The opening of the very first Moscow International Film Week has been of great interest to the Chinese Entertainment interest as eight Chinese films are set be screened at the event which runs until Wednesday.
‘Born to Fly’, ‘Chang’an’, and ‘Mozart from Space’ are the the headlining movies at the event which opened on Friday at the Moscow’s Khudozhestvenny Cinema, which is one of Moscow’s oldest movie theaters.
Now, Russia and China are working together in a number of areas in film, and The Central Partnership is now working with the China Film Group on a release of a Russian version of ‘Wizard of Oz’ which will receive a bigger release in China.
“Titles like Born to Fly and The Battle of Lake Changjin have represented the development of China’s strong film industry. The quality of Chinese movies is rising higher and higher. It’s getting much better,” Vadim Vereshchagin, CEO of distributor Central Partnership said, in an interview with the Global Times.
Vereshchagin says he wants to “eventually try to do something together with our partners in terms of either co-production or widen the possibilities of distribution” and said that the film industry in both China and Russia are relatively young – “We’re pretty much on the same tracks, but these tracks have not yet properly crossed each other.”
It will be all about fit for the two countries in collaborating on projects as Vereshchagin pointed out that “finding the right project, finding the right stories, it is tough.”
“One of our big successes so far in China was a movie called 3 Seconds about the Soviet basketball team. That was a huge success.”
“I’m a believer in Russian films. Not because I just simply believe, it’s just because I know I started my career working for Hollywood. I worked for Paramount; I worked for Universal; I worked for Disney and Sony,” he added.
“We can take risks and we can make better movies like The Wizard of Oz.”
“The number one movie was not always an American hit. With these particular genres, including sci-fi and superheroes, it’s possible to reach the hearts of audiences all over the world,” he said.
