London's China image film festival

PKG

INTRO

Europe's largest Chinese-language film festival has begun in London for its fifth year.

The hope is to make British audiences more familiar with Chinese films and esthetics.

It runs for six days until Sunday. Let's check it out.

PKG

The Fifth China Image Film Festival is being held at Curzon Chelsea in London.

Known as the largest Chinese movie festival in Europe, it will give Londoners an opportunity to watch 20 Chinese new films, including the crime thriller "Silent Witness," the romantic comedy "Finding Mr. Right" and the animated feature "Kuiba II."

Ivor Benjamin, chairman of the Directors Guild of Great Britain, first came to the festival in 2009. Benjamin said more commercial films are on the list than last year.

He also encouraged more film makers to produce some films about Chinese living in the UK.

SOUNDBITE(ENGLISH): IVOR BENJAMIN, Chairman, Directors Guild of Great Britain

"The Chinese market is so big that Chinese film makers can just make films for China and never have to sell them outside. OK. If they want to, OK, and same is true for foreign films. If China doesn't want to show any foreign films, it doesn't have to because there are so many fantastic Chinese films but I think as the world becomes a smaller place, so it would be great to see English films in China and also, to see films about the stories of Chinese people in England, in Scotland, in this country. There is a great history of the Chinese in the UK, going back hundreds of years."

Some say the film festival acts as a gate for cultural exchanges between China and the UK, providing a chance for both sides to learn more about each other.

SOUNDBITE(ENGLISH): MICHAEL BATES, Spokesperson, House of Lords

"Well, I think it is a very high quality festival, I think it establishes itself now as a part of culture landscape of London, and it is a great time because relations between the UK and China are improving politically and diplomatically, and it is just reinforcing the good relation."

SOUNDBITE(ENGLISH): CHRISTOPHER NICHOLSON, British film director

"I think more people know about it this year than last year, which is great, it is good to see China getting a good foothold in the UK which is fabulous, we know more now about the quality of work coming out to China, we know more about how good your studios are, we know how good your post production is, especially your VFX is, as well, so this is very exciting for us over here."

China is currently the world's third largest film-producing country with the number of new films and industry revenue growing 30 percent over the last decade. At the same time, China is world's second largest film market.

SOUNDBITE(CHINESE): WANG PING, Director, "An End to Killing"

"Cooperation between different film production companies will share the pain and risks. Chinese film companies should be more aware of overseas promotion, in other words, to know each other in terms of the market."

The opening film was the historical blockbuster "An End to Killing," which is about Genghis Khan, a story of war and peace.

An industry event, the China-UK Co-production and Cooperation Summit, will also be held during the festival.