Companies
Houston film festival stands out to Chinese partners
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…
China
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