News and Notes: 2 November 2007

Asia Media Festival 2007 Poised for Take-off

Its crew is prepped, its fuel tanks filled and its engines revving: Asia Media Festival (AMF) 2007 is all set to take off.

And fly it will – much higher too – by the looks of it.

Already, some 5,400 trade participants are expected to attend this year’s AMF, an increase of 16 per cent from last year. Revenue generated during the annual media exchange is also set to rise: more than US$47 million worth of deals were concluded in 2006, surpassing the US$33 million figure for 2005.

To be held in Singapore from 14 November to 4 December, AMF 2007 encompasses the whole value chain of the media business – from media financing to content creation, production and distribution within the entire media ecosystem, including TV, film, animation, documentaries and mobile broadcasting.

The event is hosted by the Media Development Authority of Singapore (MDA) and organised by Reed Exhibitions, in collaboration with key industry partners.

Highlights of the festival include:

• Apollo Awards
• Asia Animation Conference
• Asia Factual Forum
• Asia Film Market and Conference
• Asia Television Forum
• Asian Festival of 1st Films
• Asian Television Awards
• Media Financing Forum
• Promax/BDA Asia

The anchor event for AMF is the Asia Television Forum (ATF). The ATF has expanded so much that it has been announced that next year’s event will be held at a bigger venue. This year, participants will hail from more than 50 countries.

Majors such as CBS Paramount Television, Disney-ABC International Television, Lions Gate Entertainment and NBC Universal Television Distribution continue to make their presence felt while Australia, France, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Spain and Taiwan will be leading national pavilions to ATF.

Key regional buyers include: Beijing TV (China), Zee Entertainment (India), KBS (South Korea), ASTRO (Malaysia), Bangkok Broadcasting & TV Co Ltd (Thailand), PT Surya Citra Televisi (Indonesia), Cambodia Television Network (Cambodia), Associated Broadcasting Company (Philippines) and Al Jazeera Documentary Channel (Qatar).

New additions to the festival include the Apollo Awards and the Asia Factual Forum (AFF). The Apollo Awards recognises creative and technical achievements in production, post-production and broadcast while the AFF aims to showcase the latest, finest and richest content in the documentary genre.

As part of the inaugural AFF, critically-acclaimed filmmaker, Ruby Yang, whose documentary The Blood of Yingzhou District won the 79th Academy Award for Best Documentary Short Subject, will be sharing her experience in creating factual content with international appeal and resonance.

The Media Financing Forum (MFF), another key AMF event, features a distinguished speaker line-up of 18 international distributors and financiers – almost double the previous year. Among the luminaries attending the event are Mr Edward R. Pressman, producer of Wall Street and American Psycho and Mr Cassian Elwes, Senior Vice President and Co-Head of William Morris International.

Apart from these trade events, the public will get to enjoy some 20 public events and activities, under MDA’s MediAction! campaign. These will be held over two months to inspire Singaporeans to discover the possibilities that media can offer for work, learning and play.

For more information about AMF 2007, go to www.asiamediafestival.com

To read the full press release, please log on to www.smf.sg

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