in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The 27th edition of the festival took place online throughout May and Jun ...

, where it was named the overall winner of the

Hot Docs Audience Award The Hot Docs Audience Awards are annual film awards, presented by the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival to the most popular films as voted by festival audiences. There are currently two awards presented for feature films: the Hot ...

for most popular film in the festival, and the first-place winner of the Rogers Audience Award for the most popular Canadian film.Jennie Punter
"‘Eternal Spring’ Takes Rogers Audience and Hot Docs Audience Awards"
''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'', May 9, 2022. In August 2022, the film was announced as Canada's submission for the

Academy Award for Best International Feature Film The Academy Award for Best International Feature Film (known as Best Foreign Language Film prior to 2020) is one of the Academy Awards handed out annually by the U.S.-based Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). It is given to a ...

at the

95th Academy Awards The 95th Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), took place on March 12, 2023, at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles. During the gala, the AMPAS presented Academy Awards (commonl ...

, but it was not nominated.Jackson Weaver
"Eternal Spring named Canada's submission for Oscars' best international film"

CBC News CBC News is the division of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation responsible for the news gathering and production of news programs on the corporation's English-language operations, namely CBC Television, CBC Radio, CBC News Network, and CBC ...

, August 24, 2022. It was the first documentary film and the first animated film ever submitted by Canada, and only the fourth time since 1971 that a film was selected in a language other than French. On November 9, 2022, the

Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS, often pronounced ; also known as simply the Academy or the Motion Picture Academy) is a professional honorary organization in Beverly Hills, California, U.S., with the stated goal of adva ...

officially deemed the film eligible for consideration in the Best Animated Feature category.

Reception

Favorable critical reception

Carlos Aguilar of the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

'' described the film as "distinctively incisive on an emotional level," noting that it "applauds the bravery of its participants to relive a painful shared trauma and create a permanent testament of what they endured." He wrote: "The most inspired among the many animated passages into the past is one that materializes Daxiong’s childhood memories of winter in his hometown of Changchun City, where Falun Gong originated and the epicenter of the repression. For a moment, he invites us to witness a period before the horrors of torture and incarceration tainted his memories of his home. Loftus’ foresight to include the behind-the-scenes process as part of the story — we see Daxiong working with the animation team and engaging in casual chats with the other subjects — also reinforces the direct link between creator and creation." Cath Clarke of ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' rated ''Eternal Spring'' 4 out of 5, describing it as a "painful, important film, made more urgent in light of China’s tightening of religious freedoms and human rights abuses against Uyghurs and other Muslims." Chris Knight of the ''

National Post The ''National Post'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet newspaper and the flagship publication of the American-owned Postmedia Network. It is published Mondays through Saturdays, with Monday released as a digital e-edition only.

'' called the film a "moving tour de force, which deserves to be widely seen" and rated it 5 out of 5. In a review for ''

The Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Newspapers in Canada, Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in Western Canada, western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of more than 6 million in 2024, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on week ...

'',

Amil Niazi Amil Niazi is a Canadian writer, broadcaster and columnist, residing in Toronto, Ontario. Niazi was a long-time section editor at Vancouver's now defunct alternative weekly ''Terminal City (magazine), Terminal City''. She went on to co-found t ...

wrote: "From the very first scenes of the Canadian documentary Eternal Spring, you’re thrust into a thrilling, all-consuming film that challenges traditional documentary tropes and finds a way to tell a winding, difficult story with brilliant ease." She concluded: "Watching these painful, shared memories come to life, seeing up close as the few who made it out are able to pay homage to those who didn’t, it’s hard not to think of all those who continue to be punished for practising their beliefs in China, from the Falun Gong practitioners to the Uyghur Muslims. Perhaps a film like this can illuminate what is lost in shadow, much like the hijackers did on that night in 2002. Either way, their message is being rebroadcast in the loudest possible way with Eternal Spring."

Aggregated critical reception

On the

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website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

, the film holds an approval rating of 79% based on 33 reviews from critics, with an average rating of 7.6/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "More impressive in form than function, Eternal Spring offers a periodically gripping mixed-media account of a pivotal moment in modern Chinese history". On

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, the film has a weighted average score of 71 out of 100, based on 9 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Awards and nominations

References

External links