State-owned China Film Group announced a slew of sales and co-production deals on the last day of the four-day Beijing Screenings (Oct 18-21).

The largest announcement was a co-operation agreement between China Film, Columbia TriStar, Korea's CJ Entertainment and two Hong Kong companies - Media Asia and Emperor Motion Pictures - to jointly develop young filmmaking talent in China.

Columbia, CJ and the two Hong Kong companies have agree to co-produce around five projects each with China Film over a period of five years. Each of the selectedfilmmakers will be encouraged to make second and third films, if the first one recoups, with progressively higher budgets.

China Film also announced that Japanese distributor Focus Pictures has signed adeal memoto acquire Zhuang Yuxin's Teeth Of Love, one of the films that was presented to overseas buyers during the Beijing Screenings programme.

The film, which follows the love stories of a Beijing woman through three stages of her life, picked up three awards at the recent Xian Qujiang Film Festival for New Talents.

Meanwhile, France's Tang Media signeda deal memoto acquire French rights to documentary Yuanmingyuan Park , while Champs Lis International did the same for Wang Wei'sTapu, a drama about an ex-soldier trying to get into college.

In addition, China Film signed an agreementwith Hong Kong-based Wafe International Cultural Entertainment to help withdistribution of its product in South-East Asia.

Held at the Grand Hyatt and adjacent Broadway Star City multiplex, the Beijing Screenings were well attended by international buyers and festival programmers. China Film's export arm, China Film Promotion International, also unveiled an English-language web-site [www.cfpi.com.cn] during the event as part of its drive to become more proactive in marketing Chinese productions abroad.

Delegates were also treated to a sneak peek of China Film's new digital production base in the northern suburb of Huairou.

Although there isn't much to see at this point, beyond cavernous sound stages covered in bamboo scaffolding, the facility looks set to be one of the largest in Asia. When completed, it will feature 16 sound stages, one of which is 5,000 square metres, in addition to post-production, wardrobes and props, and optical disc manufacturing facilities.

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