19 Nov – The "Brokeback Mountain" director said that Chinese-language cinema could earn more revenue than Hollywood in ten years' time and does not need to broaden its appeal. "(The) Chinese-speaking group is probably four times more than English-speaking people. I think as long as we are influential in the Chinese-speaking world, I think we will prevail, and we will ripple out," says Academy Award winner Ang Lee about the Chinese film industry. Lee spoke out before the Golden Horse Film Awards in Taiwan, seen as the Chinese-language equivalent of the Oscars. The prestigious awards ceremony will take place on November 23 in Taipei.
The Taiwan-born Lee, who will this year chair the jury for the festival, added, "I think that in ten years' time, our market will be bigger than the Hollywood market. Things will come naturally. It's important that we keep doing it, it will have ups and downs but eventually it will pay back." What Lee is saying wasn't false, as industry analysts have predicted that China, which collected an estimated $2.8 billion (around RM9 billion) in box office takings last year, compared with Hollywood's $10.8 billion (around RM31 billion) will at the current rate of growth become the world's dominant market by 2020. Ang Lee won a second best director Oscar for the 3D adventure "Life of Pi" in February, to go with the his Oscar for directing "Brokeback Mountian" in 2006, and was hailed as the "glory of Taiwan" after becoming the first Asian to win a best director Oscar.