[2] The festival's goal is to bring attention to works done by young, lesser known directors in the Chinese film industry,[3] as well as to encourage communication and cooperation between Chinese and international filmmakers, mainly showing films from Asia, Eastern Europe, Latin America, and Africa.
John Woo was among the guests during the opening ceremony and received the Honorary Award for Significant Contribution to Culture Exchange Between the East and West.
[7] The ten-day event screened fifty-five films from twenty-five countries and regions in ten sections such as: 1) Crouching Tigers (directorial debuts or second features worldwide), 2) Hidden Dragons (exceptional genre films worldwide) 3) Gala 4) Best of Fest 5) Special presentation 6) New Generation China (latest work from young Chinese directors) sections.
[10] The festival kicked off with a gala screening of Han Yan's Old Neighborhood and was closed with the world premiere of Hong Kong director Jacob Cheung’s The Opera House.
The opening film and Special Presentation of the festival are both world premieres of Chinese productions – Sun Hong's This Is Life will open the festival, while Zhang Yang's So Far So Close will screen as the Special Presentation title on the night of the awards ceremony.