In a 5th Beijing International Film Festival forum, film studio executives reiterated the importance of paying attention to details of exported local films. (Photo : Google)
Beijing International Film Festival organizers announced in a conference on Tuesday that they aim to make the annual celebration as Asia's finest cinema event in the next three to five years.
The organizers want the festival to be labelled as Asia's most prominent movie festival along with Europe's Cannes Film Festival, North America's Toronto International Film Festival and Australia's Melbourne International Film Festival.
In the previous years, the festival has shown more Chinese films than foreign ones.
For this year, more international films will be showcased as more foreign film agencies, enterprises and institutes are expected to participate and over a million anticipated visitors will attend, said Zhao Zhiyong, executive vice secretary-general of the festival committee.
The success of the Beijing International Film Festival in the past five years is mainly because of the extensive support from the capital city's government, making it the second-largest film market in the world, despite its strong competition with veteran neighbor like Shanghai International Film Festival, the Hong Kong International Film Festival and the Tokyo International Film Festival.
According to China Entertainment News, 10 projects will battle for the major awards of the festival's program "Project Pitches" and 11 other projects will advance to the negotiation stage.
Organizers revealed that on the opening ceremony on April 16, former California governor and action star Arnold Schwarzenegger will grace the red carpet, while the festival's head jury will be the prominent French director Luc Besson.
The organizers added that the Film Market, which will be held on The China Millennium Monument, will be one of the festival's key events on April 17 to 20, among the 30 activities that will be hosted by the Chinese and foreign exhibitors.
Something new will also be showcased this year as the united documentary booth will be installed for the first time.
Other activities like Beijing Film Panorama, the Film Carnival, the Film Forums and more will also be showcased at the festival.
The Beijing International Film Festival was launched in 2011 with the support from the government of the Municipality of Beijing. Every year, Hollywood executives, directors, producers and studio heads are present at the festival. This year's festival will run from April 16 to 23.
