As Cannes 2025 is soon approaching, this article summarises our contribution to the French film festival’s cultural economy this year and in general.

My first official Cannes experience started in the year of 2019, when the NGO began as a one-year R&D project funded by the UK Research and Innovation (equivalent to the European Research Council).

The journeys have always been in parallel, despite the reality of Brexit.

The launch of the UK-China Film Collab was somewhat visionary, as some commented. There is nothing like this NGO in the world, to do things the way we do. Known as disruptive, out of the box, we are unlike a traditional film company and we often struggle to be comprehended by stakeholders.

What do we do? Many ask. We are not a traditional film council, we are not a typical sales agent, we are not a traditional production company, however, we do cover many functions in the film sector with a unique specialism.

Under the NGO’s umbrella mission (to inspire and invent film related conversation, constructive debate and collaboration between the UK and Greater China), we:

Develop and produce films

Have our own film festival (Odyssey)

Distribute and exhibition films that respond to our mission

Improve communication by writing exclusive commentaries, reviews, news coverages

Train talents, provide tailored vocational and higher education

Design original projects to collaborate with different stakeholders

Research and development for spin-off business/enterprise

Do consultancy and policy briefing

Host and facilitate executive business or diplomatic meetings

Broker collaboration and business deal

In fact, several European countries and their relevant departments have been in touch throughout the years, to enquire whether the model we have created in the UK can be duplicated in the EU, and if so, how?

Our curiosity remains open.

Cannes film festival is one of our main annual activities to stay connected with Europe.

While the UK has a vibrant space for cultural innovation, when it comes to the spectacle as an international showcase stage, Cannes is still the place to go. As I wrote in my article last year, that the festival is a very popular destination for Chinese students who study film or art related subjects in the UK. 

As part of our training programme, we continue to feed the next generations to the French film festival across all types of accreditation.

Despite the NGO’s obvious name, we are committed to generating impact beyond a biliteral context, but multilateral. So far, we have directly brought inspirations to countries outside of the UK and China with our initiatives, they include UEA, Georgia, Poland, Malaysia and Korea, just to name a few.

We continue to improve by learning from good practices done by our European friends. For examples, France, Germany, Spain, Italy and recently Switzerland have been used as case studies to support our advocacy toward the UK. Obviously, France is the top player of the cinema game, even in China. It was the French that ‘lured’ me into this game, after attending several fully funded annual French film festivals in Hong Kong as a teenager before my departure to the UK in early 2000s.

In the past five years, we have been building up reciprocity for UK stakeholders, when they are ready to engage with the Chinese market, we are here to support.

Our European friends have always been useful ‘examples’ for us to refer back to, literally and in action. Therefore, Cannes plays a vital role for what we do and in return, we hope that the team at Cannes can understand our missions too, grassroots.

Full Attendance List 2025

This year, we are proud to attend the 78th Cannes international film festival in a group of 9 people.

Press Accreditation

Lou Cai, Member & Senior Film Journalist and Reviewer
lou.cai@ukchinafilm.uk

Hiu Man Chan, Founder & Director

Festival Accreditation

Chris Lau, Honoury Member, Co-Lead Creator of Odyssey 2024

Market Accreditation

Jiali Hou, via De Montfort University x UCFC, Producer Assistant (to Hiu Man Chan)

Shu Yu, via De Montfort University x UCFC, Acquisition Assistant (to Hiu Man Chan)

Hiu Man Chan, Founder & Director (exec. producer, film festival director, NGO management)

Cinephile

Jess Shi, Member, accreditation via National Film & Television School

Sicun Wu, Member, accreditation via University of Cambridge

Yilin Tan, Non-member, accreditation via London Film School (International Film Business MA dissertation student of Hiu Man Chan)

Observer 

Zoe Xu, Member, Film Journalist & Reviewer
zoe.xu@ukchinafilm.uk

Asma Waheed, Member, Policy Researcher
asma.waheed@ukchinafilm.uk

Other stories 

For those who have been attending Cannes film festival and its market for some time would know that we always see familiar faces.

In a way, I’d say we help to ‘create’ familiar faces. Many of our talents would go on to set up their own company or festival after our training and attending Cannes with us the year after. Thanks to the system of Marche du Film, it helps us to track down how many of our trained talents return to the festival via their own film start-up.

Successful examples include Mint Chinese Film Festival and Animal Nature Future Film Festival, both UK based. I am certain, they will also bring their own team as they continue to expand.

Dear Cannes, see you very soon.

Yours.