Ukraine Is Your Destination! The key work streams of Ukrainian national stand in Beijing

The opening ceremony of the 8th Beijing International Film Festival will take place on April 15. And on April 18 the Ukrainian National Stand, organized by the joint efforts of Ukrainian State Film Agency and Ukrainian Motion Picture Association, will begin its work on the film market for the first time ever.

Ukraine will be present in the Asian region on a market of such level with the national stand for the first time, so the main goal of the Ukrainian delegation to the Beijing Film Market will be to maximize the effectiveness of presenting the achievements and opportunities of the entire Ukrainian film industry to potential partners from Asia and other parts of the world, as well as establishing tight contacts with representatives of Chinese film industry. The delegation will be headed by the Executive Director of Ukrainian Motion Picture Association and the Advisor to the Minister of Culture of Ukraine Victoria Yarmoshchuk and First Deputy Chairman of State Film Agency Sergey Neretin.

The Film Market is one of the main events of the Beijing Film Festival, an important platform for exchanging experiences and finding partners in the Asian region. According to the festival organizers, more than 200 participants have registered this year. In addition to local ones, companies from the USA, the UK, Australia, Japan, Israel and other countries take part in the market.

#UkraineIsYourDestination will become the traditional slogan, calling for the cooperation with international colleagues. The information on the Ukrainian film industry will be presented at the stand in special catalogues of Ukrainian film producers and Ukrainian films for 2017/2018 year (ready-made and in production), as well as in other promotional materials that will demonstrate the production potential of Ukraine. Especially for the audience of the Beijing International Film Festival a presentation “Discover Ukraine” in Chinese language was developed.

The Beijing Film Festival programme combines a range of forums and industry-specific events for market professionals. So, the Ukrainian delegation's participation in the Industry Conversations events is planned as part of the film market and participation in thematic sections of the separate event of the festival – Theme Forum. One of the sections – the Sino-Foreign Film Co-production Forum – is dedicated to issues of co-production, ways of development and strengthening of partnership between Chinese and foreign companies.

“The first ever presence of Ukraine on the Beijing International Film Festival – Film Market is an important step that will facilitate the entering of Ukrainian film projects the South-East Asian market. This is crucial for expanding the geography of international cooperation between Ukrainian filmmakers and foreign professionals,” – said Chairman of the Ukrainian State Film Agency Philip Illienko.

It is worth mentioning that negotiations on film co-production and cooperation between the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine and the Government of the People's Republic of China are underway.

“For Ukraine, the opportunity to have such a promising and powerful partner as China is an important step for the development of the national film industry. The work of the Ukrainian National Stand in Beijing will not only facilitate the expansion of partner relations in the Asian region, but will also help to identify further steps and finalize the procedure for signing the official Cooperation Agreement in the field of film industry between our countries,” – commented Executive Director of the Ukrainian Motion Picture Association Victoria Yarmoshchuk.

Follow the news on the official Facebook pages of the Ukrainian Motion Picture Association and Ukrainian State Film Agency.

For more information, please contact Anna Volkova via +38 067 963 68 37 or email avolkova@mpa.org.ua.