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Last Saturday, organizers for the 11th annual Beijing International Film Festival (BIFF) announced that the event, originally slated to take place this month, would be postponed until Aug 14 to 21. According to Chinese film observers, the delay grants more time for foreign filmmakers and industry professionals to be included in the festivities.
Outdoor film screenings have become a much-loved part of Beijing International Film Festival
Echoing that sentiment, Beijing-based film critic and BIFF judge Shi Wenxue said that “Inviting film creators, researchers, and industry personnel from different countries is a common norm for any international film festival including BIFF, so there can be artistic exchanges, technological collisions, and capital flow.”
Last year's event got off to a rocky start when this poster was unveiled
Incidentally, last year’s BIFF was also postponed until August due to the coronavirus pandemic and ended up having a significantly larger online presence during its eight-day run. Unfortunately, however, the festival was perhaps more memorable for its original poster design, which was widely ridiculed by netizens until the organizers eventually relented and gave BIFF a visual makeover. To date, no poster – nor a list or schedule of screenings, discussions, and lectures – has been unveiled for the 2021 event.
Images: Dirty Monitor, BIFF, Global Times
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