The China Movies Market

The China Movies Market

Cannes ongoing concerns not only the filmmakers promote their new works and flash paparazzi chasing after movie stars. Film France, the National Commission which promotes French cinema coproduction with foreign countries, using the event as a platform to attract producers and directors, particularly those of China International, draw and make movies in the country.

 France and China ! 

The Commission wishes to promote co-productions between France and China as it sees huge potential in the film industry of China, which is based on a market that is expected to surpass the United States in 2020 box office .

Fascinating history of growth in China and its multi-faceted society inspired the French filmmakers, who have begun to China and Chinese elements in their scenarios, explains Franck Priot, the Chief Operating Officer of Film France. "Anything that has to do with China carries an aura of excitement," he said. France is the first foreign films that co-production with China country. The first Sino-French film, The Kite, was directed by the Chinese director Wang Jiayi and his French colleague Roger Pigaut and was screened in 1958.


But cooperation is not really flourish until 2010, when the governments of the two countries signed a strategic agreement. To attract producers and directors with more incentives to come to the country more foreign, the French government decided in 2009 to offer a tax refund of 20 per cent for foreign films and television productions in the country, according Priot. Since 2010, seven films co-produced by China and France have been approved by the Chinese authorities.


The adaptation of the Chinese writer Jiang Rong "novel Wolf Totem French director Jean-Jacques Annaud in was also submitted for approval, according to figures from the General Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television. Eleven flowers Chinese director Wang Xiaoshuai was the most recent example of a successful Sino-French film co-production. China is seen as a source of investment for film financing becoming more difficult to secure Western markets.

Meanwhile, co-production is also considered a method for foreign producers to make their way into the Chinese market and to avoid the quota of the country for the import of foreign films, which was increased from 20 to 34.

Chinese Film Festival in France ! 

Christmas Garino, technical and artistic adviser to the Chinese film festival in France, says that a subject and a script with universal values, whether it is a romantic comedy or a drama, which could appeal to Chinese and French audience is essential for the success of the co-production and export potential.

"At present, most of the co-produced by China and France movies are art films and are not those blockbuster or ordinary. We must move forward and produce films that appeal to a wider audience, "says Garino. "China is not short of money but talent and professionals," said Tess Liu,

 who runs a film production company named Zora Media Co Ltd in Beijing. Liu is in Cannes looking for a French producer and director for the new scenario, a story that takes place in China and France. "What we most need is the French technical skills and professional experience in film production," she said.


Writting by Olivia 

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