Hong Kong Filmart is launching a documentary event, Asian Side of the Doc (ASD), at this year’s edition of the film, TV and digital entertainment market (March 22-25).

Sponsored by Europe’s MEDIA programme and following the model of French event Sunny Side of the DOC, ASD is expected to attract more than 150 film, TV and new media executives from Asia, Europe and North America.

In addition to the buying and selling of documentaries, the three-day event will also include workshops, screenings, pitching sessions and networking events.

For the sixth year running, Filmart will take place under the umbrella of Entertainment Expo 2010, which this year encompasses nine events between March 22 and April 18, including the Hong Kong Asia Film Financing Forum (HAF), the Hong Kong International Film Festival and the Hong Kong Film Awards (see details below).

Filmart organisers, the Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC), also said that more than 500 exhibitors from over 20 countries and regions have signed up for this year’s market. Highlights also include two conferences: Europe/Asia: A New Era For TV And Film Cooperation; and Computer-Generated Animation In A World After Avatar.

In addition, the Association of Motion Picture Post Production Professionals is organising a series of programmes, seminars and workshops on 3D film.

Full list of Entertainment Expo events:

Filmart (March 22-25)

Hong Kong Asia Film Financing Forum (March 22-24)

Hong Kong International Film Festival (March 21-April 6)

Asian Film Awards (March 22)

Hong Kong Film Awards (April 18)

Hong Kong Independent Short Film and Video Awards (March 12-21)

Hong Kong Music Fair (March 20-22)

IFPI Hong Kong Top Sales Music Award (April 7)

Digital Entertainment Leadership Forum (March 23)

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It’s a year of tiger and it’s also a year for Chinese film, with more and more money coming into Chinese film industry, 2010 is going to be a huge year for Chinese cinema, if you are up for a peek in Chinese film market, you should really join 34th HK Film festival 2010, meet more people in the same industry.

Here is a link of the submission page:

http://www.hkiff.org.hk/en/news20100125.html

Also worth reading here:

The price of festivals

Bright Shadow Films might show up in the festival as well, We will meet you there!

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This Article Originally From:Reuters

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Disney’s $4 billion purchase of “Iron Man” moviemaker Marvel Entertainment signals a possible wave of media industry consolidation, but the cash to do deals may come from India or China, not Hollywood or Wall Street.

Even before Walt Disney Co (DIS.N) and Marvel Entertainment Inc (MVL.N) made their announcement on Monday, Hollywood watchers said Indian firm Reliance ADA Group’s recent $325 million investment in Steven Spielberg’s DreamWorks movie studio was a sign that opportunity exists for similar deals.

As the recession took hold in late 2007, Hollywood saw financing from U.S. hedge funds and banks dry up, and experts say Indian and Chinese firms are now in a better position to invest. For its part, Hollywood needs overseas cash to continue expanding globally where growth opportunities are strongest.

“If you have capital to invest, you can probably cut a better deal now than any time in the last ten years,” said Larry Gerbrandt, principal at consultancy Media Valuation Partners.

“A lot of Indian and Chinese companies have excess capital these days and Hollywood, aside from the fact there’s a certain glamour factor, those (Indian and Chinese) markets also need content, so there’s interesting deals to be made.”

Sky Moore, an attorney who worked with Reliance as it put together the DreamWorks financing package, said a bigger deal could be in the offing within two years.

“I think the bigger move is buying a studio, and I don’t know if it will be (a company from) India or China, but I think somebody is going to buy a studio,” Moore said.

STUDIO TARGETS

The Disney/Marvel deal fueled speculation DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc (DWA.O), maker of the “Shrek” movies and a separate company from DreamWorks Studios, could be next on the acquisition target list because of its solid position in the marketplace and focus on the lucrative family market.

Moore and Gerbrandt also named Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc as a potential acquisition target, although they said they had no specific information of any deal in the works.

Rumors of MGM’s potential sale have surfaced for years. The storied Hollywood studio faces looming payments on $3.7 billion of debt from a 2005 buyout of the firm, and earlier this week it replaced its CEO and hired a turnaround expert.

Chinese film studios are strengthening ties with their peers across the Pacific. The Huayi group, which Morgan Stanley called “China’s Warner Bros for tomorrow,” has said it is seeking capital to expand and has developed movies with Hollywood majors such as Sony Pictures. Its larger rival, The China Film Group, is reportedly keen on developing projects in the United States as well.

India’s expanding reach into Hollywood has included Reliance’s purchase of about 50 U.S. theaters and Indian entertainment company UTV’s investment of tens of millions of dollars over the last three years in several movies, including “The Happening” and “The Namesake,” Moore said.

“It’s not about bringing Bollywood to Hollywood, it’s about mainstream worldwide English-language entertainment,” he said.

Hollywood studios have also made big investments in India. Warner Bros, a division of Time Warner Inc (TWX.N), has signed multi-picture deals with Indian companies People Tree Films and Ocher Studios.

Twentieth Century Fox, a division of News Corp (NWSA.O), has started a joint venture with Asian broadcaster Star to create films for India under the name Fox Star Studios.

Foreign investment in Hollywood is nothing new, of course. In the 1990s, German tax credits spurred production of U.S. movies, and before that Japan’s Sony Co (6758.T) in 1989 bought Columbia Pictures. Sony also has a stake in MGM.

David Molner, managing director of Screen Capital International, a media and entertainment financing firm, said that absent foreign investment, Hollywood could simply have to endure a slowdown due to lack of capital.

“Either the Asians lead the pack or we have a lull,” he said. “Mostly because they’re probably going to be the fastest out of the blocks as the economy recovers.”

(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis; Editing by Bob Tourtellotte and Tim Dobbyn, Phil Berlowitz)

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If you are in China and you are planning on watch Transformers II in the cinema, you will see how popular this film it is in China, I just found this article in Variety.com and it seems this movie’s box office has gone huge all over the world.

Here is the article from Variety(By PAMELA MCCLINTOCK)

Aside from its whopping five-day domestic tally — the second highest of all time — Paramount’s “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” broke records in several countries overseas, leading to a massive $387.3 million worldwide through Sunday, one of the best global launches ever.

The five-day opening gross of $201.2 million from 4,234 theaters domestically easily eclipsed the $152.4 million earned by “Spider-Man 2,” which previously held the five-day record for a Wednesday launch. And “Transformers 2″ nearly matched the best five-day gross of all time: $203.8 million for WB’s “The Dark Knight.”

Overseas, the action tentpole opened to an estimated $162 million, the fourth best international opening of all time, after “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End” ($216.3 million), “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” ($193 million) and “Spider-Man 3″ ($164.9 million). The sequel’s foreign cume was $186.1 million when factoring in the $24.1 million earned the previous weekend in the U.K. and Japan.

Although the Michael Bay-helmed pic sucked up most of the oxygen at the box office, other pics scored notable numbers. Disney-Pixar’s “Up” surpassed Par’s “Star Trek” to become the year’s highest-grossing title at the domestic B.O. (The film’s cume through Sunday was an estimated $250.2 million, boosted by the added charge for 3-D tickets.)

Warner Bros.’ “The Hangover” passed $200 million at the worldwide B.O. Domestically, it saw $17.2 million from 3,525 for a cume of $183.2 million. Abroad, film earned $10.1 million from 1,250 runs in 29 markets for a cume of $46.2 million and worldwide tally of $229.2 million.

Several specialty titles popped, including Summit Entertainment’s “The Hurt Locker.” Directed by Kathryn Bigelow, the film posted a per-screen average of $36,000 as it opened in four theaters in L.A. and New York, grossing an estimated $144,000.

The weekend’s only wide release besides “Revenge of the Fallen” was Cameron Diaz-Abigail Breslin drama “My Sister’s Keeper.” The film saw modest biz in grossing $12 million from 2,606 runs to come in No. 5 for the weekend.

In other holdover action, Fox’s “Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian” crossed the $200 million mark internationally as it grossed $5.2 million from 4,000 runs in 62 territories for a foreign cume of $202.3 million and worldwide tally of $365.5 million.

Sony continued to see strong international results for “Terminator Salvation,” which grossed $10.1 million for the sesh from 7,470 theaters in 70 markets for a foreign cume of $193.7 million. Accounting for territories where Sony isn’t distributing, pic’s total foreign gross is $219.5 million.

The romantic comedy “The Proposal,” from the Mouse House, continued to click. The Sandra Bullock-Ryan Reynolds starrer dipped 45% to an estimated $18.5 million from 3,058 runs; cume is $69 million. The pic grossed another $7.2 million overseas for the weekend, putting the worldwide cume at $91.7 million in its first 10 days.

On the domestic front, Focus Features’ dramedy “Away We Go” landed in the No. 10 spot in its fourth week, grossing $1.7 million as it expanded into 495 locations for a per-screen average of $3,390 and cume of $3.4 million.

And Woody Allen’s “Whatever Works,” from Sony Pictures Classics, grossed $386,286 in its second frame for a per-screen average of $11,036 and cume of $765,433.

Miramax’s Michelle Pfeiffer period piece “Cheri” grossed $408,000 as it opened on 76 screens for a per-location average of $5,368.

Not having such a good weekend domestically was Sony’s Jack Black-Michael Cera laffer “Year One,” which tumbled 70% in its second frame to $5.8 million for a domestic cume of $32.3 million.

But the big news, of course, is the “Transformers” sequel, the first tentpole since “Dark Knight” to truly rocket into the B.O. stratosphere.

Paramount co-chair Rob Moore said the pic played to a much broader audience than its predecessor, noting that the first time around, males made up 60% of the audience. This time, that number dropped to 54%.

More important to Moore: Despite negative reviews, more than 90% of those polled as they left theaters said the sequel was as good as, or better than, the first.

“To us, that’s the most compelling data point,” Moore said. “The thing that works so much about this franchise is the level of optimism and fun that’s inherent in it. It transports you to a world that stretches reality but is a ton of fun.”

Par execs were particularly pleased, since the studio pegs the pic’s production and worldwide marketing at $350 million — which the film already surpassed in five days.

In terms of just the three-day weekend, “Transformers 2″ grossed $112 million domestically. That, plus the $163 million international opening, makes for a worldwide weekend bow of $274 million, the third best after “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World End” ($356.1 million) and “Spider-Man 3″ ($315.9 million).

The international haul was led by China at $21.9 million — the biggest opening of all time for an English-language movie. While it played strongest in Asia, “Revenge of the Fallen” performed ahead of the first film in almost every market, proving that the franchise has taken hold, Paramount prexy of international distribution Andrew Cripps said.

“Transformers,” which Par and DreamWorks debuted over the Fourth of July holiday in 2007, opened to $70.5 million domestically on its way to cuming $319.2 million in North America and $700 million worldwide.

Imax also participated in the “Transformers 2″ bounty. The pic played on 169 Imax screens domestically. Five-day opening gross at Imax sites was a record $14.4 million.

The “Transformers” franchise was among the projects that reverted to Paramount after its split with DreamWorks, although Steven Spielberg remained an exec producer on the sequel and DreamWorks’ logo appears at the opening of the pic and in ads.

Adam Goodman, who arrived at Par six months ago from DreamWorks, helped guide both “Transformer” pics. Just days before the “Transformers” sequel opened, Paramount chair-CEO Brad Grey announced that Goodman was being upped to Paramount Film Group prexy as production toppers John Lesher and Brad Weston were exiting the studio.

Grey also lauded Bay’s ability to connect with audiences. He said the entire Par family is “proud to be behind him, and we look forward to our collaboration with him in the future.”

“Transformers 3″ is tentatively slotted to open July 1, 2011.

In the meantime, “Revenge of the Fallen” is expected to remain a sizable B.O. force in the coming days, looming over such new fare as 20th Century Fox’s 3-D toon “Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs,” which opens Wednesday.

Also opening Wednesday is Universal’s Johnny Depp gangster pic “Public Enemies.”

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Award for Best Feature Film
ORIGINAL directed by Antonio Tublén / Alexander Brøndsted
Jury Comments: Using this title for a film is dangerous, almost suicidal. But the film more than met the challenge the title lays down. A light, touching and subversive study of mental illness that is compassionate and never sentimental. From the opening image of a fish tank being peeled open to the Mexican wrestlers tumbling in the heroes’ mind we know we had found the best film …… ORGINAL!
Jury Grand Prix
THE SEARCH directed by Pema Tseden
Jury Comments: The most challenging film we saw, almost a meditation in patience as well as an exercise in it for the viewer, uncompromising but funny and humane too. We look forward to many more films from Tibet.
Jury Award
EMPIRE OF SILVER directed by Christina Yao
Jury Comments: To the director and her cast and crew for the detail and craft on such an epic scale and in such extraordinary locations. And for reminding us, especially at this time that bankers should be kind and righteous.
Award for Best Director (continue reading…)

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Hello Everyone, it was nice to meet everybody during the Shanghai Film Festival 2009, the market session is coming to an end, but our manager Charlie Moretti still busy with meeting up old contacts and new friends. Did we mention that we met Halle Berry?

We need to thank all the visitors who been to our booth during previous days, this year’s festival is bigger than last year, and we managed to meet a lot more people than before, we hope that you found the opportunity during the film market as well, just in case you missed our booth, here is a picture of it.

We will have a lot more info updated these days, stay around!

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This Post Originally from here.

Yu Nan, one of the jury members for the Asian New Talent Award during the 12th Shanghai International Film Festival, had an exclusive interview with correspondent from Daily News yesterday. As a jury member, Yu Nan expressed her excitement to see so many spirited works, and she hoped these fresh film directors could stick to their own style, not to be distracted by material gain. Besides work, for the first time, Yu Nan replied to questions related to love in her real life and confessed that she was hoping for true love.

Yu Nan has already had some experience of being a jury member on International Film Festival overseas ahead of the 12th Shanghai International Film Festival (continue reading…)

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As one of the most anticipated films of the year, WHEAT, directed by He Ping, one of the greatest filmmakers of the time, is confirmed to premiere as the opening film of the 12th Shanghai International Film Festival.

He Ping was the jury chairman for SIFF’s Asian New Talent Award 2006 while the film is produced by Classics Media and PolyBona.

Wheat is the latest production of He Ping, a masterpiece concentrating 6 years of great effort after his Warriors of Heaven and Earth in 2003. The film has been progressing in a low profile ever since the very beginning. However, as the latest work by an extraordinary director among the 5th generation, WHEAT is regarded by the insiders as one of the most expected films of the year after the film’s trailer and poster being released at home and abroad.

With spectacular scenes, rich details, a well-connected story and lyrical visual language, while at the same time revealing a cultural connotation rarely seen in Chinese entertaining films these years, WHEAT was commented by a well-respected filmmakers as “an entertaining film for learned people”.

WHEAT will obviously be the most surprising Chinese film of the year and will change totally the aesthetic experience of the audience.

In addition to the top-class director, a group of top-class actors and actresses including Fan Bingbing, Huang Jue, Wang Xueqi, Wang Zhiwen and Wang Ji join the film. Besides, famous for his discovering and fostering young film talents, He Ping offers Du Jiayi and Wang Jiajia important roles. This makes both the insiders and the audience looking forward to seeing the film.

Actually, from the beginning of the year, SIFF started to discuss with the director and the producer of the film on the possibility of WHEAT’s being the opening film of SIFF 2009. Although the two sides are both excited about the idea, the producer didn’t make a final decision since the real short time for the post-production and director’s willing not to bring down the artistic and industrial criteria. After 6 months’ post-production, WHEAT caught up with the schedule and is now on its way.

“I will try my best to make the perfect integration of art, entertainment and film techniques as always.” said He Ping. For a film with perfect scenes, this remark is the best promise. “He has always been so slow in shooting films. This time he spent 6 years making a film, it must be a most expected one.” a highly expectiation of his fans on the internet.

As is early released, SIFF’s film of this year is unprecedented both in quantity and quality, which is most surprising. Now that WHEAT will open the festival, naturally people will be more looking forward to this grand meeting.

Director He Ping and his staff will hold a press conference in Shanghai on June 12th, after which does it begin the 12th Shanghai International Film Festival.

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No funding, no technological support, no broadcast platform, and no specific medium of communication? The only criterion for selection is simply a good idea. DocuChina Filmmaker Plan will provide support, giving access to a broader stage.

As the main part of the 15th Shanghai TV Festival, the final of the 3rd “DocuChina Filmmaker Plan” will be held through this international platform from 8th, June to 11th, June 2009, including two-day master training and one-and-a-half-day international proposal bidding along with an award ceremony. The 250 proposals the organizing committee has received are rich in subject, extensive in perspective, and attentive to folkways and folk customs. All these documentary proposals also attach great importance to social reality, arts ecology and political & economic phenomena.

At present, 15 nominees have just been selected, and they are The Story of Milk: culture and gene, The Lake, The Post Couple, A Hard Dream, The Community, The psychologist, The Three Gorges, The different Competition, The accident is always happened, Business Establishment, The Er Ma people, Internet-addicted, A colorful Life, Friends, The Industry chain. On 6th June, these 15 nominees will have the opportunity to present to the whole world their stories of great originality in fierce competition. The juries, made up of internationally recognizable documentary specialists and directors, will announce the 5 winners of Excellent Proposal Award as well as 1 Media Award winner at the Award Ceremony to be held on 11th June.

The current filmmaker plan has invited distinguished guests and juries, among whom there are the internationally famous director Jia Zhangke whose works 24 City and Still Life have won many international awards, the well-known screenwriter Ning Caishen for his My Own Swordsman, and the Shanghai comedian Zhou Libo reputed for his Shanghai-style stand-up Chat about the Past Thirty Years. Other guests and juries are also of great prestige like director Peng Xiaolian, Zhou Bin and host Wan Feng.

As the non-profit platform for newly emerging Chinese documentary makers, “DocuChina Filmmaker Plan” constantly bears the hope of these documentary lovers. Some outstanding items that distinguished themselves at the 2nd “DocuChina Filmmaker Plan” have recently been produced one by one. The growth of these young and promising directors from the “Filmmaker Plan” has witnessed how a script could be finally turned into a documentary. From 7th June on, three documentaries will be successively on documentary channel “Documentary Editorial Office”. These documentaries are the Lost Village in Desert, telling a story about the conflict and struggle between humans and nature, Cock Fighting, a reflection of the fighting between people through the fighting between cocks, and Pregnancy, a story about how pregnancy could change the destiny of a woman and a family as a whole.

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• What is a Sino-foreign co-production?
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• Hong Kong Filmart launches documentary market
• Are you ready for 34th HK Film Festival
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Title: Days with You

Country : Japan

Year : 2008

Director: Amiy Mori

Running time: 103

Synopsis

Two childhood friends who grew up in a town that used to be called “Town of Falling Stars” are reunited after an 11 year interval. While an old landmark planetarium is about to be demolished and the star lights about to be replaced with neon lights in their hometown, the two confront their harsh fate. Believing in the miracle of the constellation meteor shower… (continue reading…)

• The Insider’s Guide to Shooting in China
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• Hong Kong Filmart launches documentary market
• Are you ready for 34th HK Film Festival
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