Whistler Film Festival announces China-Canada coproduction script competition

“The goal of the script competition will be to bring together experienced writers and producer teams from Canada to directly engage in a day-long public forum and pitch competition with Chinese producers and studio heads,” Sutherland said. “The goal of the competition will be to develop, from the ground up, at least three films a year over the next three years. To our knowledge, the script competition will be the first of its kind.”

The competition, established by the Whistler Film Festival Society, Telefilm Canada, and the state-run China Film Group, will provide direct access to Chinese and Canadian markets for filmmakers.

Nine to twelve filmmaking projects will be selected to be presented and pitched at the Whistler Summit, the Whistler Film Festival’s industry conference. A call for submissions will be announced in the summer.

“The entire film industry is looking for ways to connect with the Chinese market and I think that this process will do just that,” Sutherland said. “Our goal of the program is to actually make films, that work in China, that work in Canada, and that work in the international market.”

You can follow Craig Takeuchi on Twitter at twitter.com/cinecraig.