Chinese, Canadian filmmakers team up at film festival

The film industry of China and Canada can complement and learn from each other as China has become the world's fastest growing movie market, experts said at a Canadian film festival.

Chinese movies were moving quickly towards the global market, Chinese film producer Hu Bo said at the Whistler Film Festival in Canada's west coast ski resort of Whistler.

Experts predicted China would soon overtake the United States as the world's largest film market. Considering China's market and Canada's expertise, Hu said China and Canada can complement and learn from each other.

Since its modest start in 2001, the festival has screened more than 960 films and raised over 13 million Canadian dollars (11 million U.S. dollars) from investors to fund new film projects.

A key part of the festival over the last three years was the China-Canada Gateway Film competition, which brings 12 of Canada's best filmmakers with a trio of China's top film producers and financiers.

Organizers said the goal of the competition was to take these movies to the big screen at film festivals like this, or turn out to be the next international blockbuster.

The Whistler Film Festival kicked off on Wednesday and will wrap up on Sunday.