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The Second Beijing International Film Festival (BJIFF) was held on April 23-29, attracting more than 4,000 filmmakers and movie stars both domestic and foreign. A series of meetings led to new agreements on movie cooperation and trade.
Unlike the Academy Awards in the United States or the Cannes Film Festival in France, which award the year’s top films, BJIFF aims to develop the Chinese film industry by promoting collaboration with partner film studios abroad.
Despite its short history, the festival is already one of the largest platforms in China for movie stars, producers and studios to cooperate and advance the increasingly robust Chinese film industry.
Booming market
The number of movie theater screens in China doubled over the past five years to 10,700. Total box-office revenue topped $2 billion for the first time in 2011, beating Japan to become the largest foreign market for American films.
Filmmakers are hoping to make Chinese movies a hit internationally.
“China needs a platform like the film festival to increase the influence of its films and spread its culture,” said Li Qiankuan, a wellknown film director and Chairman of China Film Association.
For this purpose, the Second BJIFF held three main forums, including the Summit Forum of World-Renowned Film Companies, Sino-Foreign Film Co-Production Forum, and Film Music Forum, where filmmakers forged new partnerships. Dozens of senior film studio executives across the country attended the forums, representing China Film Group Corp., Huayi Brothers Media Corp., Fox Films Entertainment, Marvel Entertainment and others.
The week-long convention generated over 5.2 billion yuan ($837 million) in contracts signed for 21 film projects, an increase of 88.7 percent over the previous year.
Li Chunliang, Director General of the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Radio, Film and Television, and Vice Chairman of the BJIFF Organizing Committee, noted three achieve- ments of the film festival.
“First, both Chinese and international film enterprises have a stronger impetus to cooperate with each other,” said Li. “Second, film cooperation becomes more detailed, diversified and broad.” Such alliances fuel the movie business and bring in funding for bigger projects.
“Third, big projects which cost over 100 million yuan ($15.9 million) account for 61 percent of the total projects, reflecting the confidence of foreign investors in the Chinese film market.” “While there is still much work to do to promote the festival’s influence and Chinese films in the global market, the BJIFF is an ideal platform for cooperation and exchange of film industries,” Li said.
A push for 3D
In addition to the flurry of deal making, Beijing’s film festival got a boost in publicity from an appearance by world-famous
Hollywood director James Cameron. In 2009, he ushered in a new era of 3D and IMAX-3D with his blockbuster sci-fi epic Avatar.
The 3D re-release of Titanic was the biggest opener of all time in the country, earning$58 million in the first six days of its show in April. The director attended a series of BJIFF events to seek partners in developing the 3D technology that he believes is the future of the cinema.
On April 27, Cameron and 3D photography expert Vince Pace’s company announced that they would open a China headquarters in Tianjin, along with representatives from Tianjin Binhai New District and Tianjin North Film Group.
Cameron and Pace jointly created Avatar, which grossed nearly $2.8 billion at the global box office, with the Chinese market contributing nearly $200 million.
In addition, Cameron signed a cooperation deal with Shandong Film Studio to supervise the 3D effects of upcoming Chinese epic The Art of War. Cameron said he will bring the most advanced 3D cameras and technology to China for the project. He said he is confident that China will become the world’s top user of 3D technologies as it is now one of the world’s largest film markets.
Cameron met with many top Chinese filmmakers, such as Zhang Yimou, seeking for cooperation in the future. “The festival will prove to be a milestone in the history of Chinese film development,” Cameron said.
An expanding partnership
Both the Chinese and international film markets have benefited from a series of agreements to loosen restrictions of foreign film distributions in China, attracting more business from studios abroad.
According to a newly reached Sino-U.S. memorandum, China will introduce 14 more IMAX or 3D films each year. The box-office share for foreign distributors will increase to 25 percent from previous 13 percent.
For Chinese moviegoers, the opening market will allow them to see more American movies at cinemas, particularly blockbusters with heavy use of special effects which generally resonate more strongly with international audiences. Chinese audiences are sophisticated enough to choose which movies they want to watch, said Christopher Dodd, Chairman of the Motion Picture Association of America. For Chinese filmmakers, competition in the domestic market will intensify due to the increase of foreign films. They will be forced by pressure of competition to improve film quality constantly. Many insiders think it is good for the long-stifled Chinese film industry.
Gao Qunshu, a Chinese film director, commented that the import agreement will push domestic moviemakers to make better films to compete at the box-office. “It is time to wake up for domestic film directors,” he said.
With its huge market potential, more international film giants are looking to China for opportunities. Animation giant DreamWorks Animation announced in February that it planned to build a joint venture, Oriental DreamWorks, in Shanghai with China Media Capital and Shanghai Media Group (SMG) in concert with Shanghai Alliance Investment.
With an initial investment of $330 million, the joint studio will develop original Chinese animated and live-action movies, TV shows and other entertainment catering to the domestic market. Shanghai Animation Film Studio, a subsidiary of SMG, will gain lots of experiences from DreamWorks.
Another top U.S. animation company also plans to break into the Chinese market. On April 16, Walt Disney Co. and its Marvel Studios subsidiary announced that Iron Man 3 will be a co-production with China, as the Burbank Movie Co. teamed with DMG Entertainment of Beijing to co-finance and distribute the film.
The Iron Man series grabbed more than $1 billion worldwide and $42.8 million in China by two films. Filming of the third installment in the United States begins in May, and will shoot in China later this summer. The movie is slated for release in May 2013.
“Our collaboration with Disney and Marvel marks a milestone in the global entertainment landscape, as this signifies the first multi-billion-dollar franchise to be produced between Hollywood and China,” said Dan Mintz, CEO of DMG.
Just some days before the announcement of Iron Man 3, Disney said it would join an initiative with China’s Ministry of Culture and Tencent Holdings Ltd., one of China’s largest Internet service providers, to develop the Chinese animation industry. Disney said it would offer its expertise in areas such as story writing and market research to its Chinese counterparts.