Houston film festival stands out to Chinese partners

Ray Jiang (left), chairman of Panorama China, welcomes Chinese actor Lu Qi (center), who played Deng Xiaoping in The Compact Density of Stone, to the 49th WorldFest-Houston International Film Festival in April this year. MAY ZHOU/ CHINA DAILY

The WorldFest-Houston International Film Festival must be doing something right.

Through a connection with Dream River Studio, the festival recently reached a strategic agreement with CITIC Juxin (Beijing) Capital Management Co Ltd (CITIC Juxin) to promote film projects between the US and China, according to Ray Jiang, chairman of Panorama China, a component of WorldFest.

Hunter Todd, founder and president of WorldFest, said he's excited to welcome the five-year agreement and sponsorship.

"They have reviewed all the film festivals in the world, from Cannes to Berlin to Venice to Sundance; they discovered to their pleasure that WorldFest was the most significant one to represent Chinese cinema with a dedicated section in the world," Todd said.

Todd started Panorama China three years ago when he noticed a change in the film industry: "First, Wanda bought AMC. I thought that was interesting. Then I read in the Hollywood newspaper Variety that Chinese film budgets and box offices exceeded Hollywood's. I said to myself that we have to take notice of this very important section of films, and that's why I started Panorama China."

The founder of WorldFest also professed that he loves Chinese culture: "My great-great aunt traveled to China through steamboat. When I was a child, she would tell me about her trips to Shanghai and Beijing and show me Chinese artifacts she collected. They are more than 200-year-old artifacts, such as silk ceremonial robes and sculptures in jade and stone. I was raised in an atmosphere to appreciate Chinese art," Todd said.

CITIC Juxin is a subsidiary of CITIC Trust, an equity investment group managing 60 billion RMB in assets in Beijing. Dream Studio is the operator of Panorama China, a program under WorldFest.

Jiang, also founder and president of Dream River Studio, said that under the agreement, Panorama China will expand from this year's 20 films to 30 at the 2017 WorldFest in April.

Thanks to the success of the last festival, WorldFest already has received more than 200 entries from China for 2017, doubling the last festival's entries.

"With this financial backing, we will establish a foundation to attract talent and help the Chinese film industry to go global," Jiang said.

In addition, a forum on US-China film investment opportunities and filmmaking is also being planned for the 2017 WorldFest, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary.

Other plans include holding a film festival in Beijing.

Jiang said that WorldFest, through long-term cooperation with the six major Hollywood studios, has acquired a wealth of award-winning films and scripts during the past 50 years.

It is also the film festival where Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Ang Lee and other world-renowned directors first stood out.

"This agreement marks the strong move forward because it means we can increase the spotlight of Chinese cinema; we can make it a bigger and better event.

mayzhou@chinadailyusa.com