Cannes Film Festival: Chinese movies heavily featured at 71st edition

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This year's Cannes Film Festival saw six Asian movies -- the most in recent years -- competing for prestigious awards. Besides the Japanese feature "Shoplifters", which picked up the top prize, Chinese cinema was also well represented.

Chinese films caused quite a stir at this year's Cannes Film Festival.

In the official competition, the country was represented by Jia Zhangke's movie "Ash is Purest White," which drew many positive reviews. The movie is set in an inland city in the early noughties, and details a poignant romance between a young dancer and a local gangster. Jia also showed the radical changes of contemporary China through the story.

This is his fifth entry for the festival's official selection. The 47-year-old director and screenwriter won Best Screenplay Award in 2013 for his drama film "A Touch of Sin". He also served on the Official Selection Jury at Cannes in 2014.

Rising Chinese director Bi Gan's marked his first time at the Cannes with his second feature film "Long Day's Journey Into Night".

CHRISTOPHE TARDIEU DIRECTOR, FRENCH NATIONAL CINEMA CENTER "We can see more and more Chinese films are being selected to compete in the Cannes Film Festival. I think this is because the Chinese film industry has made big progress in recent years. Now Chinese films are being distributed all over the world and they are quite competitive."

Other Chinese filmmakers also took home awards at the film fest.

27-year-old director from Beijing Wei Shujun, won the Special Mention award - an honor second to the Palme d'Or -- in the short film category, for his 15-minute film "On the Border."

Shen Di from the Shanghai Theater Academy was the other rising Chinese star at Cannes. She shared the second prize from Cinefondation, which is primarily dedicated to submissions made by film-school students, for her 31-minute short film "The Storms in Our Blood."

Chinese film stars such as Aaron Kwok and Ma Su were also at the festival to promote their productions.