The Nikon Film Festival is an annual short film competition launched in France by the camera brand Nikon. Open to all, it invites filmmakers, students, and amateurs to create a 2-minute 20-minute film on a set theme. In addition to extensive online exposure, winners receive awards, some of which are funded by the French National Center for Cinema and the Moving Image. Presented as a springboard for young talent, the festival nevertheless relies on a model where marketing some

In her new column Duanju Meet Africa , journalist and Africa correspondent Blessing Azugama explores the revolution of short-form storytelling across the continent. She begins with a striking observation: in today’s attention economy, the force that defines every creator’s visibility online, the length of a story no longer determines its impact. What matters now is the ability to captivate within the first three seconds. Blessing notes that fast and emotional storytelling has

While the micro-drama format remains largely unexplored by French critics, some observers are beginning to approach it with curiosity and openness. In an article published on Konbini, Delphine Rivet analyzes the rise of these vertical fictions born in China, designed for phone screens and consumed at high speed. She describes an ecosystem where storytelling adapts to the logic of contemporary uses: very short episodes, often mass-produced, but capable of generating strong em

On October 14, 2025, at the end of the 7 p.m. news on France Inter, the major French public radio station, the journalists humorously concluded: "We will resist, we will fight with our little arms." A seemingly innocuous phrase, but revealing a certain French reflex in the face of cultural revolutions. We laugh to keep at a distance what is disturbing: a new, fast, popular, and strangely effective format. This ironic tone is not just a radio joke. It is part of a broader cont

Following on from previous texts where I wanted to discuss the division of comics into well-known magazines and then their current evolution linked to new methods of distribution . Today I would like to talk about the practice of splitting that was once applied to literary works (including great novels that later became classics) through what was called the serial novel , a form of publication in episodes in widely circulated newspapers, magazines and even booklets, which ca

When a major mainstream outlet turns its attention to the duanju phenomenon, it’s often to treat it as a curiosity. But the Figaro  article of October 12, 2025, signed by Salomé Hembert, deserves a closer look as much for what it reveals as for what it leaves out. In 2024, actor Thierry Lhermitte joked that a scathing piece in Le Monde  or Libération  usually meant box-office success was near. Reading Le Figaro ’s article, it’s hard not to think of that old rule. The text che

In the article " When Comics Created Weekly Suspense " I said, but without elaborating, that the arrival of digital had transformed the...

Comics are considered to have been born in the 19th century, from varied premises: illustrated stories, Epinal images, precise narratives...

In China, a quiet revolution has reshaped the way audiences consume stories. Known as Duanju, these short dramas, packaged in one to...

In 2020, in the midst of the municipal election campaign, 5G entered the public debate. Green mayor Éric Piolle launched a striking statement on RTL: "5G is so we can watch porn movies even when you're in your elevator in HD." A provocation intended to denounce the energy consumption of digital technology and question the notion of progress. Five years later, what was a witty remark has become reality: 5G makes it possible to seamlessly watch Duanju series even in the most un

Wix is one of the most widely used website hosts in the world, with over 250 million websites created. Dailymotion, for its part, is a...

Dailymotion was born at a time when video was taking over the web. The platform quickly became a French-style testing ground: initially...

This new wave of influence is not the first: from the “chinoiserie” of the 18th century (porcelain, lacquer, pagodas) to the vogue for...

When you think of cinema, you immediately think of feature films projected on the big screen. However, the roots of cinema lie in a...

If there is one format that uses it, it is the Duanju: a rhythmic milestone and tool for attention, the cliffhanger serves the narrative...

In the article “When AI Invades the Seventh Art”, published in Le Point on August 10, 2025, by Philippe Guedj, generative artificial intelligence tools such as ChatGPT, DALL·E, Sora, or Veo 3 can now produce special effects sequences at a cost up to ten times lower than traditional methods. Whereas months of work by graphic designers, digital stunt performers, and technicians were once required, today only a few days are needed to create scenes that were previously reserved f

In an interview with Philippe Guedj of the French magazine Le Point on August 7, 2025, Tom Rothman, president of the Sony Pictures Motion...

Over the past decade, the way we watch series has changed profoundly. With the rise of streaming, binge-watching, watching episodes one...

From the Greek amphitheater to vertical screens, the play of human passions always finds its stage! In ancient times, Aristotle described...

In China, and gradually in many Western countries, duanju attract millions of spectators, the majority of whom are... female spectators....