Xiamen secures Golden Rooster Awards

Xiamen, Fujian province, will host the Golden Rooster Awards ceremony for the remainder of this decade, after releasing new policies to promote the development of cultural, film and television industry.

Cao Jun, deputy secretary-general of the China Film Association, and Zhuang Rongliang, vice-mayor of Xiamen, signed a strategic cooperation agreement at the Xiamen cultural film and television industry promotion conference on Sunday.

Under the deal, the association will introduce more industrial resources that will increase the influence of the Golden Rooster Awards and promote the agglomeration of the Xiamen film and television industry. In return, the Xiamen government will improve the development of the industry's infrastructure and reflect the brand characteristics of the Golden Rooster Awards.

"Hosting the China Golden Rooster and Hundred Flowers Film Festival for 10 years in Xiamen is valuable for the film festival's stable style and brand value development. It will also be helpful to its professional operation," said Zhu Hongzi, president of China Film Press.

Li Huiyue, deputy Party secretary of Xiamen, said that by hosting the film festival, Xiamen has optimized it business environment and attracted a complete industry chain that includes filming, post-production, special effects, animation, music and other businesses.

In the past five years, the number of enterprises and institutions in the culture, film and television industry have grown at an average annual rate of 10.2 percent and their revenue have increased by 17.8 percent, much higher than the national average, Li said.

During last year's the Golden Rooster Awards ceremony, Xiamen signed and implemented 55 cultural film and television industry projects valued at 15.52 billion yuan ($2.25 billion).

In February, Xiamen released two papers to foster the development of its cultural industry. In the coming five years, it will award cultural enterprises up to 5 million yuan, encourage the application of digital technologies and direct private capital into cultural industry by setting up industry funds. It will also provide guarantees to well-functioning small and medium-sized enterprises when they need financing.

"The latest policies are inspiring as Chinese film industry moves out of the dilemma caused by COVID-19. They will attract more people to produce excellent works in Xiamen," said Sun Xianghui, director of the China Film Archive.