Internet giants move from behind the camera to front

[Photo/China Daily]

With their stake holding, Internet giants have walked from the backstage to the front.

Alibaba Pictures, the film arm of China's largest e-commerce giant, Alibaba, has kicked off its second movie project to shoot Sansheng Sanshi Shili Taohua (Ten-Mile Peach Blossom of Three Lifetimes) earlier this month, following its first movie, The Ferryman. Both titles are adapted from namesake hit online novels, which have established solid fan bases during the past years.

Baidu's film unit, the video-streaming website iQiyi, announced it would make seven Chinese movies and one Hollywood title last July. With an online box office totaling 50 million yuan last year, iQiyi has shown its increasing presence during the festival in several upcoming big-budget films, such as the crime thriller Lost in White, partly financed by iQiyi and featuring A-list stars Tony Leung Ka Fai and Tong Dawei.

Yu says that the Internet giants have established an online commercial system, including crowdfunding, to raise money, making use of big data to calculate the possibilities of turning fans' enthusiasm to ticket sales, and getting back the investment from online services.

"It forms a closed ring. The only sector for us (traditional film studios) to survive and struggle is the creativity part," he says.

Cai Shangjun, a veteran director and a jury member of the festival's Golden Goblet Awards, tells China Daily that a good storyline is always the most important element.

"The really good tales cannot be designed by computer programs. The real beauty is emotional," he says.

Defining the core of a film festival as "exchange of thoughts" and "inspiring talent", Zhang Hongsen, director general of the film administration affiliated with the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television, says "good works are always the only standard to judge movies" at the forum.

Even Internet insiders find it hard to reject this notion.