LOS ANGELES, April  21, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — The final jury panel for the 2025 SmallRig Awards has been announced, led by Academy Award–winning filmmaker Ruby Yang (The Blood of Yingzhon District). Joining her on the panel are:

Uli Gaulke – A Berlin-based, award-winning documentary filmmaker.

Gu Tao – An award-winning Chinese independent documentary filmmaker and photographer of Manchu heritage.

You Xiaogang – A veteran producer and award winning director in China.

“Cinema is powerful! Motion pictures have the transformative ability to cultivate empathy and forge connections on a deeply human level. Our jury panel is seeking compelling stories that not only shine a light on critical issues but also inspire meaningful change,” said Ruby Yang, head of the SmallRig Awards jury panel.

In December 2024, the SmallRig Awards also launched its Global Filmmaker Talk series with a preview screening of Miguel Gomes’Grand Tour, co-presented by Los Angeles screening series Acropolis Cinema. The event featured an engaging conversation between director Miguel Gomes and Acropolis founder Jordan Cronk, where they explored the innovative nonfiction techniques and dynamic storytelling tools Gomes employed in the film.

“The SmallRig Awards are for socially conscious filmmakers,” says SmallRig founder Zhou Yang. “We believe that images are very powerful. They allow people, behavior, and important moments to be seen.” He continues: “While we support films that call for action on global issues and aim to create positive change, our focus is more on addressing issues constructively rather than taking a critical or activist approach.”

Launched in 2024 by SmallRig—renowned for its affordable, compact, and versatile filmmaking rigs—the SmallRig Awards are designed to discover impactful films and videos addressing global social issues. Winners will receive significant cash prizes and the opportunity to secure financial backing from SmallRig for future projects.

Participants will compete for 22 awards, with cash prizes ranging from $800 to $12,000. The jury has completed the review of all submitted entries. For more information on nominations, award announcements, and further updates, please visit: https://www.smallrig.com/activity/SmallRigAwards

SHENZHEN, China, April 21, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — From May 8th to 10th, the Shenzhen World Exhibition & Convention Center will host 2025CHINASHOP, the largest retail exhibition in Asia. Spanning 100,000 square meters, the exhibition will present globally leading retail facilities and equipment, cutting-edge technologies, innovative solutions, and trending products through nine themed sub-exhibitions. It is expected to attract over 70,000 global attendees.

This year’s CHINASHOP will adopt the theme “Value Reshaping” , addressing the industry question of “how the retail sector can transcend traffic competition and reconstruct the relationship between people, goods, and spaces” through exhibits covering the entire retail industry chain, professional and forward-looking industry conferences, and efficient and precise supplier-retailer activities.

Over 900 outstanding exhibitors from around the world will showcase the latest trends and innovative achievements in the retail industry over the past year. The exhibition scope spans AI technology, smart logistics, digital solutions, commercial refrigeration equipment, cold chain equipment, fresh food processing equipment, lighting and display design, packaging design, trending merchandise, and more. Retailers and chain enterprises from global supermarkets, convenience stores, department stores, shopping centers, specialty stores, F&B, e-commerce platforms, and other multi-format businesses will engage in efficient and precise communication on-site to explore 2025 retail trends and new channel opportunities.

Partial Exhibitor List: Intel, METTLER TOLEDO, DIGI, Posiflex, Ishida, Bizerba, Philips, Omori Packing, Bitzer, Carel, Tennant，Wanzl, Aeon, Sunmi, Ovopark, Kemai, Qisheng, Hanshow, Weidian, Dmall, Lakala, Shiji, Aoc, HEADING, TCL, Partner，Aclas，Iccold, Hiron, Haiercarrier, Xingxing, Bfresh, Konper, Tus Lighting, Vichi, Fuxing, Fumingyang, Guangyoute, Caimeta, Tianyi, Hongda, Aertai, Roadease Guidance, Sunyoung, LinU Display, Hongye, Keshun, COFCO, Yanjin Shop Food, C R NG FUNG, ChaCha, Jianlibao, TongRenTang, etc.

Notably, beyond the exhibition, 2025CHINASHOP will host multiple concurrent industry conferences.

The Consumer Goods Channel Marketing Innovation Summit will focus on new consumer groups, new scenarios, and new connections, addressing high-frequency topics such as product innovation, omni-channel integration, overseas expansion, and supplier-retailer collaboration. Executives from Yili, Kewpie, Heytea, Weilong, KPMG, Huayuhua, Xiaohongshu, TIKTOK, and others have confirmed their participation to share insights.

The All-Retail AI Spark Conference, a retail industry event dedicated to AI technology applications, will adopt a “1+N” model (main forum plus multiple sub-forums) to empower multiple retail scenarios. Leveraging CHINASHOP’s numerous technology exhibitors, the conference will explore AI’s implementation trends across the entire retail landscape. Executives from Hanshow, NVIDIA, Microsoft, Huawei, CR Vanguard, Meiyijia, Haidilao, Tianhong, Easyhome, Pagoda, and others in the tech, retail, and F&B sectors have confirmed their participation.

Additionally, the China Supermarket Conference will center on the theme “Embracing Distribution Revolution, Accelerating Operational Transformation”, gathering over 300 Chinese supermarket enterprises and supply chain exhibitors to discuss topics like procurement model innovation and private-label development. Executives from Freshippo, Beauty Group, XinYulou, Hubei Yasi, fudi, Guizhou Heli, Fresh Legend, and others have confirmed their participation.

On-site at 2025CHINASHOP, events such as the Consumer GoodsChannel Selection Conference, CHINASHOP Golden Wing Awards Finals, Retail X-LAB and Rising Stars Zone, Hi-shop, Hackathon Competitions, and over 20 WORKSHOP activities covering ready-to-eat foods, commercial refrigeration equipment, retail category trends, healthy foods, and more will also take place.

PANAMA CITY, April 21, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — BingX, a global leading cryptocurrency exchange, announces the listing of EPT, the native token for Balance.fun, for both spot trading and also on the BingX Xpool. The spot listing will commence on April 21 at 12:00 (UTC) while the Xpool launch will start on April 22 at 10:00 (UTC). BingX users can stake BTC and EPT in Xpool, though new users will have an additional option to stake USDT to win a bigger share of the reward pool that includes 2,000,000 EPT Points. The first 1000 new users who stake a minimum of 100 USDT will also be able to earn an additional bonus voucher worth 100 USDT.

EPT is the governance token of Balance, an AI-powered web3 experience infrastructure designed for the masses. This new digital asset will fuel the new Balance Platform to create an open and inclusive gaming ecosystem for both gamers and developers with fairness at its core. With the integration of AI and blockchain technology, games can be built and marketed more easily while allowing players to benefit from the enhanced and diversified gaming experience.

Users of the existing Epal platform can transfer their EPT tokens to BingX, enabling a reliable method to trade EPT or, alternatively, purchase EPT for governance purposes. Having a solid exchange to further explore the vast world of cryptocurrencies, this new listing further empowers both Epal and Balance users in the process.

Vivien Lin, Chief Product Officer of BingX, shared her thoughts on the new trading option and Xpool listing: “I think providing users with these new trading and early investment options is our responsibility as a responsible cryptocurrency exchange since some of our users rely on us to introduce such projects with such numerous functions across multiple subcategories”.

Visit bingx.com to join the Xpool starting April 22 and start trading EPT on spot from April 21. Whether you’re a gamer, builder, or crypto enthusiast, this is your chance to be part of a new decentralized chapter in entertainment.

About BingX 

Founded in 2018, BingX is a leading crypto exchange, serving over 20 million users worldwide. BingX offers diversified products and services, including spot, derivatives, copy trading, and asset management – all designed for the evolving needs of users, from beginners to professionals. BingX is committed to providing a trustworthy platform that empowers users with innovative tools and features to elevate their trading proficiency. In 2024, BingX proudly became the official crypto exchange partner of Chelsea Football Club, marking an exciting debut in the world of sports.

For more information, please visit: https://bingx.com/

Vidu Q1 brings high-budget VFX capabilities in generating audio and high-definition, convincingly natural transitions that are now within reach of anyone within only minutes

SINGAPORE, April 21, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — Vidu, the flagship product of ShengShu Technology and a pioneer in generative AI video, is unveiling Vidu Q1 – a new high-performance generative video model that demonstrably sets the benchmark for quality and control, outperforming competing tools based on VBench‘s standard for comprehensive generative video evaluation standards. Starting today, Vidu Q1 launches with four major features that rival cinematic-grade visual effects (VFX). These include seamless transitions between realistic and animated sequences, and high-fidelity background music that can be auto-generated from text-inputs.

Aiming to offer creators access to capabilities that were previously reserved for well-funded film studios, Vidu is redefining the future of visual effects. Chief of Vidu Q1’s features centers around First-to-Last Frame, a seamless way to generate hyper-realistic, professional-grade transitions that rival those created by experienced VFX artists. By uploading two images and typing a simple text command, users can leverage Vidu Q1’s advanced semantic understanding and visual guidance to produce cohesive, cinematic transitions with minimal randomness. This innovative solution allows filmmakers, content creators, and influencers to significantly reduce production time without the need for expensive post-production or CGI teams. 

This even works for images that have no perceivable relation to one another, where Vidu Q1 can come up with a highly believable transition between a photo of a door opening, and a screenshot of your favorite action hero and villain fighting. By prompting Vidu Q1 to “open the door to watch your action hero fighting his rival,” what you input is faithfully reflected in the output with high fidelity, ensuring a natural and convincing result.

Additionally, all of this is achieved thanks to a groundbreaking breakthrough in generative video quality – Vidu Q1 delivers up to 1080p video output for clips up to 5 seconds. This means studio-quality, crisp, and detailed visuals, while also eliminating the usual wait times associated with rendering footage. While still honoring its core value to animators, Vidu Q1 is also introducing major enhancements to generating videos in the anime style that now offers even a higher degree of consistency and expressiveness from generated characters, for smoother outputs with natural, cinematic transitions between frames.

Moreover, users starting today can also gain complete control over their audio production without a background in audio engineering or voice actors. Vidu’s new AI Sound Effects feature can be controlled entirely by semantic instructions (text-inputs), and offers high-resolution, HD audio in an industry-first 48 kHz. Vidu Q1 is intelligently optimized to generate original background music and sound effects that offer richer audio details, and professional-grade fidelity. On top of this, Vidu Q1 delivers an audio experience free of jarring sounds, compression distortions, or choppy audio. Moreover, the melody can be automatically generated to match the mood, emotion and style of a video clip. For more precise controls over how and where sounds are used within a film, users can layer multiple audio tracks for up to ten seconds per track, or also splice the music and sound effects to be timed exactly to specific actions through simple text prompts to add timestamps like “between 0-2 seconds add a wind sound.” 

“Vidu Q1 marks a pivotal step forward in making video generation smarter, more expressive, and more accessible,” said Yihang Luo, CEO of ShengShu Technology. “This new generative video model brings us closer to our vision of building the next-generation content creation platform – one that empowers anyone to turn imagination into reality with unprecedented ease, creative freedom and cinematic precision.”

As a testament to its rising popularity among animation studios since being the first to be made commercially available back in July 2024, Hollywood has begun taking notice. Just last month, Aura Productions co-announced a 50-episode sci-fi series of AI-generated anime shorts developed using Vidu, which included piloting Vidu Q1. 

All of this builds on the platform’s use of its U-ViT research, penned by the Vidu team. With the groundbreaking Multiple-Entity Consistency feature, introduced in Vidu 1.5, users could for the first time effortlessly merge unrelated people, objects, and environments into a seamless video. Since then, Vidu has consistently set key industry benchmarks, with Vidu Q1 being the latest to solidify Vidu’s position as one of the most cost-effective and advanced video generation platforms available on the market.

To learn more about Vidu, please visit https://www.vidu.com

About ShengShu Technology

Founded in March 2023, ShengShu Technology is a world-leading artificial intelligence company, specializing in the development of Multimodal Large Language Models. Driven by innovation, the company delivers cutting-edge MaaS and SaaS products that revolutionize creative production by enabling smarter, faster, and more scalable content creation. With its flagship video generation platform Vidu, ShengShu Technology’s solutions have reached more than 200 countries and regions around the world, spanning fields including interactive entertainment, advertising, film, animation, cultural tourism, and more.