Projecting a new image

And huddling for warmth has become one of the main themes of the festival forums this year.

Fan Luyuan, chairman of tech giant Alibaba Group's film subsidiary Alibaba Pictures, says Chinese filmmakers should get together to enhance cooperation and combat economic risks.

Instead of investing alone in big-budget films, as in the past, most studios now prefer to join forces to co-finance them, echoes Jiang Ping, general manager of the China Film Group.

For instance, Shanghai Fortress, one of the most anticipated science-fiction movies after The Wandering Earth-a game changer in the film genre in China-has so far drawn 12 companies on board, with five involved in coproduction and the other seven in co-distribution.

Other forthcoming major films with multiple investors behind them include Li Shaohong's war epic Liberation, and Me and My Motherland, an anthology co-directed by Chen Kaige and six other top directors to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China this year.