The Flowers of War, previously called Nanjing Heroes and 13 Flowers of Nanjing, is a 2011 Chinese historical drama war film directed by Zhang Yimou, starring Hollywood favorite Christian Bale. The film, which is based on the novel The 13 Women of Nanjing by Geling Yan, has been selected to compete for 13 individual awards at the Oscar in 2012, including the Best Foreign Language Film, Best Director, and Best Screen Play on top of being nominated for the 69th Golden Globe Awards. It's worth noting that copyright protection and marketing of this film is also doing wonders.

"Just like the Hollywood blockbusters, we can't find anything about this film on the internet but the two-minute trailer before it was released in the theaters, which reflects the great efforts the team exerts to the copyright protection." One audience told CIP News.

The film with investment of 600 million yuan is considered the biggest project ever investment-wise in the Chinese film industry. With the support of China Minsheng Banking Corp., LTD., the film received a pledge loan of 150 million yuan with copyright as collateral, also a record in its own right.

Not only the producers and the distributers of the film created a remarkable story, but also they made a new attempt in culture industry operation. On December 13, the movie book titled The Flowers of War—the days we spent together was published before the film was released to the public, attracting attention of a wide range of audience.

In terms of overseas distribution rights, the producers and the distributers of the film and the USA cinemas entered into contacts and were acquired by Wrekin Hill Entertainment. Meanwhile the copyright license outside China, America and the Asia region was licensed to the well-known Film Nation Entertainment.

According to Director Zhang Yimou and Producer Zhang Weiping, "The Flowers of War is an international collaboration with participation of more than 600 individuals from 24 countries ——their dedication and contribution is greatly appreciated. We are very thankful to the HFPA for the recognition among so many films around. "

In recent years, copyright awareness among the public is strengthening, and as a result, annual revenue of cinemas is on the rise, hitting 10.1 billion yuan in 2010 and on track to 13 billion in 2011, which makes the film industry an important component of Chinese culture industry.

(China IP News)