Vadim Vereshchagin Photo: Xu Liuliu/GT
People were queuing outside Moscow's Khudozhestvenny Cinema,
the city's and one of the world's oldest movie theaters, for the opening of the first Moscow International Film Week on Friday night.
The ceremony featured the Russian premiere of the Indian film Laapataa Ladies. Eight Chinese films, including Born to Fly, Chang'an and Mozart from Space, will be screened across the city for the film week, which runs until Wednesday.
"Titles like Born to Fly and The Battle of Lake Changjin have represented the development of China's strong film industry. The quality of Chinese movies is rising higher and higher. It's getting much better," Vadim Vereshchagin, CEO of distributor Central Partnership and also a renowned producer, told the Global Times after the film week's opening.
The Central Partnership is the leading distributor of Russian and foreign films in Russia and the leading distributor of Russian films abroad. During the various programs at the film week, it will meet with partners from a number of countries, including China, in search of collaboration opportunities.
The producer aims to "eventually try to do something together with our partners in terms of either co-production or widen the possibilities of distribution."
The film industry in China is still very young, the same as Russia's. "We're pretty much on the same tracks, but these tracks have not yet properly crossed each other."
As the ways of thinking are different between the two countries, "finding the right project, finding the right stories, it is tough." While comedies are big in China, Russian comedies don't perform that well due to cultural differences. However, there are dramas that have seen success in the country.
"One of our big successes so far in China was a movie called 3 Seconds about the Soviet basketball team. That was a huge success."
Vadim Vereshchagin Photo: Xu Liuliu/GT
The Central Partnership is now working with the China Film Group on releasing a Russia-made Wizard of Oz, which is set to get a big release in China.
"I'm a believer in Russian films. Not because I just simply believe, it's just because I know I started my career working for Hollywood. I worked for Paramount; I worked for Universal; I worked for Disney and Sony," the producer added.
In the past few years, Russian filmmakers and producers have achieved a lot on their own, presenting new stories and working with new technologies. "When Hollywood studios decided to leave Russia, they just shot themselves in their feet," Vereshchagin said.
As big Hollywood blockbusters used to capture the hearts of Russian audiences, "Why would you ever wanna get out of a market with 130 million people that are ready to watch Hollywood films?"
However, that provided an opportunity for Russian audiences and the Russian film industry. "It allowed us as producers to take much bigger risks, financial risks of making something that we've never ever done before," he noted.
In the past, Russian producers had to look around for a particular time for release dates as "there were like tons of Marvel movies."
Now, the market is wide open as the same audiences are ready to watch Russian movies. "We can take risks and we can make better movies like The Wizard of Oz."
"The number one movie was not always an American hit. With these particular genres, including sci-fi and superheroes, it's possible to reach the hearts of audiences all over the world," he said, noting that Russia and China for sure can work together on a project that would suit the tastes of audiences in both countries.
