Cannes 2017 - Chinese and European professionals discussed may 19th the new growth of Chinese arthouse cinema and the opportunities this brings to the collaboration between the two industries.

On the 19^th May, as part of the China Co-Production Day, the CNC, the Marché du Film and Bridging the Dragon will organize a panel focusing on the new growth of Chinese arthouse cinema and its impact on the collaboration with Europe.

Among the panellists: Wei Lu, producer of Monkey King: Hero is Back and inventor of a new funding model, Cheng Yang, producer of Have a Nice Day (Berlinale competition 2017), Yu-Fai Suen, managing director of Pinewood Pictures, advising various regional funds and managing co-production opportunities in the Chinese market, Ming Xiang, deputy director general of the market leader ticketing platform Weying Technology and founding member of Alliance of Arthouse Cinema, Wen Song founder of FIRST, the Chinese film festival focusing on new talents, Gary Mak, director of arthouse cinema chain Broadway Cinematheque, Claude Eric-Poiroux, general director of Europa Cinemas and Li Ruijun, director of Walking Past the Future, selected in this year’s Un Certain Regard.

The panel will be opened with speeches by Christophe Tardieu from the CNC, SHEN Zhongwen from the Festival du cinema chinois en France (FCCF), Lucia Recalde, Head of Unit of Creative Europe MEDIA and Leontine Petit, chairman of Bridging the Dragon. The panel will be moderated by Patrick Frater from Variety.

The panel will be followed by the presentation of two new co-productions with China, namely the projects Dragonkeeper (Spain) and Colours of China (Germany, New Zealand), and by the announcement of the programme of Bridging the Dragon’s upcoming Sino-European Project Lab in the city of Nanjing in collaboration with ARRI. 

In the afternoon there will be a company meetings event organised by Bridging the Dragon matching 40 international companies with Chinese counterparts. Among the selected, on the Chinese side there are market leaders like Jackie Chan’s Sparkle Roll Media, Wanda Pictures, Weying Technology, Dadi Century, next to new and promising companies like Spire Media, Road Pictures and WD Pictures. On the international side a rich array of quality companies, which are more and more involved with the Chinese market, such as: SF Studios (Denmark), Les Films du Lendemain (FR), K5 Media Group (Germany), Brio Films (France), Ideale Audience (France), Road Side Attractions (USA), N279 Entertainment (Netherlands), Vaca Films (Spain).