La Peikang (left), chairman of China Film Group, actress Ye Qing and French director JeanJacques Annaud.[Photo By Jiang Dong/China Daily]

Achievable goal

Some big numbers may show the festival's potential and the possibility of its goal.

More than 300 movies selected from more than 1,500 titles from 103 countries and regions are being released in 23 Beijing cinemas and eight universities.

Some of them are making their international debut in China, the world' second-largest movie market with a record box office hitting 29.6 billion yuan ($4.8 billion) last year, up 36 percent year-on-year.

Online ticket-booking statistics show that more than 10,000 tickets were sold in only three minutes after Gewara.com, the festival's authorized site, started presale on April 9, and 4.2 million tickets were sold in the following three days.

Tickets of some US blockbusters, such as this year's Oscar winners Birdman and The Grand Budapest Hotel, were sold out at least two days before the screenings.

The overwhelming response from Chinese moviegoers to the festival, with some attendees claiming on major film forums that they flew to Beijing just for the "precious" chance to enjoy the classical productions on the big screen, makes the 2015 festival the most popular since it was launched in 2011.

Meanwhile, the festival has also reached out to the international movie market.

Latest available figures show that the movie industry fair, part of the festival that was held from April 17 to 20 in the China Millennium Monument, attracted 275 movie companies and institutions from 25 countries and regions, up 11 percent year-on-year.

Project Pitches, a major section of the market which aims to find film projects that have big commercial potential, have received 455 applicants, double the total of the previous year.

In the previous four festivals from 2011 to 2014, a total of 80 movie projects were picked up, hitting a trade value as high as 27.3 billion yuan.

"China's booming movie market and its huge commercial potential have garnered attention from many international moviemakers. More than 30 foreign exhibitors are holding events in this year's market. The figure doubles last year's," reveals Chen Caiyun, the marketing head with the festival's committee.

Details of big-budget coproductions, jointly produced by China and top film studios from Europe and the North America, have also been released during the festival.

The fantasy thriller Warrior Gate, a Sino-French production by Besson's EuropaCorp and the Shanghai-based Fundamental Films, unveiled its cast on last Friday.

Chinese-Canadian actor Mark Chao, rising Chinese actress Ni Ni and American teen actor Uriah Shelton will star in the 300-million-yuan blockbuster, written by veteran American scriptwriter Robert Kamen, who is also one of the Tiantan awards' jurors, and directed by Matthias Hoene.