Ausfilm in partnership with the Australian Embassy Beijing and Village Roadshow Pictures Asia (VRPA) welcomed this week a delegation of leading Chinese filmmakers to Sydney for their first stop on an Industry Familiarisation Tour of Australian locations, Australia’s four major studio complexes, screen services companies, post and sound production facilities and visual effects studios across six states.
Debra Richards, CEO of Ausfilm says that whilst there are already Australian screen businesses and producers working with Chinese filmmakers “we would like to see business and creative opportunities increase between our two countries and this familiarisation program aims to facilitate this. Filmmakers from Village Roadshow Pictures Asia, Perfect World Pictures, Tang Media Capital and HeYi Pictures all have exciting projects that are seeking potential Australian locations or post-production and visual effects services.”
Ms Richards explained that Screen NSW, Screen Queensland, Film Victoria, Screen West, the South Australian Film Corporation and Screen Tasmania are also supporting the tour and will showcase their states through assistance with location scouting, and facilitation of introductions to leading Australian screen businesses. The delegation’s trip to Australia is intended to build links between Chinese and Australian government screen agencies such as Screen Australia and both countries’ screen industries to encourage more Australia-China feature film co-productions, and attract Chinese feature film productions to film and complete their post-production and visual effects in Australia. Richards added that this initiative follows on from the successful inaugural familiarisation program held last year, a result of the six-year collaboration between Ausfilm and the Australian Embassy in Beijing, built through the now-annual Australia-China Film Industry Exchange. The initiative is once again being co-sponsored by Village Roadshow Pictures Asia, with Ellen Eliasoph, President & CEO of VRPA, joining the tour in Australia.
“It’s our great privilege and pleasure to serve as a bridge between the leading filmmakers of China and Australia” remarked Ellen Eliasoph. “Remarkable results are achieved when the creative talents and craftsmen of the two industries join together on film and television projects.”