Web Panel: Film, Finance And China

Bennett Pozil has been a banker for 25 years and currently serves as an Executive Vice President at East West Bank, where he leads the Corporate Banking Group. As part of his role, Pozil oversees the development of the Entertainment Lending sector in the U.S. as well as in China. Recent film projects financed by East West Bank include John Woo’s The Crossing and Chen Kaige’s The Monk. Prior to joining East West Bank, Pozil served for 11 years as the Managing Director of the Los Angeles office for Natixis, the French Banking Concern. At Natixis, Pozil structured the financing of over a hundred motion pictures including Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon; Hero; Fearless and Lost in Translation.

After attending University of Southern California, in 1991 Bortone graduated from New York University in Film and television with an award for special achievements.

In 1998 he founded the Italian production company Orisa Produzioni and in 2015 the Chinese production company Yiyi 翊翊 Pictures. His activity as producer includes features, documentaries and television programs both in the art house and commercial area. Among them “Maria, ihm schmeckt’s nicht!” (2009) that topped German box office with more than 1,5 million admissions and “Marina” directed by Oscar nominated Stijn Coninx and co-produced by Warner Belgium and the Dardenne brothers which became one of the 10 highest box office of all times in the Flanders. Bortone was nominated “Best producer” in 2006 at the Nastri d’Argento Italian film critics awards and in 2017 at the David di Donatello Italian film award.

As director he directed 5 feature films. Among them “Red like the sky” (听见天堂) that in 2007 won a David di Donatello and more than 25 other international festivals. His latest film “Coffee” (2016) is the first official coproduction between Italy and China. It premiered as Special event at Venice days, was in competition at Beijing film festival, nominated for the China media awards at the Shanghai international film festival and was recently released in China.

Bortone worked as screenwriter and script editor on several productions, co-authored the manual “How to make a short” and taught directing, screenwriting and producing at several international institutions including the Beijing Film Academy.

He has been a consultant of the MEDIA programme. He is a member of ACE Producers, and co-founder and managing director of the Sino-European producers association Bridging the Dragon.

A CEO, writer, and producer, Robert Cain has worked for more than 20 years in Hollywood and the global entertainment industry, primarily as a production, finance, strategy and creative development expert. He has been doing business in China since 1987, where he has produced and consulted for a range of projects such as the TV broadcast Three Tenors in the Forbidden City, the 2008 Academy Award nominated film Mongol, and the film Shanghai Kiss starring Kelly Hu and Hayden Panettiere. In addition, he has acted as consultant to Shanghai Media Group, CCTV, China Film Group, and most Hollywood studios.