Building a film base in Shanghai

“Digitalization” and “Sinicization” are the two major trends for future films.

Shanghai will become another base for China\'s future development of film and the steps in this direction are being taken.

In a major development combining culture and education, Vancouver Film Academy will open its Chinese office in Shanghai. Vancouver Film Academy is one of the world’s top three film schools in the field of post-production. Films involving students from the academy have generated US$18.4 billion at the box office. The cooperation between Vancouver Film Academy and Shanghai University will incubate high-end film and television post-production talent for the Chinese film industry. It also will help realize the close education exchange between China and North America, the hand-in-hand relationship between film education and film industry, and the close links between film studies and filmmaking.

Hu Jinjun has paid close attention to the development of Vancouver Film Academy over the past 10 years. He said that after the foundation of Shanghai Vancouver Film College (a collaboration between Shanghai University and Canada Vancouver Film School), it will initially recruit 100 students who will shoot a film after 10 months of study. Also, 90% of its teachers will be employed directly from Canada and its software and equipment will be five years ahead of that used in Hollywood studios now.

During the festival, a program called “Combination of Culture and Finance” will be explored. As the world\'s largest completion guarantee company finances around 250 to 300 films a year and benefits numerous new film talents, film forum lectures on “completion guarantee” of film financial products will strongly benefit Chinese film insiders.

As for the program “Combination of Art and Science”, Hu Jinjun said the best studio in China, according to global colleagues, had been built in the post-Expo No.5 pavilion.. Its chief engineer is a graduate from Vancouver Film Academy.

Also, a lot of good news will be announced to the public during the festival:

Thirty-six Sino-Foreign co-production film plans in collaboration with South Korea, France and America will be launched in Shanghai, promising a center for film and TV industry development.

DreamWorks will officially join an international film market for the first time, resulting in one of the largest cultural exchange investment projects between China and a foreign firm.

Hu Jinjun said senior managers from Columbia Pictures, Paramount Pictures Inc. and other American film companies will come to Shanghai and express their views on the two major trends for future films: “Digitalization” and “Sinicization”.

It is a great opportunity both for China’s film industry and Shanghai. Increasing numbers of major Chinese and overseas film companies have been attracted by Shanghai’s unique advantages as the financial capital of China and are eager to start their future businesses here.