The weeklong second Beijing International Film Festival closed Saturday night at the Beijing Olympic Park, with a concert featuring memorable classic film music.[Photo: China.org.cn]
The British Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra performed a string of classic film music, wowing the audience with tunes including the themes of "Star Wars", "Titanic", "Lord of the Rings", "Harry Potter" and "Mission Impossible", as well as Chinese classic scores from movies such as "Hero", "Assembly", and "The Road Home."
New Zealand diva Hayley Dee Westenra, Chinese tenors Wang Hongwei and Ding Yi also performed songs with the orchestra, such as "My Heart Will Go On."
Beijing authorities organized the Beijing film festival in the same way they organized the 2008 Olympics. The major venues for the event were at the Olympic Park, and even the background music and final song performed at the opening and closing ceremony were that of the Olympic theme "You and Me". Also, the Olympic slogan "Welcome to Beijing" was widely used.
The "small film Olympic" did put on a great show, even more so given that it's only the second year for the film festival. It attracted 4,000 film professionals from home and abroad, including legendary director James Cameron and a million visitors. Cameron and film executives from 11 international studios explored a wide range of topics during the high-profile seminars and forums, from 3D to Sino-foreign co-productions.
"The festival will prove to be a milestone in the history of Chinese film development," Cameron said at the very beginning of the fest.
Movie collaboration deals, worth a record-breaking 5.273 billion yuan (US$836.25 million), were signed. Moreover, deals concerning 3D technology, visual effects bases and micro film projects were negotiated. 2,000 professionals from 640 film institutions had meetings during the three-day business market.
John Textor, chairman of U.S. special effects company Digital Domain, announced he would introduce his company's technology to the Chinese market by launching a special effect base with Chinese film company Galloping Horse. Cameron is also working to forge relations with more Chinese filmmakers, and set up his 3D technology company Cameron Pace Group China headquarters in Tianjin, a city only miles away from Beijing.
260 foreign and domestic films, including Oscar-winning Iranian "A Separation", selected from 54 countries and regions, were shown on 504 screens across Beijing theaters during the festival. Many of these movies had never hit Chinese cinemas before. The "Film Carnival" allowed the visiting public to enjoy free exhibitions and movie screenings, as well as an Interactive Movie Technology Zone.
The birthplace of China's first film "Mount Dingjun", and home to many of the top names in the domestic film industry, Beijing had the ambition to use the festival as "an opportunity to share the country's film industry with the world and turn itself into a globally significant cultural capital," said Lu Wei, Beijing's Vice Mayor.
But however promising the future for the film festival may be, insiders still worried about the prospects for Chinese films and their positions on world stage.
"Through the years of cooperation, all the foreign companies came to us, with their only interest being how much revenue the Chinese market could hold for them," complained Wang Zhongjun, founder and chairman of Huayi Brothers, "When I asked how much revenue they can bring in for us from overseas market, they just couldn't answer."
Although the Chinese domestic film market is poised to become the second largest in the world, the film executive was still worried. "Yes, nowadays we can get a US$100 million box office gross for just one movie in China. But the best box office performance for Chinese films in the United States has been a mere US$480,000, and that was last year. How pathetic!"
Last year, China exported 55 films to be screened across 22 countries and regions, grossing 2.05 billion yuan (US$325 million) at box offices. However, that figure was lower than that of 2010. In 2011, only 16 films of foreign origin screened in North America were Chinese. Chinese films made less than a combined US$3.5 million. In comparison, India has had more than 30 films screened in the U.S. in 2011, making US$20 million in box office revenues.
Since the themes of the festival this year are those of "co-production" and "3D technology," several high-profile international joint projects were announced during the film festival to repackage and present Chinese traditional stories to the Chinese audience and that of the world, including "Transformers" producer Tom DeSanto's "Gods" trilogy, and James Cameron technology supported "The Art of War." Disney's "Iron Man 3," the first high-profile joint production between China and Hollywood filmmakers, will attempt to recruit Hong Kong megastar Andy Lau to add to Chinese involvement in the film.
It is too early to say whether the "Gods" trilogy will be a new "Lord of the Rings", but China's Vice President Xi Jinping's visit to Los Angeles has already brought good news to Hollywood that China has enlarged its quota for revenue sharing imports of foreign films from 20 per year up to 34 per year. The extra 14 films are "enhanced" films made in 3-D, IMAX or animations. In addition, the foreign films' revenue sharing percentage has been raised from 13 percent to 25 percent.
However, Chinese film industry insiders said that among China's home made productions every year, only 5 percent really profit, whereas the other 95 percent simply lose money. As authorities and executives hope to bring in more funds, technologies, movie stars and professionals to help tell Chinese stories that would appeal to global audiences, the status quo may be too optimistic.
Insiders said that even the Oscar-winning Ang Lee's "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", which earned over US$100 million in the United States in 2001, lost money on the Chinese side of the co-production, since the American distributor bought out the distributing rights and China's domestic gross for the film only reached a mere 15 million yuan (US$2.37 million). The Chinese side didn't have the right to a cut of the foreign revenue.
"Due to the huge cultural difference and the lack of international operating experience, Chinese films are really hard to go overseas via a foreign vehicle," Huayi's Wang Zhongjun said. "What we are really expecting, is a deep cooperation regarding channels and shares, but we haven't found a way to do so yet."
Even the very popular "Kung Fu Panda" actually exploit its Chinese factors to create an exotic feel to the movie. Chen Xiaoxiang, boss of the "Gods" trilogy's Chinese partner Yi Shang Media Group, said China does have a long history and tons of stories to tell, but many could not be understood, let alone loved, by foreign audiences. "We conducted a half year-long research on all the stories containing Chinese elements, before finally deciding on 'Gods', as it can be also understood without a historical background."
Insiders said that since Hollywood and other foreign companies are so strong to collaborate with, Chinese film studios often play small parts on the commercial side.
"No matter whether it's the overseas funding or the co-production aspects, for many Chinese companies, it's not really realistic. We'd better do a great film on our own at first." said producer Wang Lu.
Amid all these expectations and concerns however, the Chinese market is poised to become the world's second largest. Next year's Beijing International Film Festival will feature a competitive component; as such competitions are part of the international custom and the "soul" of a film festival.
"We didn't have the time to prepare for this," Li Qiankuan, Chairman of China Film Association and Vice Chairman of the festival, told China.org.cn, "We'll do it next year."
The festival will become an increasingly important event in the global movie industry and Beijing is likely to become a world-class film center in its own right, he said.