Beijing International Film Festival: Diverse selection of movies now showing in Chinese capital

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It's been a great movie season for film buffs in the Chinese capital. It's about to get better with Sunday's opening of the Beijing International Film Festival, which features a wide selection of pictures. The event will also see a ten Tiantan Awards given out to the best of the best. Sun Tianyuan has the story.

A mix of eras and genres. A total of 328 films. On April 6th, the so-called panorama section of the 8th Beijing International Film Festival offered an initial taste to moviegoers. A wide variety of Chinese films, restored classics, a Wes Anderson showcase, and Ingmar Bergman retrospective. There's something for everyone.

I didn't get to buy a ticket for Seven Samurai by Akira Kurosawa. It's too hard to get one.

The Ingmar Bergman series is one of the top picks in this year's festival.

Seven seconds is all it took to sell all tickets for The Dark Knight Trilogy package. Tickets to other top draws were just as hard to get. And for the first time ever, a section for virtual reality.

With the Films in Panorama started a week ahead, the festival proper officially kicked off on Sunday, with judges for the Tiantan Awards 2018 getting the first batch of films.

WONG KAR WAI, JURY PRESIDENT 8TH TIANTAN AWARD "This year marks the 40 years anniversary of China opening up, I hope Beijing International Film Festival could be a broader platform, bringing more diversity and injecting more vigor."

SHU QI, JURY 8TH TIANTAN AWARD "I feel there are a lot of commercial films in the Chinese market. I do hope we will have other kinds of movies like the ones in the Beijing International Film Festival, to improve the quality, because not all good movies are generally recognized."

Winners of the 10 Tiantan awards will be announced during the closing ceremony on April 22nd. Sun Tianyuan, CGTN.