The festival
The Beijing International Film Festival (BJIFF), founded in 2011, is one of China's largest film festivals, held each April in the capital. It combines a competition, extensive public screenings, and a major film market and industry forum, spanning Chinese, Asian, and international cinema.
Worth knowing
BJIFF's 'Tiantan Award' competition and its film market make it a significant event on the Chinese and regional film calendar. Screenings take place across cinemas throughout Beijing, and the festival typically runs in mid-to-late April.
How to attend
Public screenings are ticketed and can be in very high demand, with tickets sold online. Industry visitors attend the accompanying market and forum events.
Awards & submissions
The festival’s official competition is the Tiantan Award, whose international jury of seven film figures selects winners across ten categories — Best Feature Film, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Music, the four acting prizes and Best Artistic Contribution — from a slate of roughly 15 to 17 titles each year. A separate Forward Future strand highlights first and second features by emerging directors. Alongside the awards, BJIFF runs a large film market and the Beijing Film Panorama of public screenings, plus co-production and project events that draw industry visitors from across China and abroad. Filmmakers seeking selection submit through the official BJIFF call for entries published ahead of each spring edition; specific deadlines and eligibility windows are set year to year on the festival’s website.
Official site →Dates and programs change year to year — check the official site for the current edition.