VANCOUVER — The seventh edition of the Whistler Film Festival went out on a high note Sunday, as Vancouver’s Longtale Entertainment inked a $30-million copro deal with Chinese and U.S. companies for a live-action version of Mulan.

Longtale president Harry Sutherland brokered the deal with Beijing-based PKU Starlight Group and L.A.’s Movie Plus to do a Chinese version of the story, made popular by the 1998 Disney movie of the same name. Cameras are set to roll Feb. 28 at Hengdian Studios, China’s largest film studio, with Vancouver’s Dotcom Productions handling post.

Sutherland hopes Mulan will screen at next year’s festival. ‘We expect to do over $50 million in business — closer to $80 million — with Asia next year,’ he says.

This year’s Whistler also saw more than $42,000 in prizes and commissions awarded to filmmakers — carving out a niche on the festival circuit as a place to cut deals and spotlight Canadian films and talent, says festival programmer Bill Evans.

‘We hit our stride this year. We’re successfully marrying the art and commerce of filmmaking, building bridges,’ says Evans.

‘Whistler is the place to bring together the players and hammer out the deal,’ agrees Sutherland. He missed the Saturday night standing-room-only tribute to filmmaker Atom Egoyan because ‘we sat down for six hours and didn’t stop until [the deal] was nailed down.’

The festival hosted a delegation from China this year in a bid to boost its wheeling and dealing. According to Evans, the Chinese are definitely coming back. ‘We’re talking about promoting a major Chinese film here next year. They want to showcase their films, and are looking for an entry into the North American audience,’ he says.

According to Evans, Whistler is looking to bring in more international films next year, but Canadian content remains the cornerstone, as does the Borsos Competition, which handed out $15,000 to Stéphane Lafleur’s Continental, a Film Without Guns for best new Canadian feature film. Richie Mehta’s Amal, meanwhile, won the Bell Audience Award, after having claimed a best-actor prize for Rupinder Nagra, the film’s star.

The inaugural Motion Picture Production Industry Association short-film award went to Marshall Axani, for a film yet to be made called The Light of the Family Burnham. ‘It’s important to help build up our emerging filmmakers. They’re our future,’ says MPPIA chair Peter Leitch. The prize brings $15,000 cash and $100,000 in services.

‘We need to build production companies here, and mentor talent here – keep our creative here. In 10 years we may not be able to be as dependant on the service work,’ says Leitch.