This year's week-long Beijing International Film Festival will kick off on April 13. Over 260 films are set to be screened across the Chinese capital. Ahead of the festival, CGTN's Tian Wei had an interview with the Icelandic film director Fridrik Thor Fridriksson.

Fridriksson grew up in Iceland in the 1960s, and was largely influenced by American films. He started his film-making career with experimental movies and documentaries in the early 1980s. His film "Children of Nature" was nominated for Best Foreign Language Oscar in 1991.

Fridriksson's films are deeply rooted in Iceland's culture, often depicting characters at the crossroads of tradition and modernity.

In the interview, he tells us what is an honest film. "An honest film is not a propaganda film, it's just using honest, quiet, simple film language that everybody can understand," he said.

But, according to Fridriksson, that's the problem that exists within educational systems all over the world, for they don't teach young children how to read film language.

Together with his film company, Mr. Fridriksson has been working with Hollywood a lot. He said that Hollywood does not make honest films. "American or Hollywood films are just like fast food, they are meant to kill time. Just like when you eat a McDonald`s hamburger, fast food, you are just killing hunger, you are not enjoying it. It's very similar to American films. If you get too much you get sick. "

As the only film director from Iceland that was nominated for the best foreign film in Oscars, Fridriksson benefited a lot from the nomination. "It was nice of course, it helps me a lot, our film was sold already before that, but it helps me to finance films in the future. That was really helpful not only for me, but also for the whole Icelandic cinema industry," he said.

But on the other hand, he thinks the Oscars is also beset with problems, including corruption. He praises Zhang Yimou's "Raise the Red Lantern" as worthy of winning Oscars. "Zhang Yimou was there with me. He has been nominated in 1990 and also in 1991. Everyone thought he was just there to pick it up, but instead they gave the Oscar to an Italian film. I think there was a kind of corruption going on, because in terms of quality, the other film was nothing compared to 'Raise the Red Lantern' by Zhang Yimou," he said.