Organizers of the inaugural Beijing International Film Festival (BJIFF) are in Berlin, taking submissions for the fest to be held April 23 - 28 this year.

“We want to build a platform for diversified film gems in Beijing. It’s the cultural center of China and our ambition in the long-term is to turn Beijing into the centre of film in the East,” said Pang Wei, deputy director general of the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Radio, Film and Television and also the executive deputy director of the BJIFF Organizing Committee Office.

Incorporating the former Beijing Screenings which used to be held in September, BJIFF will have a market, forums for discussion and about 100 local films as well as 100 foreign films in sections such as Multicultural Perspective, Documentary and Short Films, Animated Films, Retrospective Exhibition of Film Masters and Films of Beijing’s Sister Cities. All films must pass the Chinese censorship bureau, so overly violent or pornographic fare is to be avoided.

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