A new competition is looking to help Canadian scriptwriters and producers land Chinese financing for film projects.
The China Canada Script Competition – announced at the Whistler Film Festival – was developed by Whistler Film Festival Society (WFFS), Telefilm Canada and China Film Group, China’s largest state-run film enterprise and the sole importer of foreign films into Canada.
China’s domestic film market has historically been beyond the reach of international film productions, except for a handful of blockbusters. Organizers are touting the competition as “an unparalleled opportunity to access one of the world’s largest and fastest-growing film markets.”
“An initiative of this magnitude and scope has never been done before,” said Harry Sutherland, chair of WFFS’s China Canada Gateway for Film.
“The entire film world is looking for ways to develop relationships with China and this initiative does just that.”
Founding sponsor Telefilm has provided $25,000 for WFFS to research the concept and launch development of the program.
Organizers hope to announce a call for submissions in mid-2012. A number of script synopses will be chosen and presented at the 2012 Whistler Summit. The selected scripts will be pitched to Chinese production companies, who will then choose projects they want to work on.
China is set to overtake Japan and become the second largest cinema market after the U.S. According to the China Film Producers’ Association, China will have built more than 7,000 new cinemas by 2015.
Jenny Wagler
@JennyWagler_BIV