UK & China Seek Co-Pro Opportunities; BBC Studios Sets ‘Walking with Dinosaurs' iQiyi Streaming Launch For China — Filmart
At the UK-China Screen Forum held with Hong Kong's Filmart, BBC Studios unveiled that Walking with Dinosaurs will premiere exclusively on iQiyi for mainland China audiences in 2025, and a Chinese-dubbed version of nature series Asia will also launch on Phoenix Chinese Channel.
The forum, now in its fourth edition, featured a delegation from the UK's Department of Business and Trade (DBT), British Film Institute (BFI), BBC Studios, Film Export UK as well as from China's Pheonix TV and Bilibili. Organizers said that another UK-China Screen Forum will run during the BFI London Film Festival in October.
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Singapore-based Phil Hardman, executive VP and general manager of Asia at BBC Studios, highlighted how the upcoming six-part Walking with Dinosaurs series relaunches a beloved IP from 1999 from the BBC's Science Unit.
Hardman also said that the BBC's Planet Earth series, Bluey and Inside No. 9 works have all done well in China, with the company also co-producing Supertato with Tencent Video.
Rupert Daniels, Director of Creative, Services and Skills at the UK's DBT highlighted four key priorities for UK-China relations in the entertainment industries: innovate new co-productions; increase Chinese investment in UK infrastructure; harness the UK's IP in publishing, music, film, TV and immersive; and establish the UK as the partner of choice to scale businesses and collaborate.
'We've invested hugely in our production facilities, it's driven by tax dollars and this is something we actually want to encourage Chinese companies and investors to work with UK production partners on,' said Daniels.
Daniels added that under the new UK government, the creative industry was selected as one of eight top growth priorities. The UK's creative industries generate £125B ($162B) in revenue per year and forms the third largest creative services exporter in the world behind the US and Ireland. This is Daniels' first UK delegation to Filmart since the pandemic.
'From from our side in government, we have nothing to sell like the BBC, but what we have is the duty to try to make the conditions easier for everybody, so that you remove as many regulatory burdens on all sides,' said Daniels. 'For example, what I mentioned about tax credits, those are designed to create growth and are designed to open up the UK market to global co-productions.'
Daniels further stated that £4.8B ($6.2B) in UK film and TV production spend was on inward investment and co-production in 2024. A new UK Independent Film Tax Credit (IFTC), at a net rate of 39.75%, will also be available from April 1 this year to films with budgets up to £15m that meet the criteria of a new BFI UK creative practitioner test.
He emphasized that he is keen to put pen to paper on more agreements between the UK and China film industries in the near future. 'I want to turn contacts into contracts,' said Daniels, who has made business visits to Beijing and Shanghai in recent years, and will also visit Shenzhen in the coming days.
For UK film sales companies arriving in Hong Kong, genre titles have remained as the most promising area for business.
Grace Carley, chief executive of Film Export UK, which currently represents 28 companies that sell independent feature films internationally, acknowledged that it is still a very challenging environment for UK sales companies to do business in China. She pointed out that her Film Export UK delegation to Filmart has shrunk post-Covid.
'It's been very difficult to sell, particularly into China, for the last five or six years, but I think with more co-productions, partnership and collaboration, this will be more possible,' said Carley. 'Part of this comes down to the fact that China has such fantastic offerings.'
Some UK sales agents present at Filmart include Altitude, Alliance Media Partners, Film Seekers, Jinga Films, Screenbound and Kaleidoscope Film Distribution.
Carley remains hopeful that a bigger delegation will come to Filmart next year, and highlighted opportunities for both Chinese and UK companies to work together.
'It's about releasing in the UK as well — for us to have more Chinese products in the UK — that will really help us to understand what works in China,' adds Carley.
Cura Zhang, vice-general manager and head of Bilibili's factual content, said: 'We're looking forward to more collaborations between Bilibili and all kinds of production houses, broadcasters and companies around the UK to find out more internationalization possibilities. We are trying to export more Chinese content, more Bilibili content.
'We are also welcoming and importing more British content to China to satisfy our users. We have a huge demand for international content on Bilibili by the younger generation, and that is why internationalization is one of the most important targets for Bilibili in the next few years,' added Zhang.
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