Festival focuses on China's place in world cinema

The Beijing International Film Festival, which concluded on Wednesday, united directors and industry insiders from home and abroad in discussing China's place in world cinema.

With the domestic film market booming, Hollywood is hungry to tap this emerging potential source of profits, while Chinese filmmakers are desperate to get more exposure for their movies abroad.

"The paradigm is to cooperate with Hollywood and that will make Chinese movies more global," director Alfonso Cuaron told Xinhua.

As the second-biggest film market in the world, China has many facets that allure this Oscar winner. "First, you have many, many audiences that love cinema and that's fantastic. Also, it speaks to the investors who create venues for people to watch cinema. But more important, it speaks for filmmakers who do films that connect with audiences," Cuaron said.

His blockbuster "Gravity," a particular hit in China, follows a stranded US astronaut who finds refuge in the Chinese space station Tiangong-1 and returns to Earth aboard the Chinese spaceship Shenzhou.

"I am very happy that the film made a connection with Chinese audiences." Cuaron said of its Chinese elements.

The popularity of foreign films in China is indicated by statistics from consulting agency Entgroup which show that imported movies' box office almost doubled from 9 billion yuan (1.4 billion USdollars) in 2008 to to 17.69 billion in 2013.

"China will become the world's biggest market, and the fact has prompted many foreign filmmakers to consider whether they can shoot a 'Chinese' film," said Philippe Muyl, a French director, scriptwriter and producer.