The Objective and Characteristics of Beijing International Film Festival

　　 “Master” embodies the film festival’s internationalization and professionalism, reflecting its artistic values;

　　 “Mass” embodies the film festival’s brand influence and proposal of benefiting the masses, reflecting its social values;

　　 “Market” embodies the film festival’s vitality and recognition by the market, reflecting its business values.  

    Beijing International Film Festival is a large-sized film activity approved by the State Council, sponsored by the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television of the People's Republic of China and the People’s Government of Beijing Municipality, and undertaken by the Film Bureau of the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television of the People's Republic of China and Beijing Municipal Bureau of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television. The 1st Beijing International Film Festival was successfully held in April 2011. Since then, the film festival has been held in mid and late April every year. Up to now, four sessions have been successfully held. Beijing International Film Festival takes “Share the Screen, Shape the Future” as the tenet, and “Beauty in Variety, Harmony in Diversity” as the core values of Tiantan Award. It has been organized and operated strictly in line with the well-known international film festivals. Therefore, it has been improving year on year in terms of internationalization, brand, marketization and activity scale. It has formed up the exclusive orientation and style of “Master”, “Mass”, and “Market”. With four years of development, Beijing International Film Festival has been growing from good to better, getting more and more matured. It has become a most rigorous and active element among the global film festivals. It is playing a more and more important role in promoting the healthy and rapid development of the Chinese film industry as well as the prosperity of the global film culture.

　　I. Pool masters, hail masters and cultivate the future masters - Beijing International Film Festival has manifested the perseverant pursuit for the film cultural art with authenticity, professionalism and a high-end profile.

　　 (I). A platform that pools masters Beijing International Film Festival has formed up 7 major activities including the Opening Ceremony, Tiantan Award Selection, Film Panorama, Film Forum, Film Market, Film Carnival, Closing & Awards Ceremony, as well as such matured activities as Forward Future Unit, Documentary Sector, and New Focus. Over the past four years, Beijing International Film Festival has attracted 800 plus industrial elites and representatives in the whole world. The presidents of such international film festivals as Venice, Toronto, Warsaw, Moscow, Hawaii, Montreal, Vancouver, Locarno, Tokyo, and Busan have participated in Beijing International Film Festival. The film festival has also attracted such well-known domestic and foreign directors and producers as Nikita Mikhalkov, John Woo, James Cameron, Alfonso Caron, Oliver Stone, Rob Minkoff, Kang Je-gyu, Tsui Hark, Peter Chan, Zhang Yimou, Chen Kaige, Feng Xiaogang, and Gu Changwei, and the principals of such well-known global film institutions as Motion Picture Association of America, the British Film Institute, Unifrance Films, German Films, Italy Image Industry Association, Korean Film Council, DreamWorks, Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, Paramount Pictures, Twentieth Century -Fox Film Corporation, Lucasfilm, France BUF, Weta Digital, and Toho Co.,Ltd. Such internationally first-rate actors and actresses as Jean Reno, Nicole Kidman, Luc Besson, Leonardo DiCaprio, Keanu Reeves, Adrien Brody, Lea Seydoux, Sarah Brightman, Vivian Wu, Zhang Ziyi, Jackie Chan, Andy Lau, and Fan Bingbing have attended various activities of Beijing International Film Festival. Jean-Jacques Annaud, Paula Wagner, Pierre Bismuth, Kelly Asbury (Director of Shrek), Bill George (Director of Visual Effects of Pirates of the Caribbean), Randy Thom (Sound Designer of Star Wars), SHIN Jae-ho (the special effects expert of Tae Guk Gi: The Brotherhood of War), etc., have successively participated in the film forums and given speeches, helping the Chinese films seek the globalization approach through multi-perspectives. The film festival has been seeing stronger and stronger lineups of master-level filmmakers year by year, which has fully suggested the wide recognition within the industry as well as the ever-growing international clout and appeal of Beijing International Film Festival.

　　 (II). A hall for hailing masters From the 3rd year on, Beijing International Film Festival has set the Tiantan Award Competition Section, proposing the concept of Beauty in Variety, Harmony in Diversity. It aims to pool the outstanding achievements of the global film market and enhance the international film exchange and cooperation through the awarding activity. The establishment of the Competition Section marks the hitch between Beijing International Film Festival and other well-known international film festivals. The Opening Ceremony and Closing Ceremony of the 4th Beijing International Film Festival fully embodied the film elements. According to the international practices, it screened the Opening/Closing Films, reviewed the film history, recalled the key filmmakers, reviewed film songs, highlighted the rites, and hailed films and filmmakers. Tiantan Award has been held twice. A total of 1,368 films from 144 countries and regions have enrolled for it. 30 excellent films from 26 countries have been nominated. The well-known Russian director Nikita Mikhalkov and American Chinese director John Woo have served as president of the former two juries. And the 14 jury members in the first two sessions have all been well-known directors, producers and actors within the industry, who represent the Oriental and Western aesthetics and attitudes, displaying professionalism and authenticity. The awarding ceremony stringently follows the international practices, and the awarding results reflect the latest achievements of the global film art development. The Chinese film Back to 1942, and the Canada-India co-production Siddharth respectively won the Tiantan Award for Best Feature Film. The slogan of Beauty in Variety, Harmony in Diversity has become the soul of Beijing International Film Festival. Tiantan Award has become the core activity of Beijing International Film Festival, and it is becoming an influential competition section in the global film festival system. Beijing Film Panorama pays attention to the classics. The Artist and Hugo ( Academy Award winners), The Tree of Life (Golden Palm for Best Picture at Cannes International Film Festival), A Separation (Golden Bear for Best Picture at Berlin International Film Festival), and Lovelorn (Best Picture of Los Angeles Film Festival) have successively been selected into the Out-of-Competition Section. Some films of Nikita Mikhalkov and John Woo as president of Tiantan Award Jury were successfully screened, and the relevant academic exchange activities were held. Burnt by the Sun and The Killer were screened to hail the masters.

　　 (III). A cradle of cultivating the future masters Beijing International Film Festival has been striving to integrate the industrial strength, support the newbies and new works, combine the project resources, and promote the mutual reliance and benign development of talents and the industry. The film festival tries to set up a promotion platform for newbies and new works via Film Panorama and recommendation activities. Nearly 200 film-creators meet-and-greet conferences, New Film Release Conferences and film premiers were held in the former 4 film festivals. The film festival tries to tap the potential projects and improve the projects’ maturity and survival rate through Film Market Project Pitches. The prize-winning projects at the 4th Film Market Project Pitches including The Seventy-Seven Days, Mountain Cry and Detective Lady were shot and produced in 2014. Such short-listed projects as Hide and Seek, My Heart Will Go On, and The Legend of Speed will start to be shot in 2015. Since the 3rd year of the film festival, the section of New Focus has been added, in a bid to find, recommend and support the outstanding young Chinese film talents under 45 years old with market potentials. The Forward Future Unit has been added to organize the Chinese and foreign young directors and scholars to carry out in-depth exchanges and discussions by focusing on “discovering new films and recommending new directors”, in order to encourage the innovative spirit and enhance the exchange and cooperation between the young filmmakers in all countries. The 4th Film Market hosted the “Hollywood Film Master Class”, which invited 20 plus well-known filmmakers and Hollywood film studios’ top managers to gather in Beijing imparting knowledge to and sharing experience with the young filmmakers in China’s domestic film companies through such forms as giving lessons, hosting forums, carrying out screenplay competitions and giving team guidance. It collectively discussed a series of industrial chain related projects ranging from topics to distribution, so that the young filmmakers in China can get the opportunity of learning from Hollywood masters face to face without going abroad. It can improve the new-generation filmmakers’ capability of internationalized expression. 　 

　　II. Attract the masses, serve the masses and lead the masses’ film consumption. Beijing International Film Festival boasts of abundant activities, and it has been actively extending the channels of participation, putting a premium on interactive experience, and striving to create an image carnival targeting at the masses.

　　 (I). Attract the mass with excellent films Welcome to Beijing to Watch the Best Films in Spring Beijing International Film Festival has been always striving to satisfy the multi-layer and diversified film cultural demands of Beijingers and the tourists both at home and abroad. Over the past four years, the screened films’ original countries have been ramping up continuously: 42 countries in the 1st year, 54 in the 2nd year, 69 in the 3rd year, and 79 in the 4th year. The screened films, participating cinemas and screening times have been hiking up year by year. Accumulatively, a total of 1060 films have been screened 2200 times in 30 plus cinemas and academic institutions of Beijing. The screened films are mostly the ones that have not been released in China, and some are films that have won prizes in well-known international film festivals in the past two years. Therefore, the vast fans can enjoy the most outstanding films of the world just at the doorstep. Special film exhibitions for different countries and regions are arranged in each year’s film festival, in a bid to manifest the pluralistic film culture charm and each country’s film status, display their folk customs and cultural characteristics, and build up a platform of learning from each other, negotiating, and exchanging for filmmakers and film lovers. Several international film exhibitions were held for France, Germany and UK, etc., during the 4th film festival. It has such new units as Film of Opera, IMAX films, and the Out-of-Competition Section of Restored Films, and perfected the Documentary Sector. It has realized the combination of multi-nations, multi-subjects, and multi-styles, integrating mass participation and professionalism. Pay attention to the local film development and put a premium on the diversity of the Chinese films and display the multi-national films. The 3rd and 4th film festivals organized several panorama exhibitions with such themes as “Grassland in the Sky”, “Legendary Tibet”, “Image West China”, “Ode to Yunnan” and “Landscape of Northeast China”.

　　(II). Benefit the mass with high quality services Beijing International Film Festival has been sticking to prioritizing the social benefit, and integrating the social benefits and economic benefits. It has been ceaselessly improving the activity scale, enlarging the mass participation and realizing the effective hitch between the cultural projects and the mass cultural demands. There were 100,000 person/times for the first festival, and the figure reached 1 million for the second time, and the third and fourth festivals both saw participant/times of over 1 million. The film festival has been making full use of the whole municipality’s cinemas and the rural welfare screening system, as well as such professional occasions as China Film Archive, China National Film Museum, Beijing Film Academy, and Communication University of China. The involved cinemas are distributed in both the down town and the surrounding 10 districts and counties, which has realized wide coverage of regions and populations. Optimize the screening manner. The film festival has especially arranged the synchronous and multi-episode release of such films as Harry Potter and Mission: Impossible, in order to satisfy more fans. Extend the ticket buying channel and implement online ticket reservation. The audiences can realize online seat reservation via the festival’s official website, the relevant cooperation websites and cellphone terminals. Implement the low-fare strategy so that more film fans and citizens can go into the cinema. Arrange welfare screening in Huairou’s cinemas, arrange the microfilm online screening and rural screening, and university campus screenings, in a bid to benefit more people. Host the “Mindset Cinema” activity, telling of the film art for the visually-handicapped audiences and paying special attention to the needs of special population. The Film Carnival sets two venues at the China Millennium Monument and Huairou, combining both the downtown and the rural area. It has deliberately arranged such activities as film watching, film song appreciation, and film knowledge popularization, with the average daily audiences of more than 10,000. Therefore, the film festival has genuinely become a “film festival” for all the citizens, as well as a service brand that all the people enjoys the film culture.

　　 (III). Guide the masses with special activities Beijing International Film Festival has been actively adapting itself to the capital’s orientation and development demands, and utilizing the festival’s activities to cultivate the masses’ film-seeing habits and guide the fashion of the film culture consumption. Multiple media and channels such as TV, Internet and cellphone are adopted to launch live broadcasting, timely rebroadcasting, and unveil information related to the festival in real time in order to guide the public to learn about the film culture, participate in film activities, experience the charisma of films and improve the social impact of the film festival. There have been stellar lineups for the film festival’s opening/closing ceremony. In the 4th film festival alone, nearly 500 guests and 59 film crews walked the red carpet. Many film stars and such popular film crews as The Crossing and The Great Hypnotist came face to face with the vast fans. Beijing International Film Festival has become an important platform enthusiastically favored by both Chinese and foreign filmmakers. Some well-known symphony orchestras have been specially invited to play classical film music on the spot. Hayley Westenra and Liu Huan, etc., sang film songs during the film festival. All in all, Beijing International Film Festival has been striving to forge well-reputed business cards, well-reputed songs, well-reputed orchestras, well-reputed conductors, and well-reputed singers. Some well-known international film SFX institutions are invited to the Film Carnival, setting up film SFX experience space, and arranging such experience projects as dynamic capturing post-production, film & teleplay make-up, high-tech digital human-machine interaction. The audiences get access to the classic film models of such films as The Hobbit and The Adventures of Tintin, so that they can feel the charm of the film art, the film technologies and the film culture in person. The 4th Film Carnival·The China Millennium Monument put forward several main themes including Film & Technology, Film & Design, Film & Music. Film Carnival·Huairou set 6 film reviewing sectors and 7 theme day activities, which complement each other with varied features. Film Carnival·The China Millennium Monument has also been hitched with the Film Market, becoming the peripheral market of the Film Market. What’s more, it is also hitched with Yuyuantan Park Cherry Blossom Festival, creating a better film-seeing and recreation climate.

　　III. Construct the big market system, deepen the big market operation, and utilize the big market function. Beijing International Film Festival has been striving to integrate the industrial resources, building up the transaction platform, strengthening commercial design, and forging the biggest commercial film festival in China and even Asia.

　　 (I) Construct the big market system. The commercialized movement is robust. From the 3rd year on, the film festival renamed Beijing Film Negotiation in the former two sessions to Beijing Film Market, focusing on the theme of “Demonstration, recommendation, transaction and exchange” and building up a continuous and comprehensive service platform. As a result, the quantity and quality construction of the Film Market has improved comprehensively, which has formed up a system with exclusive characteristics. A total of 80 projects were successfully inked in the first four sessions, with the total transaction of RMB 27.319 billion hitting new highs of the domestic film market transaction volumes for running years. It has not only seen large-scale improvement of transaction volumes year on year, but also reported big events and big transactions frequently. The contracted projects in the 3rd Film Market covered all links of the film industrial chain, out of which RMB3.108 billion is plunged to investment and production, RMB 3 billion is plunged to cinema lines, film bases, and cultural estate projects, and RMB2.623 billion is plunged to financing, micro-film, technology and other projects. Among the 27 inked projects, 21 are respectively above RMB 100 million, accounting for 77.78% of the total projects. For the 4th BJIFF, a total of 724 film enterprises and institutions from 24 countries and regions participated in the Film Market activities, with the international exhibitors exceeding the domestic ones for the first time. 32 projects secured a combined value of RMB 10.521 billion, exceeding the threshold of RMB 10 billion for the first time. Investment and production chalk up RMB3.803 billion; Cinema lines, film bases, film investment and financing projects chalk up RMB3.4 billion; film & teleplay inventory chalks up RMB1.017 billion; film fund projects chalk up an accumulative contract value of about RMB2.3 billion. More and more film producers, presenters, promoters, and film related institutions and projects are successively choosing to launch propagation and cooperation in Beijing International Film Festival. Lucasfilm President Catherine Kennedy, Dreamworks CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg, the international film star Leonardo DiCaprio and some Hollywood filmmaking giants are actively coming to Beijing to carry out negotiations. Such well-known film companies as Village Roadshow Entertainment Group Asia, IMAX, Media Asia Group Holdings Limited, and DMG Entertainment, as well as such top-notch filmmaking and distribution companies as China Film Group, ENLIGHT MEDIA, Bona Film Group, Huayi Brothers, Beijing Galloping Horse Media Co., Ltd., and Wanda Group have all made promises in shooting co-production films in the film festival.

　　 (II). Deepen the big market operation and consolidate the exchange and transaction brand ceaselessly. Beijing Film Market pays attention to and follow the market rules, emphasizes the effectiveness of allocating the market resources through market, and has gradually formed seven sectors including Market Exhibition & Transaction, Project Pitches & Negotiations, Project Roadshows, Contract Signing Ceremony, Market Screenings, Symposiums & Industrial Salons. The activity contents have been increasing step by step. It has proposed the concept of “Film Factors”, and has set up two professional transaction platforms - Film Factor Market and Film Project Market. The Film Factor Market focuses on “film post-technology” and “film shooting location”, and invites the well-known exhibitors worldwide to participate. It carries out intensive promotions through Exhibition, Industry Conversions, Roadshow Salons, and Contract Signing Ceremony, in a bid to fully connect the market demands and industrial resources both at home and abroad. The Film Project Market focuses on inviting the senior experts in the film industrial chain, comprehensively evaluate the potentials of the projects, introducing the VC training sector, fully tap every shortlisted project’s possibility, and striving to give birth to more excellent projects in line with the market demands and with market potentials on the platform of the Film Market. At the same time, the two platforms interact with each other fully. The projects incubated by the Film Project Market can be displayed, recommended and transacted again on the platform of the Film Factor Market Several excellent works including Wolf Totem and The Bodyguard have been successfully incubated through the Film Project Market. Such Sino-overseas co-production films as Seven Holy Star Battle, Moon Flower of Flying Tigers, Marco Polo, The Late Peace, and Warriors of the City were signed on the spot. The Film Market boasts of high-end and pragmatic exchanges and transactions. It has become one of the most active, appealing and largest-scale film markets in the world.

　　 (III) Utilize the function of the big market, and stimulate the development of the relevant cultural industry. Beijing International Film Festival is utilizing multiple forces such as the central and the local authorities, government and enterprises, state-owned and private entities, and teaching and R&D, pooling various institutions including film enterprises, industrial bases, industrial organizations, and government departments, integrating the whole industrial chain including design, investment, production, technologies, distribution, cinema lines, media publicity, and Internet as well as production base construction and derivative development, and radiating multiple relevant sectors such as finance, publishing, advertising and legal consulting. Therefore, it has formed up a strong integrated interaction effect, as well as a big film market featuring comprehensive production factors, convenient exchange & transaction and robust vitality. It has introduced some high-end strategic partners such as China Unicom since the second time in a bid to strengthen the marketing operation of the film festival. It has also strengthened cooperation with Tencent, Youku Tudou Inc., iQIYI, Sohu and Mtime, providing such services as issuing information, purchasing tickets online, and giving live broadcast, and realizing the cross-border win-win result of the festival and the websites. Such sectors as the forums, the Film Market, and the Carnival are covering multiple populations including the film stars, professionals and ordinary citizens. It has formed a strong visual and audio impact of the film culture through high-frequency activity arrangements and intensive media publicity, which has effectively activated the potential market of film consumption, and pushed forward the cultural consumption and the relevant industrial development including conference & exhibition, tourism, art performance, communication, and dining. It has played a key role in improving the urban cultural taste, forging the diversified spaces of the urban cultural life, enhancing the capital cultural industry’s pivotal role in the national economy, and promoting the transformation and upgrade of the capital economic structure.

　　“Master” embodies the film festival’s internationalization and professionalism, reflecting its artistic values; “ Mass” embodies the film festival’s brand influence and proposal of benefiting the masses, reflecting its social values; “ Market” embodies the film festival’s vitality and recognition by the market, reflecting its business values. Master, Mass, and Market are bringing about “big achievement”. In the past four years, Beijing International Film Festival has realized comprehensive improvement in terms of awarding authoritativeness, film quality, guest lineup, forum professionalism, market transaction volume, and brand influence. The enrolled films for Tiantan Award are increasing in number, coming from more countries, boasting higher overall levels and more professional organization and operation. It can promote the cultural exchange and mutual learning between different countries and nationalities, manifesting the philosophy and mission of Beauty in Variety, Harmony in Diversity, embodying the inclusive Chinese culture, and reflecting Beijing International Film Festival’s cognition and mastery of the global film development. It strictly follows the film-selection standards of the international film festivals. A batch of films will be scientifically selected into the Competition Section; A batch of films will be screened in Beijing Film Panorama; A batch of films will be emphatically recommended in the Film Market. Therefore, the participating films feature abundant varieties and categories, representing the latest development of the global film art development. The film forums are in line with the macro trend that the Chinese film industry has entered into the golden development period and that the exchange and cooperation between Chinese and foreign films are deepening ceaselessly. The forums have arranged themes by focusing on resource integration, 3D technology, film creativity, film music, makeup special effects, and animated films, which reinforce the forums’ motivation for the film prosperity and industrial development. The signed projects cover all links of the film products, including project cultivation, investment & financing, shooting, marketing, release, and overseas promotion, which can effectively satisfy the insiders’ pluralistic demands of seeking projects, seeking finance, seeking market and seeking cooperation. The transaction value increased from RMB2.794 billion in the first year to RMB10.521 billion in the 4th year, which has fully displayed the vitality of Beijing Film Market. At the same time, the festival’s operation mode has got more and more matured by introducing cash sponsorship, material sponsorship and service sponsorship, and other pluralistic and marketized modes, and innovating cooperation mode and returns equities. It has strengthened the in-depth excavation of the film festival’s commercial resources and realized the maximization of the festival efficiency. The market is playing a bigger and bigger role, and the quality of various activities are getting more professional and efficient. Beijing International Film Festival has become an important cultural business card of the capital and China. It is building up a benign platform of demonstration for the Chinese films to participate in the international film culture exchange. It is playing a positive role in promoting the global film art and the international communication of the Chinese culture.

　　IV. The 5th Beijing International Film Festival: Highlights the characteristics of "Master, Mass, Market"

　　The 5th BJIFF will be held between April 16, 2015 and April 23, 2015, featuring such seven major events as Opening Ceremony, Tiantan Award Selection, Beijing Film Panorama, Theme Forum, Film Market, Film Carnival, and Closing & Awards Ceremony, as well as such relevant activities as Forward Future Unit, Documentary Sector, and “Classical Peking Opera Film” Section, and New Focus. Beijing International Film Festival has been fully supported by the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television of the People's Republic of China and the People’s Government of Beijing Municipality. Based the abundant film resources in Beijing, the festival has undergone the development phases of high-end kickoff, frogleap improvement and comprehensive hitch with the world’s well-known film festivals. The film festival’s orientation and style have come into being gradually. The 5th Beijing International Film Festival will take General Secretary Xi Jinping’s spirit of the important speech at the central literature and art work forum as the guidance, stick to the philosophy of Master, Mass, Market, highlight its self-orientation and special styles, further demonstrate art values, social values and commercial values, and hereby differentiate it from other international film festivals. Beijing International Film Festival will strive to build the Festival into the No. 1 film festival in Asia and keep abreast with the world’s top 3 film festivals like Cannes International Film Festival and Toronto International Film Festival in three to five years.

　　All in all, compared with the former 4 sessions, this year’s film festival will realize new breakthroughs in six aspects: Firstly, realize “new breakthroughs” in inviting master-level filmmakers. Chaired by Luc Besson, the jury of Tiantan Award consists of world-renowned directors, screenwriters, actors and actresses. It has invited Marco Muller who served as the president of the 8th Venice International Film Festival to be the Chief Consultant of the film festival. It has also invited the presidents and directors of 15 international film festivals to attend various activities of the film festival. Secondly, realize “new breakthroughs” in film quality. 45 internationally premiered films have enrolled for Tiantan Award. It is predicted that the international films that have been enrolled into Tiantan Award will all be internationally premiered films. Besides, 21 films receiving awards of international A-level film festivals and the Academy Award are to be shown in the Out-of-Competition Section. Thirdly, realize “new breakthroughs” in the exhibition scale. The exhibitors for this year has seen 10% growth than in the former year. International exhibitors account for 50% or so. The signed contract values are expected to reach RMB11 billion. Fourthly, realize “new breakthroughs” in the cooperation with world famous film institutions. The 5th BJIFF will cooperate with Cannes International Film Festival in establishing the Cannes International Film Festival "Foundation Award for Chinese New Filmmakers" of which the winning projects can directly participate in the Film Market activity of the 68th Cannes International Film Festival. The 5th BJIFF will also cooperate with the Motion Picture Association of America in holding the "Hollywood Film Master Class" and establishing the "MPA Award" of which the winners would receive a training sponsored by MPAA. Fifthly, realize “new breakthroughs” in the holistic publicity of all media. Apart from publicity through newspapers, broadcast and television, the 5th BJIFF will also emphasize on publicity through the Internet and new media and make full use of Official Weibo, WeChat, APP and popular websites, creating the multi-media publicity pattern and further strengthening international communication and influence of the Film Festival. Sixthly, realize “new breakthroughs” in the market-oriented operation of the Film Festival. After sufficient preparation, Beijing International Film Festival Co., Ltd. has been officially registered and established and has joined in the film festival undertaking mechanism as the market entity, which marks a big step taken by BJIFF in its market-oriented operation.

　　For details, this year’s film festival has the following prominent features:

　　(I). Specific activities of the film festival will be carried out in accordance with the important instructions and spirits of Xi Jinping, General Secretary of CPC, on strengthening international cultural exchange. During his visits to India, South Korea, New Zealand and Australia in 2014, Xi gave important instructions on international cultural exchange and cooperation. Thereupon, the Organizing Committee of the Beijing International Film Festival (BJIFF) has responded positively to his instructions by carefully selecting activities for the festival. Moreover, it has invited the New Zealand Film Commission, Screen Australia (the Australian Federal Government's key funding body for the Australian screen production industry) as well as Indian films and filmmakers to the activities. Specifically, the out-of-competition activity comprises out-of-competition sections for South Korean, Indian and New Zealand films, and the Film Market will host the Sino-Australia Film Co-production Forum in conjunction with Ausfilm.

　　 (II). The activities are selected on the basis of the "Master, Mass, Market" orientation, with the style of the film festival being firmly established. A variety of efforts have been held by the 5th BJIFF: Works of masters are invited to compete, their classic films will be screened, lectures by the masters will be given and master forums will be held, gathering the masters in order to pay tribute to them while cultivating future ones; by organizing such activities as special events for the grass-root, appreciation of great films, meetings with stars and producers, official release of new films, films coming into college campuses and movie themed activities, the festival aims to attract the public, serve the public and guide the public; based on the theme of "Display, Recommendation, Transaction and Communication”. Resources from film enterprises, industrial bases and industrial organizations are integrated, domestic and international customer networks are enriched and expanded, supply and demand are further explored, business coordination and planning are strengthened, a large market system is established and market operations are deepened in order to give full play to the functions of a large market and further build a film market brand leading not only in Asia but also the world.

　　 (III). The Opening Ceremony and Closing Ceremony will be held at International Convention & Exhibition Center Yanqi Lake Beijing in Huairou District, the gorgeous grandness of which will highlight the beautiful landscape. As the venue for the APEC China 2014, the International Convention & Exhibition Center Yanqi Lake Beijing has been approved by the Beijing Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China and the People's Government of Beijing Municipality to be the venue for the Opening Ceremony and Closing Ceremony of the 5th BJIFF. It is also the first time for a large-scale international cultural event to be held at the International Convention & Exhibition Center Yanqi Lake Beijing following the APEC China 2014. The main structure of the center takes the shape of "Han Tang Fei Yan" (meaning a flying swallow with features of the Han and Tang dynasties), the architectural style of which is similar to that of the Temple of Heaven and highly consistent with the core values of the Tiantan Award - "Beauty in Variety, Harmony in Diversity".

　　 (IV) Invite distinguished guests widely and set the Chief Advisor of the film festival for the first time. The presidents and directors of such international film festivals as Warsaw, Tokyo, Locarno, Montreal, and Busan are invited to this year’s film festival. Several popular film crews will show up collectively. The jury lineup for the Competition Section is fairly stellar, with five out of seven jury members being international ones. The famous French director Luc Besson will act as the Chairman of the international jury of Tiantan Award with other members from Russia, US, South Korea and Brazil, etc. Marco Müller, the famous Italian film critic, historian, director and screenwriter of documentary of film history is invited to serve as the Chief Advisor of the festival and the other members of his team are also employed to serve as the advisor for film selection. Setting a chief film advisor is a historic action that indicates BJIFF's efforts in improving its internationalism and professionalism, with an aim to attract more excellent films from both at home and abroad to participate in it, and to expand its influence and reputation in the film industry.

　　 (V) Several globally premiered films are shortlisted into the Competition Section of Tiantan Award. The quality for the participating films has further improved. The candidates of the Tiantan Award in the former two sessions were also good in quality, however, most films had been screened in the former year or in other countries. Some of them had also participated in other international film festivals, so they were less appealing to the media and the audiences. This year’s Tiantan Award selection increases the candidates of the globally premiered films and will host several premieres. The Nominated Films in the Competition Section have improved a lot compared with those in the former four sessions in terms of appeal and influence.

　　    (VI) Set up multiple special awards to pay tribute to masters and cultivate future masters. The year of 2015 will usher in the 120th birthday of the film industry in the world and the 110th birthday of the Chinese film industry. In addition to 10 awards in the Tiantan Award Competition Section, the Film Market, while taking 1 place in Special Awards for Project Pitches and 3 places in "Projects with Greatest Commercial Potential", is going to cooperate with Film Market of the Cannes International Film Festival in adding 2 places of the 68th Cannes International Film Festival "Foundation Award for Chinese New Filmmakers" of which the winning projects will be directly nominated to the "New Chinese Film Talents Fund Forum"; it will also include such activities as project promotion, press conference, and project negotiation. On the other hand, it will also cooperate with the Motion Picture Association of America in holding the "Hollywood Film Master Class" and adding 1 place of the "MPA Award" of which the winners would receive a training sponsored by MPAA. A new section, "Film Critics' Recommendations" will be included in Beijing Film Panorama. Professional film critics at home and abroad will be invited as members of a jury independent from that of the Competition Section of Tiantan Award, who will scout for new excellent talents from and outside of China, and select 5 to 10 outstanding films for panorama as an honor and encouragement to young filmmakers. Besides, International Young Film Maker Workshop will be established, inviting renowned filmmakers to guide the young directors from different countries participating in Forward Future Unit to work in projects together. New Focus will continue to make good use of the resources of China Movie Channel, a national professional omnimedia platform of film to release key big data indexes in China film market in the previous year and indicators for comprehensive influence of films based on integrated analysis on big data, and discover, promote and support young talents with potential in the Chinese film market.

　　 (VII) The film forums are to be undertaken by professional institutions. Guest level and topic communication will improve in a large scale. The film forums will invite master-level guests in the film circle and arrange three theme forums and the relevant activities by centering around “Improvement and Leapfrog of Film Co-production”, “Film technology in the era of big screen”, and “New ideology and new concept of the film editing art”, which will be respectively undertaken by China Film Co-production Corporation, Beijing Branch of China Film Co., Ltd., and China National Film Museum. The forums will invite the first-rate filmmaking enterprises’ CEOs in the world and the film industry leaders in China, analyze the status quo of the global film industry by centering around the film art, technology, and industrial development, and share the matured experience of the global film industry in respect of multi-industry cooperation, capital operation, film technology innovation and film expression art, in a bid to promote the healthy, rapid and sustainable development of the Chinese film industry.

　　 (VIII) Perfect the Out-of-Competition Section and encourage diversification of films. Beijing Film Panorama will set multiple theme exhibitions targeting at different films, continuing with the Opening/Closing Film, Masterpiece Out-of-Competition Section, restored film section, IMAX section, Essence of Series, anime film section, and Micro Film, and adding “Classical Peking Opera Film” Section, Film Critics’ Recommendations, and Genre Film Recommendation. While taking the high-quality mainstream films as the dominating film screenings, it will give differentiated treatment in cinema screening schedule and publicity, ensuring the screening quantity and quality of documentary films, experimental films and niche genre films. Birdman, The Grand Budapest Hotel, The Imitation Game, A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence, and Still Alice etc., which have won awards of international well-known film festivals and the Academy Award are included in the list of films to be shown in the Out-of-Competition Section. The Micro Film will, by combining the development of new media development and taking the micro film online screening as the core, open special pages in the mainstream video websites, selecting the excellent micro films and launch a one-week collective display.

　　 (IX) Grasp the international film exhibition trend, and upgrade the Documentary Sector comprehensively. The 4th Beijing International Film Festival started the independent Documentary section for the first time, which triggered wide attention and active participation of the domestic and foreign documentary video industry. From this session on, the Documentary Sector, as an important part of the film festival, will be upgraded comprehensively. It is ranked in the same level with the seven major activities of Beijing International Film Festival such as Tiantan Award and Beijing Film Panorama. It has specially authorized Beijing International Documentary Center (BIDC) to undertake the 2015-2019 Documentary related activities. The Documentary Sector will host award-appraisal, exhibitions, and professional forums, as well as documentary screening, Banff Mountain Film Festival “China Special Screening and Audience Meeting”, “Record of Youth” Surrounding-Pacific University Students Documentary Works Competition Awarding Ceremony, and other salon activities. Documentary section and united booths are added to the Film Market, piloting the documentary creativities, proposals and works transaction.

　　 (X) Taking measures for people's benefit and convenience and broadening channels for public participation. The list of Beijing Film Panorama films will be released in advance, at intervals and by part, via Official Website, Official Weibo, WeChat account, and online ticketing system to cater public expectation and offer convenience for ordering ticket. There are some new moves in terms of venues: Firstly, the screening arrangement is optimized to highlight different themes. We have selected 7 movie theaters to serve as the key venues of the event, and 5 theaters as the themed cinema, where 3 to 5 halls will be used to play specific genre of movies so that movie-goers for their favorable genre can get together to watch. Secondly, we have made full advantage of the location and professional resources of the China Film Archive to carry out different activities for the grass-roots such as schools, communities, troops and countryside, and create an atmosphere in which the general public can share what they love. Thirdly, we will introduce Beijing Film Panorama films into colleges. We have included 8 universities, including Peking University, Tsinghua University, Renmin University of China and Beihang University, as sub-venues of the Panorama to attract young movie-goers and cultivate college students to become new contribution to box office. Meanwhile, we have opened up event-specific pages and streamed special shows on our Official Website, social networking platforms like Weibo and WeChat, and video sharing sites like Tencent Video, Youku Tudou, iQIYI and Sohu Video. By doing this we hope to avail ourselves of the emerging media and involve online movie-goers into the event.

　　 (XI) Film Carnival events will be held in one main venue, three sub-venues and multiple spots to promote the Huairou TV & Film Demo Zone. Film Carnival events will be held in one main venue that are located in Yanqi Lake Scenic Area in Huairou District. Sub-venues include Stellar Mega Media Film and TV Base, Spring Legend Town and Yancheng Ancient Street, featuring film themed event, special effects experience, themed show and movie merchandise shops, which will improve the influence of Huairou TV & Film Demo Zone. Meanwhile, we will highlight key features of the Panorama and host related Carnival events around the screening venues with the aim to attract most wide public participation, create good festival atmosphere and heighten influence of Huairou TV & Film Demo Zone.

　　 (XII) The Film Market will be "production-company-oriented" to further expand the exhibition. In light of the production-company-to-production-company model that prevails on globally-renowned film festival markets, the Film Market of the 5th BJIFF will invite targeted production companies and studios at home and abroad to our centralized promotional seminars and shows to facilitate cooperation, co-production and copyright deals. We particularly encourage film and TV production companies based in Beijing to partake in the show, and the exhibitors this year have increased by over 10% compared to the last year. We attach great importance to the utilization of global resources, so we have invited more exhibitors with international fame that come from more countries and regions than ever to maintain a 50% proportion of international exhibitors.

　　 (XIII) The market activities are getting more and more colorful, facilitating the copyright transactions. This year’s Film Market will strive to build up the two professional transaction platforms of the Film Factor and Project Pitches by focusing on such activities as Exhibition, Project Pitches, Industry Conversations, Events & Activities, Market Screenings and Market Contracting. The market contract value is expected to reach RMB11 billion. The Film Market’s function of platform, industrial impact and radiation will be highlighted. Exhibitions will cover all links of the film industrial chain on the basis of the Film Factor Market. Project Pitches will be dedicated to forge a comprehensive transaction platform combining investment, production, marketing, publicity and distribution. This year’s Project Pitches have solicited 455 works, up 100% y-o-y. 2-3 series of topics have been set for the Industry Conversations, which select the pointcut, extend in-depth discussions, and expand the industrial cooperation channels. Events & Activities will provide opportunities of collective display, commercial promotion and industrial exchange for the Chinese and foreign film institutions and film projects. Market Screenings and film screening activities will share resources, and launch customized screenings targeting at buyers’ and exhibitors’ demands, and emphatically display the formerly signed projects. Contract Signing Ceremony will comprehensively promote the incubation function of the VC transaction platform, and emphatically recommend the key projects featuring big volume and industrial significance. Besides, the Film Market will strengthen the cooperation with other countries’ film institutions, reinforce the interaction with the film screening sector. It will provide more demonstration and negotiation opportunities for domestic and foreign film companies and promote copyright transactions through setting up national united booths and theme Market Screenings.

　　 (XIV) Improvement in organization and operation to promote the integration of government and social efforts in hosting the festival. Based on the characteristics of a film festival in a metropolis, the 5th BJIFF makes full use of the film resources in the capital and highlight the pattern similar to that of the national team in hosting a festival. For instance, national film institutions such as China Film Group Corporation, China Film Archive, China National Film Museum and Beijing Film Academy are invited to participate in the arrangement of this festival. Drawing on the rich experience of first-class international film festivals, the Organizing Committee has founded the Beijing International Film Festival Co., Ltd., formulated the Administrative Rules for Sponsorship and Investment Promotion and the Interim Administrative Regulations for Investment Promotion Agency and adopted the principle of combining fixed financial allowance with market development to promote the integration of government and social efforts in hosting the festival, improve the ability of the festival in creation and market operation and better its market operation pattern.