John Woo to head Beijing festival jury
BEIJING: Organisers of the 4th Beijing International Film Festival have announced that Hong Kong director John Woo will head its international competition jury.
The festival is to be held from Apr 16-23. Woo’s jury will decide on a total of ten prizes at the second Tiantan Awards, established to meet FIAPF’s criteria for an “A-list” festival.
The Shanghai International Film Festival held in June is China’s only recognised “A-list” festival, but organisers of the Beijing event have applied to be accredited in its place.
In February, festival organisers unveiled the poster for this year’s festival and stated that fifteen competition films have been chosen from a pool of 837 films from around the world.
The festival received a total of 1,323 submissions from 79 countries for the Beijing Film Panorama section, 1,149 of which were foreign films.
Organisers also announced that three new programmes will be added this year.
These are “New Focus on Chinese Cinema” for films by young Chinese directors, “An Eye on the Future” for international films and a documentary section.
In addition to film screenings, this year’s festival also includes seminars on co-productions and creativity featuring guests from around the world.
A special forum on animation will also be held on Apr 22 in the China National Film Museum.
After last year’s extravagant outdoor opening ceremony, this year’s opening ceremony will move indoors to the National Centre for the Performing Arts.
Organisers promise that this year’s ceremony will cut down on live performances and will instead include a screening of the festival’s opening film.
Last year, Feng Xiaogang’s wartime drama Back to 1942 won two prizes at the inaugural Tiantan Awards, including best film.