AKIPRESS.COM - The 4th Beijing International Film Festival (BJIFF) will run from April 16 to 23 in China, China.org.cn reported.

The opening ceremony was held at the National Center for the Performing Arts on the evening of April 16. The festival opened with a film screening instead of art performances this year.

This year's event highlights three new competition segments: “Outstanding Documentaries” for excellent documentaries; “Chinese Films-New Focus”, which aims to discover and promote young talent with great market potential in Chinese filmmaking; “Future in Focus” international film panorama, which tries to encourage innovation and cooperation among young filmmakers across the world.

Of all 837 participating films from across the world, 15 will be nominated for this year's Tiantan Awards, which include 10 awards in total: Best Feature, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Music and Best Visual Effects.

The BJIFF, established in 2011, is an annual event hosted by the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television and Beijing Municipal People's Government.

It's considered a high-end platform for the exchange and cooperation among film producers and distributors, film institutions, as well as film stars from China and abroad.