Moonlight, La La Land to stream in China on iQIYI
Details
Rebecca Hawkes
| 08 March 2017

Baidu subsidiary iQIYI has won exclusive streaming rights in China to recent Best Picture Oscar winner Moonlight and runner-up La La Land.

iQIYI says that these latest movie titles will “strengthen its edge” as the streaming platform with the “largest online library of licensed films in China”. It has already concluded content deals with 20th Century Fox, Lionsgate and the British Film Institute.

The Salesman, which won the Academy Award for Best Foreign-Language Film, has also been acquired by the Beijing-based video-on-demand (VOD) platform, along with Moonlight (directed by Barry Jenkins), and La La Land, which netted five Oscars including Best Actress (Emma Stone) and Best Director (Damien Chazelle).

The first feature-length film to be financed by iQIYI film division, The Summer is Gone, has been selected to screen at the New Directors/New Films Festival in New York on 15 March, the company has also announced. Directed by Zhang Dalei, The Summer is Gone will have its theatrical release in China on 24 March.

In January 2017 iQIYI raised US$1.53 billion in funding to help invest in content and better compete with rivals Youku Tudou and Tencent’s digital video platform.