The cinema business is roaring back to life at Cannes after a prolonged bout of gloom, finding renewed strength in money from China, the return of Hollywood studios and the pulling power of A-list stars, Reuters reports.

Movie executives say distributors are spending more freely on new projects. Mike Lang, chief executive of Miramax, said: "Over the next 10 years I think you will see something much bigger than what we saw over the last 20 years. There are more pay TV channels, emerging markets etc, and we have not even talked about China."

Hollywood studios are leading the charge with the Weinstein Co. snapping up rights to a biopic on Margaret Thatcher, a French silent movie called The Artist and Chinese martial arts epic Wu Xia.

For US studio Fabrication Films, which produces small and medium budget genre films, the biggest windfall this year has come from Chinese buyers willing to snap up entire film libraries to be marketed online.