The Chinese film market is thriving not only in terms of Hollywood movies. The children segment is also a box-office gold mine as evidenced by the $41 million earning over a weekend showing of Japanese anime “Your Name” in early December 2016.
CICAF 2017 in Hangzhou
Among the movie industry activities organized is the yearly China International Cartoon and Animation Festival which in 2017 would be held in Hangzhou on April 26-28. Children’s Media Conference is organizing and producing two conference sessions at the CICAF.
The festival, a government-supported event, draw online platform operators, broadcasters and producers of animation in China. Besides being behind two conference sessions, CMC tapped Alice Webb, director of BBC North and BBC Children’s to be the keynote speaker at CICAF. She would explain BBC’s plan in facing the digital challenge that young audience pose, C21 Media reported.
To participate in a panel on relationships with Chinese partners are Oliver Dumont, managing director of eOne Family and eOne Licensing, Helen Howells, joint managing director of HoHo Entertainment and Jean-Philippe Randisi, CEO if Zodiak Kids. Also joining the panel is Sarah Baynes, CEO of Creative Garden, a consultancy, and deputy chair of the CMC advisory group.
The British Department for International Trade supports the UK delegation to the CICAF as part of the UK government’s strategy to expand in the Chinese market children’s entertainment business. The event is expected to create more solid foundations for the bridge between China and UK, Greg Childs, CMC editorial director, said.
CICAF Bans South Koreans from Participating
Meanwhile, as part of the ongoing Hallyu ban by China because of the THAAD deployment, organizers of CICAF told the Korea Creative Content Agency it could not set up a pavilion at the festival. Violation of China’s fire safety laws similar to what caused the suspension of operations of a large number of Lotte Mart stores in China was cited by the festival organizers is rejecting the KOCCA which planned to promote titles from 27 Korean animation companies, Yonhap News reported.