IWC Schaffhausen honours director Zhang Yimou at Beijing International Film Festival

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Lintao Zhang

More proof that the economic focus is heading east: IWC Schaffhausen has made its first appearance as a sponsor of the Beijing International Film Festival.
The brand, which already has relationships with Kevin Spacey, Cate Blanchett, Jean Reno and Marc Forster in the occident, and Francis Ng, Julian Cheung and Anita Yuen in the orient, found it natural to extend its sponsorship to the Festival, holding a dinner, entitled ‘For the Love of Cinema’, at the Ming Dynasty city wall in Beijing.
Ng, Cheung and Yuen attended, along with actors Yu Nan, Joseph Chang, Li Zonghan, Andrew Lien and Xiong Naijin, as well directors Zhang Yimou, Chris Wedge, Chris Brown, Li Shaohong and Xue Xiaolu. IWC CEO Georges Kern and Benoit de Clerck, its Asia–Pacific managing director, played host. The event was supported by the Motion Picture Association.
The IWC Filmmaker Award was presented at the event to Zhang Yimou by de Clerck and IWC marketing and communications’ director Karoline Huber.
Huber said, ‘Zhang Yimou doubtlessly belongs to the greatest film-makers of our time, and he has won numerous awards and gained recognition at many national and international film festivals. It is an enormous pleasure for us to present him with this award.’ He was also presented with IWC’s latest Portuguese Chronograph Classic in stainless steel, with a special engraving on the reverse.
Aloe Blacc also held a private concert at the event, with DJ Miles Slater taking the party into the small hours.

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