Director stresses indie spirit(5)

Film poster for Jia Zhangke's A Touch of Sin. Photo provided to China Daily

Twenty-two Chinese films hit the big screens in North America in 2013 and the total boxoffice was $7.84 million, almost double 2012 ticket sales, according to m1905.com, citing figures from boxofficemojo.com, a box office tracking website with more than 2 million visitors per month. Founded in 1999, the website was acquired by IMDb.com, Inc, a subsidiary of Amazon.com.

However, $6.59 million of that was spent for The Grandmaster starring Zhang Ziyi, while the box offices of the remaining 21 added up to only $1.25 million. Lost in Thailand, a comedy whose boxoffice in the Chinese mainland was nearly 1.3 billion yuan ($208 million), made only $57,400 in North America.

Cameron Bailey, artistic director at the TIFF, admits that kung fu is still the most popular element of Chinese movies for overseas audiences because "action can be understood beyond language barriers".

But he thinks that what tripped up Lost in Thailand in the North American market was more than the difficulty of understanding comedy in a foreign language and the lack of a global star like Zhang.

"It needs much stronger promotion. Few people in North America heard about it before it was put on show," Bailey says.

"To succeed in an overseas market, a film needs to tell a story of universal values to overcome language barriers, feature global stars familiar with foreign audiences and have good promotion."

AT A GLANCE

The Toronto International Film Festival was established in 1976 and has grown from a 10day festival to a yearround project to showcase both commercial and arthouse films from around the world, support the Canadian film industry and make people love films.

The events and facilities include screening high-quality Canadian and international films in areas lagging behind in cinema facilities, a film reference library and the launch of the TIFF Kids International Film Festival for families and schools.

Unlike other international film festivals, Toronto doesn't have a jury award but an audience award. The winner is selected by film critics, media and fans.

The festival is known for its number of films on show, while many other international film festivals focus on awards.

Altogether 372 films from 72 countries were shown at the festival in 2012, attracting an audience of more than 400,000.

The TIFF hosted a grand exhibition called A Century of Chinese Cinema last year to review Chinese films in the past century, airing more than 80 Chinese films. The TIFF will take place from Sept 4 to 14 this year.