Festival to screen Oscar winners and Chinese art house flicks

Film buffs in Beijing can watch the latest Oscar-winning films for less than 40 yuan ($6), nearly half the usual ticket price for a Hollywood blockbuster in China, thanks to a film gala that opens in the city on Saturday.

The 160 films of the First Beijing International Film Festival (BIFF), which runs from April 23 to 28, will include not only The King's Speech, The Social Network, Black Swan and True Grit, but also Chinese films covering a variety of genres - from kungfu blockbusters (Legend of the Fist and The Lost Bladesman), and romantic comedies (Color Me Love), to art house flicks (I Wish I Knew), and war epics (Assembly).

Six themed screenings celebrating the achievements of renowned filmmakers including Jackie Chan and Feng Xiaogang will also be held during the festival.

The highest ticket price for a Chinese film will be 20 yuan and for a foreign one 40 yuan, says Yan Yujing, a festival organizer.

Tickets cannot be booked online, however. Viewers will have to get them at the participating cinemas such as Broadway Cinema in Glory City Mall, Wanda cinemas in Shijingshan district and the CBD, and Megabox Cinema in Sanlitun. A full list of the 20 theaters can be accessed at the festival's official website, www.bjiff.com.

On April 24, a forum on balancing a film's artistic and commercial values will see the participation of John Woo and Peter Chan, while on April 25, viewers will have the chance to interact with Darren Aronofsky, director of Black Swan.

Twenty-two chairpersons of international film festivals will converge in the capital city, that boasts most of the country's film studios and talents but has never before hosted a big film festival.

At a forum on April 24, Marco Muller, director of the Venice festival, Tom Yoda, chairman of the Tokyo festival and Thomas Hailer, program manager of the Berlin festival, will be joined by directors of China's Shanghai and Changchun festivals for a discussion on how a film festival influences a city.

China has been an active player in international co-productions in recent years, with its box office revenue sees an amazing annual growth of 35 percent since 2003.

At another forum on international co-productions on April 25, French director Jean-Jacques Annaud and British producer Jeremy Thomas will be joined by Han Sanping and Wang Zhongjun, leaders of the largest State-owned and private film groups in China, respectively.

There will be no competition section to the festival, says Pang Wei, vice-director of the organizing committee, but 10 films that earned international acclaim in 2010, such as Feng Xiaogang's Aftershock, will be honored at the opening ceremony on Saturday.

China Daily