Last month, we posted about the iffy state of film and television production credits in the United States. You might assume that the recent boom of China’s film industry has created a new market for incentives overseas, but evidently, the purse strings are tight there as well.
Although major Hollywood “co-productions” like Iron Man 3 and the most recent Transformers movie receiving full support, The New York Times reports that young aspiring filmmakers in China have trouble finding funding and support for their work. Many of the Times‘s interviewees attest that there is a large market for films by and for younger audiences, but few distributors and festival organizers seem interested in tapping that vein. Films by first-time directors are less commercially enticing than Transformers, and the filmmakers responsible often don’t have the professional experience necessary to make their case for funding.
The article also dives into the interesting generational structure used to describe Chinese film history, and that’s certainly at play in young Chinese filmmakers’ struggles for attention and success.
China may be on track to become the world’s largest film market by 2018, but their independent filmmakers still face the same challenges as our SOC grads.