China to formulate new law to revamp film industry

After emerging as the world’s second largest movie market after Hollywood, China today said it plans to formulate its first-ever law to promote the Communist country’s film industry which has largely remained closed to the outside world.

A draft version has already been submitted to lawmakers, said Zhang Dejiang, who heads China's legislature, the National People's Congress (NPC).

Earlier, reports said the draft had set out to revoke unnecessary film making permits, simplify the process of regulatory reviews to which prospective scripts are subjected, and make it easier to hold film festivals.

It also offered film makers incentives in financing, taxation and land use and encouraged Chinese companies to invest overseas in collaboration with other film production companies.

Box office fraud and piracy were also among top concerns addressed by the draft, which explicitly forbade stealth video recording of movies in theatres, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.