The opening and closing ceremonies of the 8th Beijing International Film Festival are scheduled on April 15 and 22 respectively, according to a preparations progress report by the organizing committee on Feb. 12. The ceremonies will be held at Beijing Yanqi Lake International Convention and Exhibition Center.
Preparations for the film festival are complete, according to the organizing committee. During the festival, participating films produced in 2017 and after will compete for the Tiantan Awards, with preferences toward those to premiere at the festival. An international panel of seven world-renowned filmmakers led by Chinese director Wang Jiawei will select from up to 17 finalists for the awards, and the winners will be announced at the closing ceremony. The committee has already received 579 submissions from 70 countries and regions, of which 480 are films made outside of the Chinese mainland.
Films presented during this year's film festival will fall into 18 separate sessions, including a special session that will show the industry's achievements since China's reform and opening up, as well as a science-themed session from April 7 to May 6 that will showcase 25 latest new-tech films from around the world. All 32 cinemas will offer discounted tickets online and at the box office.
The carnival of the film festival is going to be held in the State Production Base of China Film Group in Huairou district from April 14 to May 1. Altogether 16 subsections and 29 exhibitions and interactive activities will take place at the carnival. The latest additions to the list of exhibitions include movie scenes from location shooting, an in-studio snow scene, and other reproduced scenes from hit films.
A feature event of the festival will be a concert as a tribute to time-honored and classic music in films. The concert will be sponsored by Beijing Television (BTV) and held at the National Center for the Performing Arts on April 18. In addition, organizers are inviting the public to submit video clips telling their favorite movie-related stories to be featured at the festival.