Winning Oscars and Making Money at the Movies

Oscar-nominated films highlight the international contributions of the movie industry's directors, actors, and technical experts. This year, on Sunday, Feb. 24, a film-maker from Mexico, Alfonso Cuaron, or Pawel Paiolikowski from Poland could win two Academy Awards, one for best director and the other for best foreign language film.

     As in the past, international filmmakers frequently are nominated in the categories: animated and live action shorts. These movies are not shown in many movie theatres, and that is not a loss this year, because, except for two films, they portray depressing themes not suitable for young audiences. Adults and children would enjoy the funny Animal Behavior, however. In this Canadian entry, a dog psychiatrist tries to cure a pig, praying mantis, bird, and other animals of their most annoying habits. A gorilla with anger management issues takes exception to the person in front of him in the "10 or Less" line who wants to count the five bananas in his one bunch separately. He reacts by tearing up her bag of frozen peas and says, "Now, you have a thousand."

     Children already may have seen the Oscar-nominated Bao, a Chinese word for dumpling, that Pixar screened before Incredibles 2. On her second try, Bao's director, Domee Shi, was hired by Pixar as an intern. She is now the first female director in its shorts department. At age two, Ms. Shi migrated with her family from Chongqing, China, to Toronto, Canada. Her father, a college professor of fine art and landscape painter, recognized her talent for drawing, and her mother's dumplings sparked the idea of using food as an entry into understanding another culture. Japanese anime films and manga comics and graphic novels also inspired Ms. Shi, as well as the Mexican theme of the animated feature, Coco, that won an Academy Award last year.

     China is among the growing number of countries joining Hollywood, India's Bollywood, and Nigeria's Nollywood in the film and music video industries. By 2019, however, authoritarian control by Chinese authorities was causing film investors to flee. On the other hand, filmmakers in Nigeria aided government efforts, when suspicious circumstances delayed a presidential election in Nigeria. A drone camera was deployed to record singing Nigerian film stars urging voters to remain cool in a video shown on social media. Off the east coast on the other side of Africa, the island of Mauritius is using the advantage of year round good weather to attract job-creating firm-makers.

     Chinese billionaire Wang Jianlin of the Dalian Wanda Group had high hopes for the 400-acre, 30 sound stage, $8 billion Oriental Movie Metropolis he opened in the east coast port city of Qingdao three years ago. Although offering to pay film-makers 40% of their production costs, producers were wary of censoring by China's State Administration of Press Publications, Radio, Film and Television. Other setbacks included: the failure of China's big budget film tribute to Tibetan mythology, Asura; social media references to Chinese President Xi's resemblance to Disney's Winnie the Pooh; and the ill-advised joint U.S.-Chinese film, Great Wall, starring Matt Damon as a mercenary soldier fighting with a secret Chinese army defending the Great Wall of China from monsters.

     Recent films produced for China's domestic market are generating higher box office returns. Dying to Survive opened with a $200 million weekend by telling the story of Lu Yong, who took on the high Chinese prices of Western medicine by importing illegal cancer drugs from India. The Wandering Earth, a sci-fi thriller about the expanding sun's threat to Earth, trapped in Jupiter's gravitational pull, netted $440 million during the first ten days of China's New Year of the Pig. By downplaying its Warner Bros. connection, the U.S.-Chinese co-production, The Meg, a film about a deep sea diver who saved a submersible disabled by a prehistoric Megalodon shark, earned $528 million globally.

   

You Oughta Be in Pictures

Bollywood and Nollywood are known around the world as the Hollywoods of Bombay, India, and Nigeria, because they house major film producers and distributors. In Nigeria, Jason Njoku's iROKOtv is transitioning from a Netflix distributor to a Nollywood producer. Sure, making movies helps countries make money and attract tourists, but countries such as China also see films as a way to influence social norms, politics, and economic decisions.

     As the Mauritius Film Development Corporation notes, a film industry creates jobs. Movies require acting talent but also camera and sound technicians, carpenters, make-up artists, costume designers, rental companies, caterers, restaurants, hotels, and airlines. How many tourists have films attracted to London, Paris, Rome, and New York over the years? After "Break Up Guru," which was filmed in Mauritius, played to 40 million Chinese, Chinese tourists flocked to Mauritius. The government now provides generous tax breaks to film producers who choose to take advantage of the good weather they can count on when they make a movie in this island off the east coast of Africa.

     Movie making is one of India's biggest revenue producing industries. Vinod Chopra, who has been directing films there since 1942, also works on productions in other parts of the globe. Indian film companies, such as Eros International and YRF Films distribute their movies throughout the world.

     In China, the State Administration of Press Publication, Radio, Film and Television of the People's Republic of China stands ready to censor and change films in order to control what movie audiences see and think. For example, Chinese villains might be altered to become North Koreans. Now, Chinese influence is coming to the United States, since Chinese companies are buying AMC movie theatres to gain distribution in Washington, DC, New York, and small U.S. towns. A Chinese production company already owns Legendary Films, which produces Batman films, and has been negotiating to partner with Lionsgate.

     Anyone thinking about making a film in any country can check Kemps Film and TV Production Handbook for a list of helpful resources.

(The following earlier posts also look at what movies can do: How Do Films Depict Countries? See the World in Oscar-Nominated Films, See the World at the Movies, Humor Paves the Way for Refugees.)