The SIFFORUM of 11th Shanghai International Film Festival, which has been well-received in the past four years, was held from June 15 to 19, 2008. With the theme of "Cooperate with the world and focus on China to develop Asia", the forum aims at providing a platform for professionals. It consisted of 10 seminars in four sections, including President Lecture", "Keynotes Seminar", "Film Round Table" and "Master Class".
Part one: President Lecture
This section was specifically set up for SIFF\'s jury president for the first time in SIFF\'s history. Instead of acting as the award-giving solely, the president was invited in this section to the front stage to address his unique understandings.
Part two: Keynote Seminar
This section aimed at the development of China\'s film industry with the brainstorm among all the professionals, with greater hope to influence Asia. Since Chinese films faced with new opportunity to grow and was receiving increasing attention from investors, this year\'s Keynotes Seminar focused on three aspects: actor agency, jointly-invested film, and cooperation investment. The topics were: the problems brought forward by the inflation of co-production films; the influence cast on China\'s film industry by the capital inside and outside of the industry; the appearance of the actor agency in China.
Part three: Film Roundtable
Combining with SIFF MART, this section focused on such professional topics as the film distribution for both chinese and oversea\'s, new ways of distribution and production, the shooting resources over the world, management of employees from different areas. The section was divided into "Sino-US Film Roundtable" and "Female Filmmakers\' Roundtable".
Part four: Master Class
This section served as a platform for communication between veterans in film industry and new comers, aiming at both giving lecture and spotting new talents. This year\'s Master Class targeted on pitchers and catchers of China Film Pitch and Catch (CFPC) and Co-production Film Pitch and Catch (Co-FPC), contestants of Asian New Talent Award and competitors of International Students\' short award. Through the dialogue with masters, the new talents were guided in view of creation of original films and film marketing with masters\' experience. This year\'s class created more opportunities for more international students.
Part one:
President Lecture: Metropolis: Drifting Souls
*Content:
As the president of the jury of the Film Festival, Wang Kar-Wai embodies extreme popularity, unique personality, and independent film concepts. Considered the creator of the philosophy of city cinema and an important interpreter of city images in the modern world, he has established his unique style of representing cities and narrating the feelings arising out of cities. He will share his ideas about cinema and cities with the public and his peers during the spotlight session of "President Lecture". It is highly anticipated that the famous painter Chen Danqing joined the dialogue, providing international filmmakers with an inspiring interaction between two outstanding masters of contemporary china visual art for the first time.
*Moderator:
Danqing CHEN，Painter
*Guest Speaker:
Kar-wai WONG，President of the Jury of 11th SIFF
Time: 14:00-15:00, June 16th, 2008
Part two:
Keynote Seminar I：
New Development: Star System in Asia and the Interactions with the Booming Chinese Film Industry
*Content:
Globalization of entertainment industry has not only created more ways for investors to get rewarded, but also provided a broader horizon for talents to look for opportunity. This panel looked at Asia\'s talent management system, its similarities and differences compared with the rest of the world, and its strengths and weaknesses. The panelists discussed the possibility for Asia to cooperate with Hollywood in this regard.
*Moderator:
Ke SONG, CEO, Beijing Taihe Rye Music Co., Ltd.
*Guest Speakers:
Patrick FRATER, Asia Editor, Variety
Teddy Hoon-Tack JUNG, CEO, iHQ Inc.
Buddy MARINI, Managing Director, AVEX Asia Ltd.
Robert A. DARWELL, Head, Entertainment, Media & Communications Practice, Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP
Zhonglei WANG, President, Hua Yi Brothers Picture Co., Ltd.
Peter LOEHR, Managing Director, CAA, China
Time: 9:30-12:00, June 15th
Keynote Seminar II：
New Hotspot: Explore the Chinese Capital Market
*Content:
Year 2007 witnessed the initiative of capital operation in Chinese film industry. In and out of the industry, capital operators are searching for opportunities to get into the Chinese film market. Well then, what kind of Chinese film enterprises will be appealing to capital? Which aspect among production, distribution and exhibition in this market is believed to be ready for capital operation? How many Chinese enterprises have got themselves prepared for challenges brought by capital operators? What\'s more, how should Chinese film enterprises cope with the new pattern of distribution of benefits and responsibilities in the marriage of the Chinese film industry and the global capital market? Find the answers from this table.
*Moderator:
Hugo SHONG, Executive Vice President of International Data Group (IDG), Founding General Partner of IDG Technology Venture Investment (IDGVC)
Ran WANG, CEO, China eCapital Corporation
*Guest Speakers:
Peter CHAN, Director, Producer
Bill KONG, President, Hong Kong Ediko Films Co., Ltd.
Zhonglun REN, President of Shanghai Film Group Corporation, President of Shanghai Film Studio
Sanping HAN, Chairman of China Film Group Corporation, Director of China Film Producer Association, Vice President of International Film Producer Association
Levin ZHU, President and Managing Director, China International Capital Corporation Limited (CICC)
Neil SHEN, Founder and Co-president, Sequoia Capital China
Hugo SHONG, Executive Vice President of International Data Group (IDG), Founding General Partner of IDG Technology Venture Investment (IDGVC)
Matthew BROSENNE, Business Development Director, CSM Media Research
Time: 9:30-12:00, June 16th
Keynote Seminar III:
Opportunity and Breakthrough: Thorough Comprehension of Chinese-Foreign Film Co-productions
*Content:
Year 2007 saw a huge wave of film co-production between China and the rest of the world. There were 67 co-production projects approved, among which 47 have been completed. Statistics show that in 2007 over 72% of the domestic box office were generated from co-production films. International producers and investors have shown strong interests in Chinese market which boasts a great number of creative talents and abundant production resources at reasonable cost. To meet up with the increasing interest from the industry people, this panel discussed how to keep this surging wave going and make it more highlighted in the entire picture of Chinese film industry, by providing a thorough comprehension of Chinese co-production policy and case study of both success and failure, as to promote Chinese-foreign film co-production in a healthy, rational manner.
*Moderator:
Xun ZHANG, Managing Director, China Film Co-production Corporation
Addressing speaker:
Pimin ZHANG, Deputy Director-General, Film Administration Bureau of State Administration of Radio, Film & TV
*Guest Speakers:
Michael STEPHENS, President, NZ Asia Pacific Film Fund
Dong YU, President, Beijing Poly-Bona Film Publishing Co. Ltd.
See-yuan Ng, Director, Chairman of Federation of Hong Kong Filmmakers
Jason REED, Executive Vice President, Walt Disney Studios Motion Picture Production
Terence Chang, Producer
John WOO, Director
Satoru ISEKI, Producer, Tara Contents Inc.
Tianyun WANG, Vice president, Shanghai Film Group Corporation
Time: 9:30-12:00, June 17th
Keynote Seminar Ⅳ:
2008 WIPO-SARFT National Symposium on Copyright and Related Rights in the Film and Audiovisual Sector
*Content:
A virtuous market depends on perfected rules. To achieve healthy development of Chinese film market, it is vital to keep intellectual property well protected. This symposium, co-organized by World Intellectual Property Organization and the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, invited professionals and scholars specialized in IPP from US, Switzerland, Spain, South Korea and China to give their visions on current situation, and issues and resolutions in management of copyright contract, licensing system and copyright protection of audiovisual content. The symposium was designed to promote and expand experience exchanges in copyright protection of audiovisual content between China and other countries, and improve practices of IPP in China as to better propel the development and prosperity of film industry at home and abroad.
*Guest Speakers:
Michael KEPLINGER, Deputy General Director, World Intellectual Property Organization
Richard OWENS, Director, Copyright E-Commerce, Technology and Management Division, WIPO
Gregory T. KEPLINGER, Professor, Film, Video and Theatre Department, Villa Julie College
Chuntian LIU, Deputy Director General, Graduate School, Renmin University of China
Jacqueline HURT, Lawyer and Partner, Olswang Solicitors London
Kyong-Soo CHOE, Director General, Copyright Research Institute, Copyright Commission, Korea
Tina L.K.LEE, General Counsel, Television Broadcasts Limited (HK); Vice-Chairperson of the Copyright Committee of Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union
Shuping LI, Deputy General Director, China Film Science and Technology Research Institute
Francisco AGUILERA, Secretary General, Sociedad General de Autores y Editores (SGAE), Spain
Xinliang TAO, General Director, Intellectual Property Institute, Shanghai University
Jie LIU, Senior Counsellor, Technical Assistance and Capacity Building Bureau for Asia and the Pacific, WIPO
Time: 9:00-12:00, 13:20-17:00, June 18th; 9:00-12:40 June 19th, 2008
Part three:
Film Roundtable I:
Sino-US Film Roundtable: Road to Industry Expansion
*Content:
Major players from Chinese and US film industries will get together to discuss how much the Chinese film industry can learn from its US counterpart in achieving industry expansion through capital assimilation and operation, and gaining maximum benefits through industrial restructuring, and finally being able to regenerate capital flow for further expansion. Hollywood boasts mature management in this aspect, which can provide a vision for Chinese industry people to share and get inspired in future cooperation with overseas players.
*Moderator:
Stephen SALTZMAN, Attorney at Law, Loeb & Loeb LLP
Cindy LIN, President, Infotainment China Corporation
*Guest Speakers:
Douglas E. HANSEN, President and COO, Endgame Entertainment Inc.
Stuart FORD, Managing Director, First Look International
Michael Andreen, Senior Vice President Walt Disney Studios Motion picture Production
Dong YU, President, Beijing Poly-Bona Film Publishing Co. Ltd.
Zhao ZHANG, Managing Director, Enlight Pictures Corporation
Hong QIN, President, Stellar Megamedia Group Ltd.
Time: 16:00-18:30, June 16th
Film Roundtable II:
Female Filmmakers’ Round Table: Women\'s Film and Women in Film
*Content:
Woman\'s film and women in film have become a topic of the industry. By speaking from their own experiences, women filmmakers talked about their unique aesthetic values about film subjects, film creation and women in films.
*Moderator:
Ying NING, Chinese Director
*Guest Speakers:
Jeanne WALTZ, Swiss Director
Bettina OBERLI, Swiss Director
Ursula MEIER, Swiss Director
Ina-Christina KERSTEN, German Producer
Miriam DEHNE, German Director
Lichuan YIN, Chinese Director
Yan Yan MAK, Chinese Director
Lola, Chinese Producer
Wei DAI, Chinese Director
Time: 10:00-12:00, June 17th
Part four:
Master Class I:
Win Investment for a Film
*Content:
Good pitching always works well for a creative project. How to catch investors\' attention and land proper investment in short time are very important for young directors and producers. This section gave face-to-face training to the presenters of eight Chinese film projects of CFPC.
*Guest Trainer:
Christine CHOY, Ex-Dean, NYU Institute of Film and Television, Professor, NYU Shanghai Center
Time: 14:00-17:30, June 16th, 2008
Master Class II:
Script: The First Step forward to Successful Movies
*Content:
People say that China does not lack good directors or good actors, but good screenwriters. Under the pressure of capital, market and stardom, screenwriting has become a crucial issue to Chinese film industry. To set up a complete database of quality scripts in commercial pattern is likely to be the next hotspot after talent management. Well, how does a good script look like? What kind of script can be made into a good film? What is the role of screenwriter in the process of creation? And how does a director choose a script and explore its value? This session was designed to discuss the above questions through personal experiences of successful director and screenwriter in line with industrialization of screenwriting and industry operation.
*Moderator:
Hongyu LI, Editor and Journalist, Southern Weekly
Guest Speaker:
Bille AUGUST, Denmark Screenwriter and Director
Time: 10:30-12:00, June the 18th
Master Class III:
Better City, Better Life ----International Student Shorts Award
*Content:
In this era of new media, visual means have been increasingly adopted by young people to make themselves heard in the society. Short film exchange has well served as the stage for young people to communicate with each other. After the successful organization of short film exchange between Chinese and American students in 2006, Shanghai International Film Festival further expanded its window to a worldwide vision for better diversity and creation, as it has committed to do so.
*Moderator:
Fei XIE, Chinese Director
*Shorts Jury:
Chairman:
Fei XIE, Chinese Director
Jury Members:
Erika GREGOR, Selection Committee Member, International Forum of New Cinema, Berlin Film Festival
Cheuk-To LI, Artistic Director, Hong Kong International Film Festival Society
Lola, Chinese Producer
Shaoyi SUN, Professor, USC School of Cinematic Arts, U.S.A
Time: 9:30-12:00, 14:00-17:30, June 19th, 2008
Shanghai Municipal Administration of Culture and Tourism