The 69th Berlin International Film Festival is drawing to a close, ORI’s trip to the event has been successfully concluded today with all the conversations have continued. Expanding international co-production is the major task of ORI this year in Berlin. Through exhibiting at EFM, attending the official activities such as Berlinale Co-production Market and Bridging the Dragon Sino-European Project Lab, ORI is vigorously promoting a number of co-production projects, such as HOCKY KING, RETURN 2 – FREE SEAN, and ODRI. The growth potential of Chinese film market has attracted the attention of more and more international industrial players in recent years, which has brought a new opportunity for international co-production. We look forward to gathering the excellent creation and production talents and powers all over the world in the future through the format of co-production, to create more beautiful titles.

At the invitation of China Merchants Shekou Industrial Zone Holdings Co., Ltd (CMSK), the delegation of ORI GROUP led by Mr. Feng QIAN, the President, visited CMSK Headquartered in Shekou, Shenzhen on February 8th, and talked about the positive cooperation between two parties during the meeting. Mr. QIAN and the delegation visited i-Factory, CMSK Exhibition Center, Sea World Culture and Arts Center, Net Valley, NH E-Cool and other demonstration parks that showcase the unique “Port-Park-City” mode and corporate culture. At 4pm the same day, a business meeting was held. Mr. QIAN, President of Ori Group, Mr. Gang SHANG, General Manager of CMSK, and Ms Jin GUO, Deputy General Manager of CMSK, gave talks about respective business segments, operation overview, strategic planning, and development plans. Seven important topics were presented and intensively discussed between the two parties, covering animation IP development, animation tourism, animation industrial park and etc. ORI’s strong inventive capability in IP development and unparalleled international cooperation network resources were well-recognized by CMSK and hence paved the way for further partnership. In the near future, based on both parties’ deep expertise in respective industries, core competencies and competitive advantages, ORI and CMSK will seek closer collaboration in animation crossover projects to promote Chinese animation, improve China’s cultural confidence, and to contribute to international cultural cooperation. CMSK is a flagship subsidiary under the China Merchants Group, a leading state-owned enterprise with three pillar business, industrial park development and operation, residential community development and operation, and cruise industry development and operation. By the end of 2018, the total asset of China Merchants Group reached $1200 Billion USD with a net annual profit of $25 billion USD, ranked No.1 among all Central Government owned Enterprises. Ori Group enters a new era in 2019 with a strategic mission to explore cross-industry collaboration. Animation & tourism, film and series & multi-platform, culture & capital, are ORI’s three core business elements, which facilitates ORI in international business development and global strategic management. The visit to CMSK signifies ORI’s attempts to explore cross-industry collaboration and dedication to making a fundamental breakthrough.

The weeklong AFM (American Film Market) will draw to an end on November 7th. This film market is as important as EFM (European Film Market) under Berlinale, and the Marche Du Film under Cannes International Film Festival, which attracts thousands of Producers, Sales Agents, Distributors and filmmakers every year to gather in the famous coastal city Santa Monica, LA, California, and discuss film rights cooperation. ORI GROUP exhibited at AFM this year with its ocean and pool view office at Loews 502. The line up of this AFM including RETURN, RISE OF THE LEGEND, has got affirmed from international counterparts, especially the hand-drawn animated feature film RETURN, which has garnered heaps of praise with its exquisite animation and epic storyline. During the market, ORI discussed multiple films’ international distribution with distributors from different territories, and has reached four co-production intentions on animation and live-action films meanwhile. Furthermore, ORI paid its visit to the Hollywood major Paramount and the biggest global VOD platform Netflix, and reached intentions for future cooperation. In recent years, through the operation of a number of international projects, ORI has integrated the market resources and networks both at home and abroad, and perfected the global layout from point to area with remarkable results achieved. Meanwhile, ORI has frequently showed up in the A level international film festivals like Berlinale, Locarno, Cannes, which has improved its brand image and influence, and also won a good reputation in the industry. ORI will continue to go ahead steadily and surely in the future, further promoting the cultural exchanges and cooperation between China and foreign countries via Film & TV projects.

The 4th Bridging the Dragon Sino-European Project Lab announced the selections recently, the CGI animated feature film HOCKEY KING presented by ORI ANIMATION broke the siege, being selected successfully. HOCKEY KING tells a story about dream. Born in a traditional ice-hockey family, 12-year-old Robbie is addicted to online hockey games. In order to help his friend Joyce realize his dream of becoming an ice-hockey player, Robbie finally gets out of the virtual world and joins the real ice-hockey competition. Bridging the Dragon Sino-European Project Lab is a content incubation platform between China and Europe built on the base of a producers association called Bridging the Dragon, which is praised as “think tank of China-EU cooperation”. The lab once invited senior specialists of the industry like Cao Baoping and Yan Geling to be the mentors and guests. The 4th BTD Lab collected more than 120 outstanding film ideas all over the world, while 10 Chinese projects and 9 European projects were successfully selected in the end. For selected projects, they are invited to the modules organized by the lab, the first module will be in Beijing at the end of 2018 while the second one will be organized during the European accredited film festival at the beginning of 2019, and they will be advised by high-profile tutors one-on-one. In recent years, ORI devoted in promoting international exchange and cooperation in the film industry, keeping following the creative principle of “Tell Chinese stories which can be understood by foreigners which happen to be the universal stories can be accepted by Chinese”. ORI has formed its distinctive international cooperation rules and creative mode, and has achieved a series of remarkable results. For being involved in the 4th BTD Lab, HOCKEY KING will help ORI further break up the cultural barriers among the Sino-European cooperation in the Film industry, to expand the copyright trading and cooperation between China and Europe, thus moving toward a larger international market.

MIPCOM 2018 kicked off in Cannes on October 15th which last for 4 days in total, ORI GROUP exhibited at the event and had deep conversations on business like sales and co-productions with different partners. RISE OF THE LEGEND, WORLD CUP OF ASSASSIN, RETURN, HAKIM & KONG XIAOXI and other titles got affirmed from international counterparts with diversified art styles, plenty of subjects, trustful quality and open cooperation idea. MIPCOM 2018 has attracted almost 14,000 professional players from over 110 countries this year with China as the Country of Honor. After MIPCOM, the international team of ORI GROUP will continue to visit partners to follow up the projects signed before even without a stop. We will enhance the communication with international media organizations in the future, promote more diversified and deeper cooperation, develop and produce excellent contents together so as to better spread the Chinese traditional culture and strengthen cross-culture communication between the east and the west.