Peter Luo’s Stars Collective Sets Offcial Partnership with The Asian World Film Festival

Two leading advocates for Asian talent in the film industry have joined forces as it was revealed today that The Asian World Film Festival (AWFF), a top attraction and platform for showcasing Asian talent and exporting Asian culture, has established an official partnership with Peter Luo's Stars Collective – a program designed to promote the next generation of diverse voices and creative storytellers, while also accelerating the female power movement, much of which is Asian.

The deal was revealed today by Peter Luo and Georges N. Chamchoum, Executive and Program Director for AWFF.

This is the first official corporate partnership for the AWFF and will further showcase works, cultivate global talents and incubate global film projects with Asian themes and stars leading the way. There will be a financial play as Starlight will look to arrange capital for AWFF for its future fundraising, development, and expansion.

Through the partnership, both parties will liaise with and support each other in terms of development, expansion and promotion of their organizations. Stars Collective and the AWFF will work together to plan, organize, and implement key events and activities.

Said Luo, “Partnering with AWFF is another way for Stars Collective to extend its reach and further its commitment to supporting emerging filmmakers with diverse backgrounds. While strides have been made, Hollywood still has a long way to go in terms of having Asian involvement at a palatable level. This ranges from leading roles to story themes, and below the line work, and it starts with creating more opportunities. AWFF does a magnificent job showcasing the talents that emanate from Asia, allowing others to take notice and open the door to new opportunities.”  

Given that the partnership will cultivate, expose and amplify Asian talent, there is clear alignment with the trailblazing Stars Collective program that was established to support emerging filmmakers. Stars Collective currently supports over 100 emerging filmmakers and actors around the world. Over half of those selected of this program are female, and represent a highly diverse mix of nationalities, ethnicity, races, personalities and professional backgrounds.

Through Stars Collective, filmmakers and artists are afforded the opportunity to develop content with the guidance of industry luminaries such as directors Sam Raimi, John M. Chu and Alan Taylor, actor Xiaoming Huang,and producers Donna Gigliotti, Gianni Nunnari, Chris Lee, Sanping Han, Paula Wagner, Patrick Wachsberger, Eric Heumann, Liming Ke, Rob Minkoff and Anthony Maccarten. The filmmakers and their mentors work one-on-one with each other, and the collaborations continue through the release of the films.

Launched in 2020, Stars Collective integrates global resources by bringing together local alliances of film producers and film commissions, throughout Europe for instance, in order to spark the production of more films of distinctive styles and genres. It has an existing partnership with Sundance Institute involving a new grant program supporting diverse filmmakers – Sundance Institute | Stars Collective Granting Fund. Tapping into an initial fund provided by Starlight, the program provides unrestricted grants to diverse filmmakers and focuses on critical development support as well as urgent needs in advancing projects forward through pre-production, production, post-production, and self-distribution.

Stars Collective recently made headlines with the announcement of a new multifaceted streaming platform SYSM, in collaboration with Jetsen Huashi Wangju and Sky Link TV. SYSM will serve as a hub for content (film, TV series, user-generated content), e-commerce, virtual / digital assets (i.e. NFTs); social media engagement; online theater and events; and digital currency consumption and trading. SYSM is modeled as a subscription based, ad supported, social network and will be available worldwide.

A new Stars Collective partnership with Beijing Film Academy's BFA Century Group establishes academic and educational projects in the global film industry; cultivates global talents; explores and promotes cutting-edge film production technology; and incubates global films with diversity and originality. The cooperation focuses on creative endeavors associated with the incubation, development, packaging, financing, production and distribution of wide-ranging content for a global audience, as well as specialized training in new and emerging areas of the entertainment ecosystem.