Chinese Art House Movies Facing Financing Challenges

Some Chinese art house movies like the recent film "The Piano in the Factory" have won several prizes at international movie festivals, although they haven't fared well at home and their domestic box office earnings have been quite sluggish. Many moviemakers say one reason for the lack of the films' popularity is the difficulty of obtaining financial support for art house movies in China.

Let's take a closer look with our reporter Liu Min.

The recent art house movie "The Piano in The Factory" won several major prizes, at this year's Shanghai International Film Festival and the Best Actor Award at last year's Tokyo International Film Festival. The film also won prizes and received recognition at renowned film festivals in Miami, Sydney and Hong Kong.

Now "The Piano in The Factory" is playing on big screens in Chinese cinemas nationwide during the summer holidays. But Gao Jun, Manager of the New Film Association, a major movie theater management company based in Beijing, says, art house movies cannot compete with commercial films.

"Summer vacation is a period when commercial blockbusters explode on the domestic market. So during this time, art house movies are much less competitive compared to the commercial ones. Given this, why don't they choose the winter season for their debuts just like the movie 'Buddha Mountain' chose to hit screens last March?"

Art house movies in China are usually regarded as weaker box office competitors compared to commercial blockbusters because of lower expectations about their moneymaking ability. This has made it more difficult for art house movie producers to obtain initial financial investments for their projects. Take the movie "The Piano in The Factory" for example. The movie's producer secured 6 million yuan as a start, but later an investor who had pledged additional funds didn't come through.

Eventually, the crew found themselves down to their last 47 yuan. Movie producer Gan Huiyin explains why the film crew encountered so many difficulties in obtaining funding.

"The theme of the movie does not cater to all viewers since it is a bit like an art house movie. Zhang Mang is also a new director in the industry, unlike Zhang Yimou or Feng Xiaogang. Our best actor was not a renowned actor. That's why the initial financing was quite difficult."

Many movie investors believe that investing in art house movies carries high risk because of the films' limited profit-generating abilities. These movies usually receive little copyright income and lack overseas distribution channels. They must rely primarily on domestic box office sales for any profit.

This can be another obstacle, as domestic cinema chains usually place priority on high box office revenue, thereby neglecting art house movies.Gao Jun from the New Film Association says:

"Before 2010, art house movies in China equaled low box office earnings. There have been numerous good films that have received prizes overseas but generated little profit domestically. The movie 'Buddha Mountain' did have a good performance, making 80 million yuan at the box office. Many people started to believe that a spring in domestic art house movies was yet to come. But as commercial movie theater operators, we haven't yet seen the spring-only heard the prelude."

Many art house filmmakers say it's still quite challenging to focus on producing such movies in China at the moment. But they also believe the market's future will be positive as the country's film industry has experienced a rapid boom in recent years and will be generating various demand from different viewers in the future.

For CRI, I'm Liu Min.