For the second year, UniFrance Films will send a delegation of French cinema professionals to China to meet their Chinese counterparts.
A delegation of French cinema professionals will travel to Beijing, December 12 through 14, at the invitation of UniFrance Films and its president, filmmaker Jean-Paul Salomé, so as to meet Chinese professionals and to participate with them in several round tables.
Participants:
- Frédérique Bredin, President, CNC - Centre national du cinéma et de l’image animée
- Nicolas Brigaud-Robert, Co-founder, Playtime
- Sidonie Dumas, General Director, Gaumont
- Michel Gomez, Executive Director, Mission Cinéma, City of Paris
- Xavier Lardoux, Deputy Director, Unifrance
- Pierre-Emmanuel Lecerf, CEO, CNC - Centre national du cinéma et de l’image animée
- Brigitte Maccioni, General Director, UGC Images
- Richard Patry, President, FNCF - Fédération nationale des cinémas français
- Pascal Rogard, General Director, SACD - Société des Auteurs et Compositeurs Dramatiques
- Jean-Paul Salomé, President, UniFrance Films
- Franck Weber, Director of French film acquisitions, Canal+
Organized in collaboration with the Ambassade de France in China, with support from the CNC, and coordinated especially by Isabelle Glachant, Unifrance's permanent correspondent in Beijing, the second Franco-Chinese Meetings of cinema professionals follow on from the first professional Franco-Chinese cinema seminar which took place on December 18, 2013, in order to pursue the dialogue between the two countries and to increase the knowledge of their respective markets.
How to support our national industries?
How to defend cinematographic diversity?
How to enhance the distribution and exportation of films?
Such are the themes that will be tackled during these two days of meetings destined for directors of companies and organizations in the film sector, theater operators and programmers, film distributors, producers, technical directors, and filmmakers.
Several round tables will also be organized to facilitate exchange, focused particularly on the following topics:
- Support policies for national production
- Defense policies for the distribution of cultural diversity on screen
- Economic issues in the field of theater operating and of distribution
- Distributing films abroad. Coproduction as a means of export. Example of a Franco-Chinese coproduction
- Distribution on digital platforms as windows for national and international distribution
- The importance of the legal environment to ensure the renewal of creativity and for returns from the whole value chain
- Perspectives of collaboration between France and China.
We note that last year French cinema achieved record attendance figures in China, with more than 5 million admissions recorded, thereby placing it as the first foreign alternative to American cinema. 2014 promises a spectacular increase, thanks in particular to the success of Lucy by Luc Besson, Beauty and the Beast by Christophe Gans, and Minuscule: Valley of the Lost Ants by Thomas Szabo and Hélène Giraud, and to the fact that 8 French films have been distributed this year in China, compared with 6 in 2013.
China is now the second largest global market after the USA (€2.6 billion), with an increase of 27% in 2013. 10 movie theaters open each day in China, for a total of 20,000 screens.
We'd also like to point out that China has chosen a Franco-Chinese coproduction, The Nightingale by Philippe Muyl, to represent the country in the running for the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. This is a first.
Moreover, France-Chine 50, the Digital and Creation Forum taking place January 22 and 23, 2015, will bring together thirty French firms, who will present their digital applications to strictly selected Chinese partners and investors. The meetings will concern entertainment, tourism, design, publicity, and edutainment.
