13TH CAMBODIA FILM FESTIVAL SUCCESS

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(Sunday 30th June 2024)

CIFF13 Closing Ceremony Speech (3-4 mins)

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By Dr. Digby James Wren

Chair of Belt and Road Capital Partners

Publisher of Long Mekong Media

Founder of Young ASEAN Minds

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Good Evening, Excellencies, Distinguished guests, film professionals and students, colleagues and friends.

My name is Dr. Digby James Wren and I have a 40 year career across all six continents in film, media and communications.

We are gathered here to celebrate the conclusion, and immense success, of the 13th Cambodia International Film Festival (CIFF13) and to commence the exciting task of building a vibrant and successful New Golden Age of Cambodian cinema and cultural production.

To that end I wish to share with you some key steps in achieving the construction of a self-sustaining and well-funded future for Cambodian cultural production, in what I like to call a marriage of Analogue and Digital.

First, a major government push towards Public Private Partnerships (PPP) includes a strong cultural production capacity. As a professor of both International Relations and Media and Communications, and as a government policy advisor, I understand the relationship between government, business, education, and the culture and arts community represented here tonight.

Second, as the Chair of a US$1 Billion investment pipeline of infrastructure, energy, media, agriculture, logistics, transport, manufacturing and Digital services, I understand the importance of private entrepreneurship and its relationship with the economic development of the Kingdom of Cambodia.

So how does all this fit with building a vibrant Cinema and Cultural production capacity for Cambodia?

First, it brings a pipeline of projects:

I have recently negotiated production and distribution agreements, worth more than $2.5 million dollars in the first 12 months, with both a major Hollywood film and television network and a similar deal with the largest Mainland Chinese Media Group. These are designed to promote Cambodia as a tourism destination, education hub, and vibrant modernising economy that can successfully attract Foreign Direct Investment (FDI).

Importantly the projects also enhance and strengthen the Kingdom’s educational and vocational and technical training services. Professionals can teach and train, students learn and gain and the projects compliment and collaborate with Cambodia’s existing cultural production ecosystem to further strengthen its capacity and capabilities.

Second, the pipeline brings cultural production projects and educational initiatives, such as a Khmer Royal Court Dance and Beijing Opera collaboration, to build a shared future through arts and culture exchange. I have signed an MoU with Prof. Xie Boliang and the Beijing National Academy of Dramatic Arts to do exactly that, and have negotiated many more cultural production MoUs, which are in the pipeline. All local and international arts and culture programs and exchanges include film and media production components to foster Cambodia’s cultural production capabilities and promote the Kingdom’s increasingly dynamic society and economy.

Cultural production also requires PPPs for film festivals such as CIFF13 and the wider international ecosystem of cinema and cultural markets within BRICS+, Belt and Road (BRI or New Silk Road) countries and, Cambodia’s ASEAN, RCEP, Indian, European and North American partners.

To that end, my team has begun organising a pipeline of cultural events and festivals, seminars and conferences, workshops and classes that focus on practice, production and projects.

Third, together with our technology partners, we have established a program of Higher Education degrees at the Royal Academy of Cambodia (RAC) as well as a vocational and technical diploma programs in media and communications and advanced computer aided media production such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), digital platforms, Cloud and Large Language Models (LLM).

Fourth, all PPPs are dedicated to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs) and, therefore, are focused on sustainable and ecological projects to reduce poverty, improve living standards, and digitalise, extend and improve the provision of Cambodia’s government services, especially in respect to rural economic development.

Lastly,? all PPPs require renewed vigour in the provision and training of Cambodian talent, exposure to regional and global ‘best practice’ in cultural production and, most of all, the collective spirit of the entire Cambodian ecosystem of cultural and arts production, particularly in relation to cinema and media.

Before I finish, I am announcing a series of round-tables to be hosted at the RAC and, other partner venues in the Kingdom’s towns and cities, to plan, organise and implement the initiatives outlined above.

I thank you for your time and congratulate all of the participants in the production and execution of this year’s hugely successful 13th Cambodia International Film Festival (CIFF13) and look forward to constructing dynamic long-term partnerships as together we commence the journey toward the 14th Cambodia International Film Festival (CIFF14) and the fostering and strengthening of the cultural production ecosystem of the Kingdom of Cambodia in the years ahead.

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Thank you.

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