Shanghai. February 23. INTERFAX-CHINA - Chinese online video sharing platform Tudou.com and China's largest state-run film enterprise China Film Group Corp. (CFGC) will jointly host a digital film festival in Shanghai, despite an ongoing lawsuit between the two parties, an official with Tudou told Interfax on Feb. 23.
Tudou and CFGC will share advertising revenues generated by the festival, which is to be held in April, the official, who wished to remain anonymous, said.
CFGC will also invest in winning entrants to the festival as part of its program to support emerging digital film makers. CFGC plans to produce 200 online and mobile films, each with a budget of around RMB 50,000 ($7,315), under the program in 2009. Tudou is one of the program's partnered broadcasting platforms.
The cooperation comes despite a lawsuit brought by CFGC against Tudou last month over Tudou's alleged unauthorized rebroadcasting of the CFGC movie Red Cliff. CFGC has asked Hangzhou West Lake District People's Court that Tudou award it RMB 495,360 ($72,468) in damages.
Tudou PR representative, You Hanghua, told Interfax that the case indicates the current difficulty faced by China's online video sharing platforms. "Even if we establish cooperation with film companies, we can still face lawsuits from them if users upload unauthorized videos," You said.
No one at CFGC was available for comment.
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