In 2017, the box office of Chinese film market repeatedly set new records. Such vitality stimulates the morale of creators and boosts the confidence of investors on excellent film projects. The Project Pitches of the 8th Beijing International Film Festival Film Market is dedicated to establishing a project transaction market integrating training, selection, support, business negotiation, incubation, tracking and display.
Project Pitches is an important carrier of Project Pitches Transaction Platform which is among the two major platforms of Film Market. The shortlisted film projects after selection will fully get hitched with various elements of the film industrial chain, and eventually incubate excellent films with great market potentials. Over the past six years, the Project Pitches Platform of the Beijing International Film Festival Film Market has received 2,954 entries in total, 60 of which performed excellently. Among them, the excellent projects including The Bodyguard, Dot 2 Dot, Big Fish & Begonia, Mountain Cry and Go Away! Mr. Tumor, achieved high box office revenues and won high praise after being produced and screened. It’s believed that this year’s winning projects will also show vitality in Chinese film market and become an engine to promote the development of Chinese films.
This Project Pitches received 722 entries, including 24 projects from the United States, France, Poland, India, Singapore, Dominican Republic, Malaysia and other countries as well as from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan and other regions. Most projects are co-production films, which will encourage Chinese young filmmakers to participate in international exchanges and learn from advanced international film production experience, so as to improve the production level of Chinese films.
On the roadshow site, ten excellent projects successively make presentations on the stage, covering such contents as cast and crew, project genre, original creation intension, plot and project progress. These projects are App Murder, River in Spring, Insect Competition, Sun Overhead Across the Water, Summer Day of Han Nan, Hunting Dog, Fantasy Taroko, South China, Cliff, Wild Horse. Rather than follow the mainstream genres and narrating models in Chinese film market, most of these projects adopt an exceptional approach, fully representing the innovative pursuit of Film Market.
During the activity, three final review judges (i.e. Mei Feng, Associate Professor of Beijing Film Academy, Director Ning Hao, Art Director of Dirty Monkey and Liu Kailuo, Vice President of Ali Cultural Entertainment Youku and Senior Film Producer) systematically review ten roadshow projects, listen to their creation ideas and give valuable suggestions to creators based on project characteristics, structure creation and production budget. During the roadshow, several projects with great potential are unanimously recognized.
Finally, River in Spring wins the Special Award, Summer Day of Han Nan wins the Best Original Screenplay Award, APP Murder wins the Best Commercial Potential Award and Wild Horse wins the Best Innovative Design Award. These four projects receive cash investment and service awards totaling RMB1.5 million jointly provided by the Organizing Committee of Beijing International Film Festival, Sea Level Youth Film Fund, Arcat Film Art Center, Boxiu Pictures and BaseFX. Among these four winning projects, River in Spring and Summer Day of Han Nan are granted the “International Promotion Awards”. They will have a chance to promote themselves at famous international film festivals this year. In addition, this activity attracts the participation of many professionals and investors. Representatives from film companies both at home and abroad express their strong interest in wonderful projects presented in the roadshow.
After presentations of these ten projects, the industry dialogue taking “Inheritance of Craftsmanship: How the Chinese film market perfects the new-director supporting system and establishes a high-standard industrialized film mechanism” as the topic is also held. It invites professional experts to deepen into and share the merits and demerits of the current film industry in tapping and supporting young directors, as well as the craftsmanship inheritance of Chinese filmmakers, and jointly look into the future of Chinese film industry. Zhou Liming, the Chinese and English bilingual writer and famous film critic presides over the dialogue, which is attended by Chen Hongwei, Deputy General Manager of Tencent Pictures and General Manager of Da Meng Film Studio, Dou Lili, General Manager of iQiyi's Online Film Development Center, Fu Jia, Deputy General Manager of Taihe Entertainment Group, General Manager of Film and TV Planning Development Center, Director of Fresh Green Scheme, Wang Yibing, CEO of Dirty Monkey, and Wu Yanyan, Director of Wutianming Film Fund for Young Talents, China Film Fund, General Manager of Dongfang Tianming Film and Heaven Pictures.
In the following days, the Beijing International Film Festival Film Market will launch a series of exhibitions and forums. More and more excellent filmmakers will join in this feast to promote the development of Chinese and international films. Let’s wait for the surprises that outstanding filmmakers and creators will bring to us.