Xiamen chosen host city for national top film festival for next ten yrs

Xiamen has been selected as the host city of the next five editions of China Golden Rooster & Hundred Flowers Film Festival. [Photo/fjsen.com]

Xiamen has been selected as the host city of the next five editions of China Golden Rooster & Hundred Flowers Film Festival, one of the top events in China's film industry, a press conference said on Tuesday.

Since inception in 1992, the festival had been held in 26 cities across the country. The Golden Rooster and Hundred Flowers Awards have taken place on alternate years since 2005. The Golden Rooster Award will be presented in Xiamen for the following five odd years.

In a bid to seek long-term growth, a stable host destination is desirable and Xiamen stands out of the prospective cities, according to Zhang Hong, deputy president of the China Film Association.

Xiamen, dubbed the"Garden on the Sea", is among the hottest tourism destinations nationwide. According to Han Jingyi, deputy mayor of Xiamen, the city has unspoiled natural scenery and profound culture heritages and is widely acknowledged as a "natural studio" and a perfect place for photographs.

The cultural industry has seen fast growth in the coastal city, registering an annual average rise of 15 percent, official data show.

Experts predicted that in the next five to ten years, the proportion of the film and television industry in Xiamen's GDP is expected to rise to five percent, becoming a pillar industry in the city.

Xiamen now is home to a provincial film and television industry park, which accommodates more than 500 film enterprises such as BaseFX, a famous international film and television special effects company.

According to Han, the local government will make all-out efforts to ensure its success and cash in on the event to seek further growth in the film and television industry.

Multiple policies supporting the sector's development in Xiamen will be released at the end of June this year, the mayor said.

The city is slated to hold the 28th Golden Rooster and Hundred Flowers Film Festival after Xiamen municipal government reached an agreement with China Film Association in November in Foshan of Guangdong province.