Asia tipped to drive film collaboration on co-produced content with diverse culture

Globalization has seen more international collaborations than ever before in the movie industry but experts believe that Asia will drive the next wave of co-produced content thanks to the region's diverse arts, culture, and opportunities.

Charlene Paling, deputy head and senior vice-president for entertainment and media at the United States-based Western Alliance Bank, told China Daily that the nature of funding production for movies has not changed in about 30 years, as there had been pre-sales, minimum guarantees, and equity investors.

However, in the last 20 years, there had been "a lot of government incentives, tax incentives", she said, and collaboration on that is an area where she sees change.

"You know, multiple governments are looking at ways to work together to help the dollars go further, in this environment. So I think that is something that we're going to see a little bit more of," said Paling.

When it comes to Asian film productions looking to Canada or the US, Paling noted that she has "seen some interest", but admits it was "not as much as I thought it would be", though she attributed some of that to the COVID-19 pandemic

"I've seen a lot more collaborations coming with Australia and New Zealand," she said. "I think the next evolution is probably going to go even further and go toward collaborations with Asia."