2010 Beijing International Movie Festival Kicks Off June 7

From June 7 to June 30, film buffs will have ample and unique opportunities to take in some of the world's best independent movies, right here in Beijing.

Kicking off Monday, this year's Beijing International Movie Festival will hold screenings at a variety of cinema venues around Beijing, cleverly planned around the 2010 World Cup, with an additional special segment featuring both classic and unreleased Irish Films.

Andrea Hunt has more:

When Peter Sallade arrived in Beijing in 2005, he realized that the capital was a little lacking in the poignant flare of international culture.

In the U.S., Sallade had attended film festivals in many cities and saw a potential here in Beijing that was ripe for the taking.

So he and a few fellow movie-loving comrades launched Beijing's International Movie Festival in order to bring some international artistic influences to the city.

"There are a lot of people who work on making movies, and Beijing is the cultural center of China and it also has a very, very big movie industry as well as a huge number of independent film makers who come from different artistic backgrounds, just an ordinary person wanting to make a movie to people who have some powerful story that they need to tell. And without the best international movies from all over the world to give people who are making movies this inspiration, how can they ever make the movies coming out of Beijing the best in the world?"

Every year, they receive around 200 independently-made films from places as diverse as the USA, South Africa, Russia and India, but only 40 to 50 make the cut.

In previous years, the movies were screened at a handful of small bars, but this year's venues will include Mako Theatre and Livehouse, the Broadway Cinemateque, Trainspotting Café, and two important new venues, Central Studio Reel Production and the Chinese Academy of Fine Arts.

Sallade explains that a volunteer team of Chinese filmmakers and directors, professors and translators carefully screen films for the audience in Beijing.

The volunteers also contribute countless hours over the course of a year to prepare for the festival.

Local Beijinger Christine Zhou is one of the volunteers dedicated to the festival's success.

"You get to meet people from all over the world and also you get to watch films that you don't normally get to watch on the big screen. Also, I feel like I am doing something positive, the world is becoming more international and working together and through this, I feel like I am partaking, in this new movement."

Although many kinds of films are showing this year, Peter says it all boils down to a good story. He says setting quotas in terms of country or genre is limiting, and says that within production of any film, people from all over the world are involved.

Sallade says this year is exceptional because the Chinese government has backed the festival, and they also have support from many of the embassies in Beijing, especially the Irish, German, Austrian, New Zealand and Czech Republic embassies.

Although they do have the "Golden Duck Award," represented by "KaoKao," a duck icon, Peter explains that their event does not center on awards like other festivals.