HKIFF Heats Up

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Filmart is where we can follow up on negotiations started in Berlin and close deals.” — TAssIlo HAllbAuER, bETA cINEmA breakthrough at Filmart. But attendees should see more of the slow approach that has marked the opening of China's market so far. China’s notorious censors, fore example – who often veto films if they include drug use, nudity or overtly religious themes – appear to have taken a more tolerant view of video-ondemand, creating opportunities for European sellers. “After the EFM in Berlin, even more [European companies] wanted to come because they saw how the Asian market was opening up,” Mühlberger says. Some 15 French firms, including giants Studiocanal, EuropaCorps and Wild Bunch, will also be making the trip, under the Unifrance banner. And Film Export U.K. will again be setting up shop with Brit veterans like Exclusive Media and SC Films International under their umbrella. “Things have changed a lot in the Asian market, buyers are becoming much more aggressive and paying big minimum guarantees,” says Studiocanal’s François Mergier, who will be making his first trip to Filmart this year. In addition to three finished films — Tad, the Lost Explorer, Nigel Cole’s Brit rom com All in Good Time and Mélanie Laurent’s directorial debut The Adopted — Studiocanal will be using Filmart to drum up pre-sales business for its big titles. These include Susanne Bier’s period drama Serena starring Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence; the Coen Brothers’ Inside Llewyn studiocanal's Filmart offering The Adopted is the directorial debut of Inglorious Basterds star melanie laurent, left. 7 beta cinema's Almanya chronicles the experiences of three generations of a Turkish family living in Germany. Davis featuring Justin Timberlake and John Goodman and The Last Exorcism 2, the follow-up to the 2010 found-footage chiller. “We are targeting the Asian theatrical market, which is very strong if you have big movies, which we do,” says Mergier, noting Studiocanal’s 3-D animated feature Sammy’s Adventure sold more than one million tickets in South Korea and will have a theatrical release in China later this year. “Filmart is perfect for sitting down with the big Asian distributors to work on how best to release our films in their territories.” Even for the smaller players, Hong Kong is increasingly becoming a can’t miss market. Many of the hottest art house titles from Berlin will get a second airing at Filmart. “It’s not as big a market for us as Berlin or Cannes, obviously, but its important,” says Beta Cinema’s Tassilo Hallbauer on the Hong Kong event. “Filmart is where we can follow up on negotiations started in Berlin and close deals.” Beta’s Filmart lineup this year includes several Berlin titles — among them Matthias Glasner’s competition entry Mercy and Doris Dörrie’s Bliss and German multi-cultural comedy Almanya. “In Asia, you really only have Pusan and Filmart and Hong Kong is probably the biggest and most important of the two,” concludes Korsgaard of TrustNordisk. “If you want to be selling to Asia, you have to be there.” thr FivE hOt EurO titlEs Ceaser Must Die Sales: Rai Trade The Pitch: The surprise winner of Berlin's Golden Bear, the genre experiment from veteran Italian directors Paolo and Vittorio Taviani mixes documentary and drama in its story of a inmates at a maximum security prison in Rome who stage a performance of William Shakespeare's Julius Ceaser. Postcards From the Zoo Sales: The Match Factory The Pitch: This sureal fairytale about a girl abanoned to be raised in a zoo bewitched audiences and critics at its Berlin competiton debut. The latest from Indonesian auteur Edwin - this time as an Indonesian-German-Hong Kong co-production — could be a sleeper for descriminating art house distribs across Asia. Escape Sales: TrustNordisk The Pitch: A Norwegian action adventure tale from the director (Roar Uthaug) and star (Ingrid Bolsø Berdal) of local horror hit Cold Prey. Set in the 1300s at the height of the Black Death, Berdal plays the leader of a group of outlaws trying to survive in an appocalyptic world. Tad, the Lost Explorer Sales: Studiocanal The Pitch: This Spanish 3D animated film is a goofy take on Indiana Jones featuring Tad: a bumbling would-be archeologist and adventurer set on finding a hidden treasure without getting completely lost himself. Shadow Dancer Sales: Wild Bunch The Pitch: Slow-burning IRA thriller from Oscar-winner James Marsh (Man on Wire) starring Clive Owen as a member of Britain's secret service agency MI5 and Andrea Riesborough as an active member of the IRA who turns informant to protect her young son.
executive suite CEO, EmpErOr mOtiOn piCturEs Albert Lee The veteran exec discusses the complexities of the Chinese market, his strategy for Hollywood blockbusters and the the importance of trust By Karen Chu Afilm industry veteran who helped distribute Jackie Chan's films internationally, and a host of other Chinese stars while at Golden Harvest, Albert Lee has led Hong Kong powerhouse Emperor Motion Pictures as CEO since 2003. Under his leadership, Emperor has produced blockbusters like Let the Bullets Fly (the highest grossing film ever in China), and nurtured close relationships with key Chinese entertainment figures like Ge You, the most bankable actor in China, and Bullets director Jiang Wen. Lee spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about the growth of the Chinese market, The Hunger Games, and tying down big name stars. reports of China's box office always mention new records being set, but the last year has been something of a disappointment for domestic productions. Why is that? From a purely box office point of view, the accumulated box office in China has risen from 10 to 13 billion yuan (U.S.$2.1 billion) There were also more films that broke the 100 million yuan (U.S.$16 million) mark. The success of Let the Bullets Fly might give the impression that the grosses are going to rise higher and higher, but there are a number of challenges. Of course it depends on the quality of the film itself, but in the last year, the Hollywood competition against Chinese films was very strong — films like Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol had broken 600 million yuan ($U.S.95 million). But for Chinese-language films, there haven’t been that many films by big-name Chinese directors – only Zhang Yimou and Tsui Hark. And if you’ve seen all the Chinese films released in China last year, you’d get the conclusion that the box office result was appropriate — they weren’t outstanding commercial films. Would the changes in the market conditions affect your plans for big-budget productions? I don’t think it would. As a Hong Kong studio, we’re working according to the demands of the market. In the past few years, and in the short-term future, the Chinese market has been and will continue to be the most important for our films. We’ll keep making films for the Chinese market. What is your opinion of the international ambitions of the Chinese film industry? It’s a path well-travelled by Hong Kong films since the 1980s. The Hong Kong market is so small, films had to rely on foreign markets. But I can see from experience, that it’s very, very difficult to break into foreign markets. There’re a number of reasons — the cultural difference, the language barrier. The reason why Hollywood films can be spread around the world was because it has the advantage of the English language, which is indeed an international language. So it would be a difficult thing for Chinese-language films to break into the mainstream market in the rest of the world. In 8 caption the Midwest, audience would not watch films with subtitles. The exception in the past had been the star-driven action vehicles — Bruce Lee or Jackie Chan — which can cross borders. Those films showed something they couldn’t do. So the historical epics nowadays, with their emphasis on Chinese history, it’s hard for the foreign audience to understand, or to ask them to have an emotional investment. It’s a long way to go. the distribution branch of Emperor motion pictures, in collaboration with uA Films, is distributing the upcoming and highly-anticipated screen adaptation of The Hunger Games. What is your company’s strategy for the distribution of Hollywood and foreign films in Hong Kong and China? We don’t have a particular strategy, or plans to choose only one type of film. We’ve been releasing around a film a month, and not only with Hollywood titles. So far I’m satisfied with the results. The distribution market in Hong Kong is highly competitive. We certainly hope to buy tentpole pictures for release in Hong Kong, but there’re only so many suppliers. At present, we’re only doing this release exercise in Hong Kong. But with the opening of the Chinese market for foreign films, we’d like to expand this collaboration to China. With the right films, we’d like to begin releasing foreign films in China and Hong Kong. Last December, Emperor motion pictures announced a three-picture deal with leading Chinese filmmaker and actor Ge You. How is that coming along? We’re developing the script with Ge You, but the details are not in place yet. We’re hoping that filming would begin in 2012. We’re also developing a project with director Jiang Wen, which we hope to start production on in 2012. How are you pursuing long term collaborations with other Chinese filmmakers? Emperor Motion Pictures has long standing relationships with a lot of filmmakers in China, such as our involvement with Feng Xiaogang’s recent work, including his latest, 1942, and the previous films Aftershock and If You Are the One 2. We also have a close relationship with director Chen Kaige (Farewell My Concubine). For Hong Kong directors, we’ve worked with Derek Yee and Dante Lam on three of his most commercially successful films. We don’t necessarily have a signed or drawn contract with all of the filmmakers, but as in the case of Jiang Wen, with whom we had worked with since The Sun Also Rises (2007), we have a tacit understanding to continue working together, built on mutual trust. In fact, we have approached Jiang Wen to set up a contracted working deal before we did that with Ge You, but he’s not a person who likes to be tied down, so he asked us to trust him. There’s definitely a degree of risk, but so far it’s working well between us. thr
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HKIFF Heats Up

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