[4] In 2011, SIFF started a "Film Restoration" program to repair and preserve prints of classic Chinese movies.

[5][6] Notable jury members include Oliver Stone, Mark Rydell, István Szabó, Stanislav Rostotsky, Alan Parker, Lee Chang-Dong, Geoffrey Gilmore, François Girard, Olivier Assayas, Luc Besson, Lisa Lu, Donnie Yen, Chen Hao, Tran Anh Hung, Chen Kaige, He Ping, Wong Kar-Wai, Bille August, Danny Boyle, Andie Macdowell, John Woo, Barry Levinson, Paz Vega,[7] Jean-Jacques Annaud, Heather Graham, Li Bingbing, Tom Hooper, Gong Li, Sally Potter, Emir Kusturica, Atom Egoyan, Xu Qing, Sabu, Ildikó Enyedi, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Zhao Tao, Paolo Genovese, Nicolas Celis, Aleksei Alekseivich German, Wang Jingchun, Zhou Xun and Tony Leung Ka-fai.

The programme includes thematic curation, but also selects the best of today's world cinema, and presents them from the perspectives of theme, region etc.

[10] A short film is defined as an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes or less, including all credits.This excludes from consideration such works as: 1.

Voted by the reporters in the entertainment industry, the awards are aimed at "promoting medium-and-small-budget homegrown movies and exposing talented young directors and actors".

Voted by the reporters in the entertainment industry, the awards are aimed at "celebrating international action movies and honoring those who have made outstanding contributions to the genre.