Date: Wednesday 24 April 2024
Time: 12:15 (Malta time)
Venue: MKS414, Level 4, MAKS Building, University of Malta, Msida Campus
Speaker: Dr Nicole Talmacs
Programme
- 12:15 - “Lights, camera, action!” China’s film industry at home and abroad
Speaker: Dr Nicole Talmacs - Hosted by the Department of Media & Communications, Faculty of Media & Knowledge Sciences
- 13:00 - Q&A session/informal discussion
Admission is free, but kindly reserve a place by sending an email.
Light refreshments will be served.
Abstract
China’s film industry is the second largest in the world. In contrast to Hollywood, the world’s largest film industry, however, China’s film market is sustained by its domestic demand. Accordingly, over the past decade, China has given great effort to increasing its cinema presence around the world in a variety of ways: export, co-production and investment in foreign cinema production. The potential that China’s population presents, likewise, has during this time also attracted foreign filmmakers to projects and opportunities that give them access to the lucrative Chinese market. Yet the success of these film initiatives has been mixed. Not only have Chinese commercial films failed to gain significant traction outside of China, but also co-produced films make little impact at the box office. The question is why? This talk summarises the outcomes of focus groups hosted with audiences in Australia, the UK, America, Zambia, Ethiopia, India and Kazakhstan (areas of strategic interest to China with a particular focus on the BRI) to understand what are the challenges Chinese films face in resonating with foreign audiences, but also, where improvements could be made in the Chinese State's strategy to use cinema as a means of cultural exchange and soft power abroad.
Speaker’s Profile
Dr Nicole Talmacs is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Media and Communications (University of Malta). She is the author of China’s Cinema of Class: Audiences and Narratives (Routledge, 2017), co-editor of the volume The China Question: Contestations and Adaptations (Palgrave, 2022), and co-editor of the volume Communications in Contemporary China: Orchestrating Thinking (Routledge, 2023). Her publications on Chinese communications can be found in journals Feminist Media Studies, Journal of Asian and African Studies and Media International Australia.
