The Beijing International Film Festival (

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...

: 北京国际电影节), abbreviated BJIFF, is a

film festival A film festival is an organized, extended presentation of films in one or more cinemas or screening venues, usually in a single city or region. Increasingly, film festivals show some films outdoors. Films may be of recent date and, depending upo ...

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

, China. Founded in 2011, the film festival is supported and sponsored by China Film Administration, China Media Group and Beijing Government. The festival is one of the world's most prominent film festivals, and since its launch has been heavily attended by Hollywood executives, directors, producers and studio heads, as well as filmmakers and actors from all over the world. It serves as an international venue for different cultures around the globe to communicate. As China's box office has expanded exponentially over the past decade, the festival is aiming to provide a high-profile forum for the interaction between the Chinese and the international film industries.

2012 Festival

Notable international guest speakers at the 2012 festival including James Cameron, who unveiled the details of the upcoming ''Avatar'' sequels at the film festival;

Jim Gianopulos James N. Gianopulos ( el, Δημήτρης Γιαννόπουλος) is an American businessman. He served as the head of 20th Century Fox and most recently as the chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of Paramount Pictures until his ouster ...

, Jeremy Renner,

Tom DeSanto Tom DeSanto (born January 1, 1968) is an American film producer and screenwriter. Career DeSanto is a founding writer/producer behind several of the biggest franchises in movie history (''X-Men'', ''Transformers''). DeSanto's films have gross ...

Jon Landau Jon Landau (born May 14, 1947) is an American music critic, manager, and record producer. He has worked with Bruce Springsteen in all three capacities. He is the head of the nominating committee for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and re ...

, who were there to discuss co-productions between Hollywood and Chinese film studios.

2013 Festival

Notable guests at the 2013 festival includes Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy,

Paul Hanneman Paul A. Hanneman (July 21, 1936 – May 3, 2017) was an American politician who was a member of the Oregon House of Representatives. Hanneman was born in Portland, Oregon and attended Portland State University. He was a businessman, owning and op ...

, Keanu Reeves, and

Peter Chan Peter Ho-sun Chan (born 28 November 1962) is a film director and producer. Early life Chan was born in British Hong Kong to parents China. He and his family moved to Thailand when he was 12, where he grew up amongst the international Chine ...

Luc Besson Luc Paul Maurice Besson (; born 18 March 1959) is a French film director, screenwriter and producer. He directed or produced the films ''Subway'' (1985), '' The Big Blue'' (1988), and '' La Femme Nikita'' (1990). Besson is associated with the ' ...

, Jean-Jacques Annaud, and

Wolfgang Petersen Wolfgang Petersen (14 March 1941 – 12 August 2022) was a German film director, screenwriter, and producer. He was nominated for two Academy Awards for the World War II submarine warfare film '' Das Boot'' (1981). His other films include '' The ...

also discussed their upcoming co-productions in China at the festival.

2014 Festival

The 2014 festival saw

Jean Reno Jean Reno () (born 30 July 1948), is a French actor. He has worked in American, French, English, Japanese, Spanish and Italian movie productions; Reno appeared in films such as '' Crimson Rivers'', ''Godzilla'', '' The Da Vinci Code'', '' Mission ...

Alfonso Cuaron Alphons (Latinized ''Alphonsus'', ''Adelphonsus'', or ''Adefonsus'') is a male given name recorded from the 8th century (Alfonso I of Asturias, r. 739–757) in the Christian successor states of the Visigothic kingdom in the Iberian peninsula. ...

, Paramount Pictures COO Frederick Huntsberry, Oliver Stone, MPAA president

Christopher Dodd Christopher John Dodd (born May 27, 1944) is an American lobbyist, lawyer, and Democratic Party politician who served as a United States senator from Connecticut from 1981 to 2011. Dodd is the longest-serving senator in Connecticut's histor ...

, Peter Del Vecho,

Carlos Saldanha Carlos Saldanha (; born 24 January 1965) is a Brazilian animator, director, producer, and voice actor of animated films who worked with Blue Sky Studios until its closure in 2021. He was the director of '' Ice Age: The Meltdown'' (2006), '' Ice A ...

John Woo John Woo Yu-Sen SBS (; born September 22, 1946) is a Hong Kong filmmaker, known as a highly-influential figure in the action film genre. He was a pioneer of heroic bloodshed films (a crime action film genre involving Chinese triads) and the gun ...

Timur Bekmambetov Timur Nuruakhitovich Bekmambetov (, ; ; born June 25, 1961) is a Russian-Kazakhstan, Kazakh film Film director, director, Film producer, producer, screenwriter, and tech entrepreneur. He is best known for the fantasy epic ''Night Watch (2004 fi ...

, Peter Ziering, Andres Vicente Gomez,

Rajkumar Hirani Rajkumar Hirani (born 20 November 1962), also called Raju Hirani, is an Indian filmmaker, director, producer and editor known for his works in Hindi films. He is the recipient of several accolades, including three National Film Awards and eleve ...

and

Jim Sheridan Jim Sheridan (born 6 February 1949) is an Irish playwright and filmmaker. Between 1989 and 1993, Sheridan directed two critically acclaimed films set in Ireland, '' My Left Foot'' and '' In the Name of the Father'', and later directed the fi ...

. The festival also saw a large representation from the

BFI The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves film-making and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery (United Kingdom), National Lot ...

, the British Film Commission and BBC, who are aiming for a closer co-production agreement with China.

2015 Festival

The 2015 festival saw Arnold Schwarzenegger, and

Darren Aronofsky Darren Aronofsky (born February 12, 1969) is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. His films are noted for their surrealistic, melodramatic, and sometimes disturbing elements, often in the form of psychological fiction. Arono ...

attend the event in April.

2016 Festival

The 2016 festival saw

Natalie Portman Natalie Portman (born Natalie Hershlag, he, נטע-לי הרשלג, ) is an Israeli-born American actress. She has had a prolific film career since her teenage years and has starred in various blockbusters and independent films, receiving mu ...

, and Christoph Waltz as well as Brett Ratner, Sam Raimi, Yojiro Takita, Giuseppe Tornatore and Iain Smith attend the event in April.

2018 Festival

2019 Festival

The 2019 festival was held from April 13 to the 20th.

2020 Festival

The 2020 Festival was postponed owing to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

. It was later held from August 22 to the 29th.

2021 Festival

The 11th Beijing International Film Festival, which was originally scheduled for August 14 to 21, and postponed in the aftermath of COVID-19, was held from the 21 to 29 September 2021.

Censorship

Amid increasing criticism of China's tightening of censorship, the 2018 Festival attracted controversy when

Chinese Government The Government of the People's Republic of China () is an authoritarian political system in the People's Republic of China under the exclusive political leadership of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). It consists of legislative, executive, m ...

censors banned the Festival from screening the Oscar-winning ''

Call Me by Your Name (film) ''Call Me by Your Name'' ( it, Chiamami col tuo nome, link=no) is a 2017 coming-of-age romantic drama film directed by Luca Guadagnino. Its screenplay, by James Ivory, who also co-produced, is based on the 2007 novel of the same title by Andr ...

,'' throwing a spotlight on

LGBT rights in China Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people in the People's Republic of China face legal and social challenges that are not experienced by non-LGBT residents. Same-sex couples are unable to marry or adopt, and households headed by su ...

. In 2014, China had shut down the Beijing Independent Film Festival, and in January 2020, The China Independent Film Festival (CIFF) shut down operations, citing censorship concerns.Goh, Brenda. (11 January 2020)
Independent film festival in China shuts, says 'impossible' to pursue independence
''

Reuters Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters Corporation. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency was esta ...

''.

Deutschland Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated between ...