The 5th Beijing International Film Festival is just around the corner, and its ambitious organizers are hoping it will become a flagship event in the world of Asian cinema.
French director Luc Besson, well known in China for his films Leon (1994) and The Fifth Element (1999), will lead a seven-member judging panel at the festival, which will be held from April 16 to 23.
"We selected international filmmakers for the judging panel for their diverse taste," says Luan Guozhi, deputy head of the film bureau under the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television. "Each panel member has great influence in their respective professional field and will give our film festival a broader horizon."
The other six judges are: Russian director Fedor Bondarchuk, whose film Stalingrad was Russia's entry for this year's Oscars for Best Foreign Language Film; Hong Kong director Peter Chan, whose recent films Dearest and American Dreams in China were widely acclaimed by Chinese filmgoers; veteran Hollywood producer Robert Kamen; South Korean director Ki-duk Kim, best known for his Silver Bear-winning romance 3-Iron; Brazilian director Fernando Meirelles, who won international fame with 2002's City of God; and Chinese actress Zhou Xun, who made her Hollywood debut starring in Cloud Atlas.
About 300 films from 50 countries and regions will be screened in more than 30 cinemas and colleges across the Chinese capital during the festival. Zhang Xiaoguang, chief of China Film Archive, says that about 200 films have never been publicly screened on the Chinese mainland, including major winners at this year's Academy Awards, Birdman and The Grand Budapest Hotel. Top award-winners from 2014's Venice and Cannes film festivals will also be screened.
Entries to the Tiantan (Temple of Heaven) Award, the top award offered at the festival, have reached 930. The names of the opening and closing films, as well as the 15 finalists of the main competition unit, have yet to be revealed.
"The festival will be a platform for Sino-foreign exchange of ideas for cinema," Zhang says. "Chinese films will borrow this platform to become better known in the overseas market, and foreign filmmakers who want to expand their business to China will also gain greater knowledge of this rising market."
The film festival will cooperate with foreign embassies in Beijing to screen some lesser-known films for the Chinese public. Polish, Brazilian and Danish film weeks will be held to introduce those countries' achievements in cinema to Chinese.
With Sino-foreign coproductions becoming increasingly popular in recent years, the 5th BJIFF will hold a forum to explore the future development of cross-border cooperation. Invitees to the forum include director Jean-Jacques Annaud, whose Sino-French coproduction Wolf Totem hit the Chinese box office during Spring Festival, Tom DeSanto, producer of the Transformers series, and Black Swan director Darren Aronofsky.
Film Market, the film industry expo at the 4th BJIFF last year, attracted more than 1,000 companies and organizations in the film industry from China and overseas, signing 32 major contracts worth more than 10.5 billion yuan ($ 1.69 billion) in total, topping all film festivals ever held in China. That raises more expectations for this year's expo.
"Master, market and mass are our foundation to create a top-tier event," says Zhao Zhiyong, deputy secretary-in-general of the film festival's organizing committee. "More involvement of international efforts will help us to better learn the experiences from the world's top film festivals and find our own path for development."
He also expects the festival to help build more segment markets in Chinese cinema, which is often criticized for being too mercenary and lacking productions of high artistic quality.
"We give ourselves three to five more years to make BJIFF the No 1 film festival in Asia," Zhao says. He is confident BJIFF will flourish, despite strong competition in the region such as the film festivals in Tokyo, Pusan and even Shanghai, which has had a film festival since 1993.
"Beijing's resources of filmmakers, media and government support are incomparable. Our next step is to develop a more mature business model through the platforms built by government, and nurture more professionals running the festival."