EXCLUSIVE: Beijing-based producer-distributor Hishow Entertainment is expanding its cinephile ‘We Love Cinema’ brand with a slate of new acquisitions including recent Sundance winner Josephine and Ah Girl from Singapore’s Ang Geck Geck Priscilla.
Beth de Araújo’s Josephine, starring Channing Tatum and Gemma Chan, scooped both the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award in the US Dramatic Competition at this year’s Sundance Film Festival.
Ah Girl, about a seven-year-old girl navigating her parents’ separation, premiered at International Film Festival Rotterdam where it won the Youth Jury Award. It also screened at Shanghai International Film Festival, where it provoked a strong audience reaction, and consequently ranks among the top three highest rated Chinese-language films on Douban this year.
Hishow is also stepping into genre films by releasing all four installments in the Spanish zombie horror franchise Rec, co-directed by Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza.
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Produced by Filmax and Castelao Producciones, the franchise ran over seven years with episodes including Rec (2007), Rec 2 (2009), Rec 3: Genesis (2012) and Rec 4: Apocalypse (2014). Hishow described the acquisition of the franchise as “a strategic move to broaden its audience beyond conventional arthouse fare and embrace more commercially versatile genres”.
Hishow is also re-releasing Ron Howard’s 2013 Formula 1 racing drama Rush, tapping into the Chinese audience’s nostalgia for recent classics.
Alongside new acquisitions, Hishow has also been hosting the ‘We Love Cinema French Film Festival’ over the summer, at venues in Beijing and Shanghai, screening Cannes selections The Birthday Party and Ulysses, alongside works from Jacques Demy, Éric Rohmer and Jean-Pierre Melville, among others.
Hishow launched its We Love Cinema banner last year, reaching out to cinephiles through curated film events and innovative distribution networks. The company is building online communities on WeChat and other platforms through which members can access exclusive content, early screenings and limited edition merchandise. It also plans to develop offline film entertainment spaces combining cinema, art and new technologies.
“We are dedicated to expanding our We Love Cinema brand to a multidimensional experience, and further build on our innovative marketing and distribution systems to adapt to the fast-changing market,” said Hishow co-founder and CEO Wang Haiyi.
Releases under the banner over the past year have included Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani’s Reflection In A Dead Diamond and Adam Elliot’s Memoir Of A Snail and Mary And Max.
