One of the most anticipated events in China's film industry this year and the first ever Film Festival in the capital, "Beijing International Film Festival" kicked off at the National Center for the Performing Arts on Saturday. Many renown directors, actors and actresses walked the red carpet.

Organized by the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television and the Beijing Municipal Government, the festival saw Top Chinese film stars and renowned directors such as Fan Bingbing and Feng Xiaogang strut their stuff in front of the Beijing and international media.

Meanwhile, the opening ceremony also saw many international representatives of the movie industry attend including John Woo, Lion King Director Rob Mintoff, actors Edmond Wong and Director Bak-Ming. International movie stars Jackie Chan and Zhang Ziyi were featured as the "Image Ambassadors" of the event, who have contributed much of their efforts on promoting not only the film festival, but also the city of Beijing.

Jackie Chan, Actor and Image Ambassador of BJIFF, said, "Through the film festival, I hope more people will come here. With large-scale media coverage, more people will know about China. As the ambassador of the film festival, I am very honored and proud that Beijing has its own film festival."

The first session launched the "Beijing Film Panorama", screening more than 160 movies from 42 countries, also set off on Saturday featuring last year's Hollywood blockbusters such as "Black Swan" and "The Social Network." While he will exchange ideas with his counterparts such as John Woo and Lu Chuan later at the industry insiders' forum, the Director of "Black Swan," Darren Aronofsky, explained his surprise to the newly opened festival:

Darren Aronofsky, Director of "Black Swan", said, "It's great, I'm surprised that Beijing hasn't had a film festival... "

The primary goal of the large-scale film festival is to improve the cooperation between the Chinese and international film industry. The promotion of domestic films to the rest of the world, and establishing the festival as an annual event are the most obvious signs on the road to achieving those goals. Although, the film festival offers Chinese filmmakers, actors and industry professionals a chance to seize the spotlight on the international stage, the associated forums and seminars are where the real practical work is accomplished. For example, the session of "Beijing Film Marketing" attracted more than one hundred cinema organizations to exhibit.

In the meantime, the organizers have invited 22 presidents of various international film festivals, as the Beijing Festival seeks to associate itself with other international film events. 8 chairmen of level A film festivals will deliver speeches on the topic of "Film Festival and City Influence" at the industry insiders' forum this week.

The first Beijing International Film Festival lasts through April 28th.

声明：音视频均来自互联网链接，仅供学习使用。本网站自身不存储、控制、修改被链接的内容。"沪江英语"高度重视知识产权保护。当如发现本网站发布的信息包含有侵犯其著作权的链接内容时，请联系我们，我们将依法采取措施移除相关内容或屏蔽相关链接。