The Cannes film market’s first China Co-Production Day has recruited a roster of top execs comprising Jerry Ye, CEO of Huayi Brothers Pictures, Vincent Grimond, president of France’s Wild Bunch, and TrustNordisk/Zentropa China chief Rikke Ennis, for its panel on co-productions between Europe and China.
Denmark’s TrustNordisk/Zentropa recently teamed up with China’s Jetavana Entertainment and Sheng-Wei Media on co-prod, “My Best Friend Andersen,” which will mark the directorial debut of hitmaking Chinese scribe-turned helmer Shu Huan (“Lost in Thailand,” “Lost in Hong Kong”).
The Marche du Film’s new China china co-prod initiative stems from a collaboration between France’s Centre National de la Cinematographie (CNC) and Bridging the Dragon, the growing platform that seeks to forge closer strategic ties between film industries in Europe and China. The event will take place May 13 at the Espace CNC on the Gray d’Albion Beach.
The morning panel moderated by Patrick Frater, Variety’s Asia Bureau Chief, will be followed by a matchmaking event in the afternoon.
Other panelists include London-based French producer Chistopher Granier-Deferre whose Poisson Rouge shingle has several projects in the pipeline with China, including U.K.-China-set biological weapons thriller “The Proving Ground”; Bridging the Dragon co-founder Cristiano Bortone, helmer of “Coffee,” touted as the first Italian-Chinese-Belgian co-prod; and Gregory Ouanhon, president of Fundamental Films, the Shanghai-based company which has a co-production and distribution deal with Luc Besson’s Europacorp.
Cannes is the latest fest to join Bridging the Dragon after Venice, Berlin, Locarno, Shanghai and Beijing.