The 5th Sino-European Production Seminar hosted by Bridging the Dragon in partnership with the European Film Market took place successfully on February 13. More than 90 producers from Europe attended the seminar. The increased number of participants compared to previous years shows the growing interest in the Chinese film market. For the second year in a row we had the pleasure to have Miao Xiaotian from CFCC (China Film Co-production Corporation) who gave an encouraging opening speech.

In the morning, Bridging the Dragon's project manager Zhang Fan presented the latest trends of the Chinese market; Road Pictures CEO Cai Gongming discussed with moderator Patrick Frater from Variety his marketing strategies in the successful release of last year's Cannes winner Shoplifters and the new distribution landscape in China for European films; American lawyer Stephen Saltzman, who has been consulting major mainland distributors for years, discussed the recent slowdown in the industry relationships between the US and China.

Several roundtable discussions in the afternoon gave participants an opportunity for in-depth talks with experts in different fields. French producer Franck Priot from the production company Ghosts City spoke about his experience in line producing Crocodile and Toothpick Bird which is so far the biggest Chinese TV series in France. Chen Lizhi from Beijing-based Spire Media which collaborated on Zhang Yimou's film Shadow covered the theme of story development with a Chinese audience in mind. Taiwanese producer Patrick Huang from Flash Forward Entertainment who had two films selected in this year's festival elaborated on the challenges of co-productions.