With the beautiful blossom spring here with us in April, the 5th Beijing International Film Festival is to be solemnly kicked off in Beijing. The Sino-Foreign Film Co-production Forum (the Forum), as a highlight of the Festival, is to be held on the second day after the opening of the event. The Forum will provide a professional platform for domestic and international filmmakers’ pursuit of international cooperation and a new development coordinate for China’s films going global via senior domestic and international experts’ analysis on sino-foreign film cooperation status quo and its prospect.
Recently, the 5th Beijing International Film Festival Organizing Committee releases its Sino-Foreign Film Co-Production Forum final guest list. Quite a few world top class filmmakers will gather together, discussing on ways of development and cooperation of filmmaking. Except for what is the already known figures such as Jean-Jacques Annaud, Tom DeSanto and Darren Aronofsky, the following film masters will also attend the Forum:
Tsui Hark: a famed director and supervisor from Hong Kong. Tsui Hark was born in 1950, and started to produce 8-mm experimental films since 13 years old. He graduated from University of Texas. In addition to supervising many popular films such as A Better Tomorrow series and A Chinese Ghost Story series, Tsui Hark has also directed many classic films such as Swordsman and Once Upon a Time in China series. His innovative styles have established the benchmarks for many Chinese swordplay films. In 2009, his Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame was shortlisted in the 67th Venice International Film Festival Competition Section. After that, his films swept away all China Image Film Festivals with many awards honored, including the best director for the 30th Hong Kong Film Awards. In June 2011, the International Astronomical Union named a planetoid 3.5 billion km away from the earth as Tsui Hark in order to commend Tsui Hark’s achievement in the film industry. This has made him the first Hong Kong director that has received this special honor. In 2013, his Young Detective Dee: Rise of the Sea Dragon gave the audience a strong visual shock by using IMAX 3D and large amount of bold use of water effects. This film was also impressively won the honor of Innovative Achievement Award at the Roma Independent Film Festival. In 2014, Tsui eyed upon the classic novel Tracks in the Snowy Forest and adapted it into a 3D movie The Taking of Tiger Mountain. It was such a success that it not only topped box revenue at that year end after being put on show, but also won high recognition from film critics, and what’s more, it made many of the scenes and role models in the movie popular.
Amanda Nevill: CEO, British Film Institute. Amanda joined BFI in 2003 and implemented a comprehensive transformation of the organization, making it a major film agency with international influence. She advocated a series of innovative programs to cultivate more future audience, injected more investments on film development and production to foster the film industry, and encourage training of new talents. In recent years, BFI has scored a lot also in international cooperation. 2013 saw the Hitcock Film Exhibition and Show in Shanghai, which was a pre-heat to the “China Cinema” celebration to be held in 2014 in UK. In addition, a Film Co-Production Treaty was also signed.
Tae-Sung Jung: President of South Korea’s film company CJ E&M. He act as chief operating member of the Pusan International Film Festival for 6 consecutive editions since 1997. He acted as representative of Skywalker filmmakers, and now acted as President of CJ E&M, mainly in charge of film production and investment of CJ.E&M. Representative films involved in investment and making include: the most box office revenue Roaring Currents, Miss Granny, Sunny, The Host etc. Furthermore, he also carried out many cooperative programs overseas, for example, The Snowland Train, a Sino-South Korea co-production of A Wedding Invitation, Miss Granny.
Jennifer Yuh Nelson: a US born South Korean descendant female director, an illustrator. She is working on the animation film Kung Fu Panda 3 with the Dream Works as a director. The Oscar nominated film Kung Fu Panda 2 has made her the most successful female director in history. Jennifer participated in productions of 4 animation films including Kung Fu Panda and Madagascar. She used to hold positions in HBO animation departments; her self-made animation work Spawn won 1999 Emmy Awards best animation program. Her animation career spans over different countries. Except US, she also travelled to Japan and South Korea for HBO’s animation supervision and guidance.
Wang Zhongjun: President and CEO of Huayi Brothers Media Group. Huayi Brothers Media Group was successfully listed in the Second-Board Market in 2009, becoming the first film & TV company that goes public in China. Mr. Wang is seen as a tycoon in China’s film circle and was once the back stage mastermind of Feng Xiaogang’s New Year's Films. Over the years, he explored and produced many successful blockbusters, including Cell Phone, Assembly, If You Are The One series, Aftershock, Painted Skin: The Resurrection, Chinese Zodiac, Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons, of which Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons harvested 1.25 billion yuan box office domestically, and made a new Chinese image film box office record.
Moderator Huang Jianxin: Chinese film director and supervisor, presently, acts as Vice-chairman of China Film Association. From 2003-2011, served as the President of Chinese Film Director Association. He is one of the 5th generation of Chinese filmmakers. representative works including: Back to Back, Face to Face, The Black Cannon Incident, Gimme Kudos, The Founding of a Republic, Beginning of The Great Revival, etc. received up to a hundred national and international film awards, including ten Chinese Image Film Awards received at three Hong Kong International Film Festivals, twice for Taiwan Golden Horse Awards. Mr. Huang was the supervisor for quite a number of excellent national films, and was honored the best director of the 15th China Golden Rooster Award and “China Film 100 Years 100 Master Directors” of the 5th China Image Media Award. As one of china’s consequential distinctive directors, he is commissioned as judge on many of the film festival occasions both at home and abroad. And once again he is to be the moderator of the Sino-Foreign Film Co-Production Forum of the upcoming 5th Beijing International Film Festival.
The 5th Beijing International Film Festival is going to be kicked off on April 16. It is known that the Sino-Foreign Film Co-Production Forum which will be held on the 17th, will be divided into 2 sessions. Guided by the moderator, the first session will feature Jean-Jacues Annaud, Tom DeSanto, Amanda Nevill and Tae-Sung Jung on talk about international film production cooperation, sharing with audience the experience of co-production. The second session will be focusing on dialogues between Tsui Hark, Darren Aronovsky, Jennifer Yuh Nelson and Wang Zhongjun cross-culture creativity.
Then the Forum will cover the new trend in international co-production, case analysis of cross-culture film cooperation under the new language environment. This forum will probe into the best approach of the Sino-foreign film co-production through multi-perspective, multi-dimensional and multi-direction speeches and dialogues.
The list of guests that will appear on the Sino-Foreign Film Co-Production Forum can give us a good glimpse of the scale of the 5th Beijing International Film Festival. Directors, supervisors, as well as top national and international filmmakers in animation, marketing, all film categories and sectors, will have multi-angle, multi-layer in-depth dialogues, share their co-production experiences, elaborate their creation viewpoints, and explore a multi-element thoroughfare of Sino-foreign co-production of films. Let’s look forward to the mien of the film masters at the Sino-Foreign Film Co-Production Forum of the 5th Beijing International Film Festival.