FINNISH AUDIOVISUAL DELEGATION VISIT TO CHINA

I was really honored to be a part of the Finnish audiovisual delegation visiting Beijing. The official delegation was led by our Minister of Culture Sampo Terho. The delegation consisted of officials from Ministry of Culture and Education and The Finnish Film Foundation as well as some of the Finnish producers currently working in the Chinese-Finnish projects.

Our government is working with Chinese government in order to achieve a co-production deal between Finland and China. And we have been working for a half a year now to help our government promote our audiovisual sector while negotiating. China is a really exciting market for film and TV, and I am really happy to work on this project. I get to work with an awesome team, which includes Jani Joenniemi from EARS and Mikko Puustinen. Jani has been working in cultural field in China for the past 20 years. Mikko has been working in the Finnish Embassy in Beijing for 15 years, and speaks fluent Chinese. So I really think that we have what it takes to help first with the promotion, and then later this year, with the introduction of our production companies to Chinese market.

Anyway, the official delagation visit kicked-off with Ambassador’s briefing on Monday. We were visiting at the same time with the Wintersports Business delegation. After the briefing and lunch, we had a Signing Ceremony and Reception hosted by Ambassador of Finland to China. On Tuesday morning we met with the Minister of Culture Mr. Luo Shugang and in the afternoon had another official meeting with SAPFTR. Both meetings were very positive and optimistic. On Tuesday evening Finland held a seminar and networking event at Restaurant Moi, where Chinese producers enjoyed Finnish delicacies while learning about our production incentive and production companies. On Wednesday we had more free time with a visit to China Film Group studios in the morning and private meetings in the afternoon.

The audiovisual delegation visit was overall very successful and I cannot wait to continue to work on this project.