Chinese Cartoon Festival Invites U.S. Participation
The Changsha Cartoon Art Festival, which serves as the Academy Awards for Chinese animation, and a growing annual gathering of international animation companies and festivals, is welcoming American participation.
Sander K. Johnson, president of International Television for Asia (ITA) and American Television in China (ATC), has been authorized by the Organizing Committee of the Changsha Cartoon Art Festival to help facilitate North American participation in the festival taking place Nov. 5-7, 2005, in Changsha, China.
Johnson will also be a guest speaker at the event, which will host leading animation festivals from America, France, Canada and Korea as well as leading international animation production companies.
In addition, Tan Zhong Chi, mayor of the Changsha municipal government, has engaged Johnson as an "honorary consultant of the Changsha cartoon industry.
The mayor added, "The festival will effectively work on establishing a platform on information exchange, project promotion and international cooperation. Undoubtedly we believe it is a profound event on promoting animation industry in China and abroad."
Earlier this year, ITA sponsored five Chinese submissions to the Red Stick Animation Festival in the U.S. One of the entries, THE FLYING JAR by Zhou Xu won the top prize in the category of professional 3D animation. Johnson will co-present the Red Baton Award to Zhou Xu in Changsha this November.
ITA is providing new and classic Western animation to China via broadband Internet subscription through China NetCom, and cell phone carrier China Mobile, and various Chinese childrens book publishers. In addition, ITA is aggregating North American cartoons and motion content for distribution in international cell phone markets across Europe and Southeast Asia, as well as arranging for Chinese news and entertainment to be delivered to the U.S. market.
"The animation industry in China is rapidly emerging as robust, talented, creative, and open to international co-production," said Johnson. "This festival will promote cultural exchange and commercial cooperation that will benefit China and the international entertainment community as a whole, as it examines a variety of opportunities in the new media of the 21st Century."