Asia Society Southern California Announces Partnership With the Shangai International Film Festival

U.S.-China Film Summit, the premier U.S. gathering of Hollywood and Chinese film leaders,
teams up with China’s most prestigious film festival to promote international collaboration

LOS ANGELES – November 2, 2015 – Asia Society Southern California is pleased to announce an event partnership between its U.S.-China Film Summit and the Shanghai International Film Festival. The agreement paves way for cooperation biggest and most prestigious film festival and the premier U.S. event that brings together Hollywood and Chinese film leaders.
Under the agreement, Asia Society Southern California and SIFF will promote, attend and participate in each other’s event to advance international film collaboration. Several SIFF officials will attend the Sixth Annual U.S.-China Film Summit on November 5 in Los Angeles.

This year’s Film Summit features Greg Foster, CEO of IMAX Entertainment, as a keynote speaker and Miao Xiaotian, President of the China Film Co-Production Corporation. Among the high-profile panelists are David Linde, CEO of Participant Media, Wei Zhang, President of Alibaba Pictures and Michael Andreen of Twentieth Century Fox. Asia Society is honoring Chinese director Zhang Yimou, Le Vision Pictures CEO Zhang Zhao and the Beijing Film Academy for their artistic, entrepreneurial and educational contributions, respectively, to China’s globalizing film world.

“We’re excited to welcome the Shanghai International Film Festival as a partner event,” said Stephen L. Saltzman, co-chair of the U.S.-China Film Summit and head of the entertainment practice at international law firm Loeb & Loeb. “Like our Film Summit, SIFF is the leading event of its kind in China and a dynamic forum for building understanding between China and the global film industry.”

SIFF began in 1993 and is the only competitive film festival in China that is approved by the International Federation of Film Producers Associations. It has grown rapidly, and this year drew 2096 entries from 108 countries and regions for its Golden Goblet and Asian New Talent awards, more than 6,000 film buyers, and screened 391 films for 300,000 fans. Films from Europe, the U.S., Asia and China won Golden Goblet Awards.

“Our positioning is ‘Based in Asia, Boost Chinese Films, and Foster new talents’. We are helping Chinese film industry to reach the international level,” said Ms. Ding of SIFF. “Through cooperation with the U.S.-China Film Summit, we hope we can together build a quick and complete way for communication between two countries’ film industry, capital, outstanding projects and talents.”
"I attended the very first Shanghai International Film Festival and have been to almost every one since then,” said Janet Yang, co-chair of Asia Society’s U.S.-China Film Summit and producer of acclaimed films The Joy Luck Club, Shanghai Calling and others. “It has grown by leaps and bounds and ranks as the most popular and elegant film event in China."

The U.S.-China Film Summit is a signature Asia Society Southern California event. This year’s panels are:
Frontiers in Content: New Players, New Avenues in U.S.-China Collaboration
The China Wave: How’s Chinese Investment in Hollywood Doing and What’s Next?
Take Two: Overcoming Legal, Financial, Production Disconnects in Cross-Border Film
The Future of Movie Going: What Will it Take to Keep Film in China Growing
Insights From the Corner Office: Studio Heads Open Up About U.S.-China Film


ABOUT ASIA SOCIETY
Asia Society is the leading educational organization dedicated to promoting mutual understanding and strengthening partnerships among peoples, leaders and institutions of Asia and the United States in a global context. Across the fields of arts, business, culture, education, and policy, the Society provides insight, generates ideas, and promotes collaboration to address present challenges and create a shared future.

Founded in 1956 by John D. Rockefeller 3rd, Asia Society is a nonpartisan, nonprofit institution with headquarters in New York, and centers in Hong Kong, Houston, Los Angeles, Manila, Mumbai, San Francisco, Seoul, Shanghai, Sydney, and Washington, DC. For more information, go to www.asiasociety.org/southern-california.