Asia to have subtle market influence

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Market Feature

As the Marché du Film opens for business today it is not clear yet whether this is a strong or a weak edition for Asian companies.

According to data from the Cannes market there was a 9% increase in registered participants this year with the strongest growth coming from Asia and Latin America. That growth is also reflected in expanded buyer numbers.

On the other hand, the festival selections are generally light on Asian films. There are just two competition slots for Asian films this year, both South Korean productions. A handful of Japanese and Chinese films have less prestigious out-of-competition slots. There is notably one Indian film apiece in Un Certain Regard, Directors' Fortnight and Critics' Week, representing the strongest Cannes presence for the subcontinent in many years.

In the run up to Cannes the attention has been on the heavyweight participation of US titles in the festival and the raft of new, well-financed sales companies, headed by experienced production-finance bosses. Asia has not seen equivalent new sales company launches before the market, though recent developments in China have the potential to influence the cinema business around the world.

These include the resurrection of Legendary East Ltd, the emergence of Bruno WU 吳徵's Seven Stars group as an East-West straddling production finance bridge, News Corp's purchase of a 20% stake in Bona Film Group Ltd 博納影業集團有限公司 and the rumoured purchase by Dalian Wanda Group Co Ltd 大連萬達集團股份有限公司 of a piece of AMC Entertainment Inc, North America's number two cinema chain.

These events suggest that the Asian cinema industry, and the Chinese industry in particular, are running on a somewhat different timetable to forces shaping the indie sales business – one reason that Indian films rarely make it to festivals is that producers often favour commercial releases over festival slots which open their films to piracy and untimely reviews. Similarly, at least one Chinese film that many assumed would be in the Cannes festival is heading for a domestic premiere and the huge potential rewards that may bring.

The highest profile Asian films with starry junkets during Cannes — Wuershan 烏爾善's Painted Skin: The Resurrection 畫皮Ⅱ, Jay SUN 孫健君's Switch 天機　富春山居圖 and Jackie CHAN 成龍's CZ12 十二生肖 — have previously been launched locally. The three Chinese productions are using Cannes to promote the films to international media, but also as part of their domestic marketing campaigns. Skin opens in China next month, with Switch and Zodiac going head-to-head in December, one of the key seasons for local films.

Given the continuing resilience of audience appetites in Asia — reflected in the continued growth of the exhibition sector in several key territories — it seems likely that there will be significant numbers of films acquired this week for release by Asian distributors. In China and Japan, Asia now includes the world's number two and three film markets. The tastes of Chinese audiences may not be reflected in the Cannes selection, but they will become a deciding factor in which high-profile international films will be greenlit and available to Cannes in the coming years.

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