International Film Festival to showcase local industry

In line with continued efforts to diversify the entertainment offerings in the city, the dates for the 1st International Film Festival Macao as well as the Awards Ceremony for the event will take place from December 8 to 13, as announced at a press conference attended by Macao Government Tourism Office Director Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes. The event will purportedly have a budget of around US$10 million (MOP800 million), Business Daily previously reported, and will be jointly sponsored by MGTO and the Macau Films & Television Productions and Culture Association, with events occurring at the Macau Cultural Centre and Macao Science Centre. MGTO and movie festival director Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes stated that the event will allow exchange opportunities, raise awareness of Macau’s brand on the world stage, and develop synergy between tourism and culture, while allowing for the sustainable development of local creative and cultural activities. According to data from Bloomberg Intelligence the healthy development of a sustainable entertainment industry in the SAR when relating to young tourists and visitors would be highly reliant upon film/box office related events, which have strong growth predicted, with an eventual estimated 30 per cent of non-gaming entertainment revenues coming from film and box office over the next five years, as compared to 15 per cent from theme parks and 7 per cent from live entertainment. Also, in the last quarter of 2015, according to data by the Statistics and Census Services (DSEC), 32 per cent of the Macau population participating in cultural activities comprises people going to the cinema, making it the most attended cultural activity, albeit with a 0.6 per cent decrease year-on-year.