Montreal World Film Festival makes Chinese section permanent

A special section for Chinese films will become a permanent fixture at the Montreal World Film Festival starting from this year, the festival’s president Serge Losique announced at a press conference in Beijing on Sunday.

The special section for Chinese films was first implemented as a trial in 2015. At the press conference, Losique explained that the change was made in order to help introduce Chinese culture to a larger audience.

The section will also work to find young talented filmmakers in China.

The relationship between China and the Montreal World Film Festival can be traced back to 1978. To date, nearly 600 Chinese filmmakers have taken part in the festival.

In previous years, Yellow Earth from renowned director Chen Kaige, as well as A World without Thieves and Cell Phone from Feng Xiaogang took place in the World Competition sec- tion, the main section of the festival.

Talking to the Global Times, Losique pointed out that it is important for Chinese filmmakers to promote their work globally and at mainstream festivals like Cannes if they want to enter the world market.

Losique pointed out that one of the best ways to pro- mote Chinese film overseas is for Western and Chinese investors and filmmakers to push to cast Chinese actors and actresses and make them big stars such as Brad Pitt and Jackie Chan.