London audiences tune in to Chinese film festival

Organizers of the 7th Chinese Visual Festival in London have hailed the annual event a success and are predicting it will get even bigger in the years to come.

With documentaries, short films and animation on offer, the festival set out to bring "the very best in the cinema and art of the Chinese-speaking world to the UK" and make its mark as a key event in the cultural calendar of the United Kingdom's capital.

The festival ends on Thursday.

Xie Jingjing, film curator and event founder, said: "The festival presents interesting films that have never been shown in the UK because most of the time the audience here does not really have access to them and some are really interested to learn more about China."

Xie said the number of high-quality films from China has been increasing since she founded the festival in 2011, and the standard of filmmaking on the Chinese mainland has improved greatly.

This year's festival was based at King's College in London with screenings also at BFI Southbank and Bertha DocHouse.

"The films contribute to the success of the festival," she said. "There has been so many good films that we had to turn movies down."

This year's festival boasted special guests, including Ju Anqi, who has been described as a pioneer among China's new generation of experimental filmmakers.

The festival presented a program of award-winning animation from one of the leading institutes of animation in China, Communication University of China.

With more than 20 films played on the big screen, cinema and movie fans were treated to some of the very best in new cutting-edge Chinese-language cinema.

"Some films aren't shown in China because of budget and scheduling problems or they're not commercial enough," said James Mudge, festival director. "But we think these films deserve to be seen, so we present them at the festival."