Beyond the screen: Beijing’s film festival becomes a citywide experience

I’ve always loved that strange, slightly magical moment after a film ends. You step out of a cinema, the final scene still lingering in your mind.

For a moment, the world outside feels altered, the café on the corner, the rhythm of passing strangers, the glow of streetlights. It’s as if the film hasn’t quite ended.

At the 16th Beijing International Film Festival (BJIFF), that feeling isn’t left to chance anymore. It’s something the city is actively trying to create.

Running from April 16 to 25, this year’s festival is attempting something more ambitious than simply showcasing films. It is turning Beijing itself into an extension of the screen, with cinema flowing into the streets, restaurants, neighborhoods and everyday life.

A more international competition

BJIFF serves as a meeting point for global cinema, celebrating cultural exchange through storytelling. Sixteen films have been shortlisted for the prestigious Tiantan Award, representing more than 15 countries including China, France, the United Kingdom, Brazil, Vietnam and Italy, selected from more than 1,800 feature film submissions. The festival also reports its widest geographical reach to date, with entries spanning nearly 140 countries and regions.

The selection favors closely observed, character-driven storytelling capturing moments in history, society and cultural life. Whether following a photographer who leaves a stable career to pursue writing, an elderly couple navigating the final years of life, or a star transitioning into a supporting role, these films focus on individual experience rather than large-scale spectacle. In doing so, they draw audiences into the rhythms of ordinary lives, inviting reflection on shared human experience.

Presiding over the jury is French actress Juliette Binoche, a Cannes, Venice and Berlin award winner, joined by filmmakers and artists from China, Brazil, the United Kingdom and Vietnam. The composition signals the festival’s intent to position itself within a global cinematic conversation.

Cinema beyond the screen

What makes this year’s festival particularly interesting is how it refuses to stay inside the cinema.

Large outdoor screens across commercial districts are livestreaming the opening and closing ceremonies, while open-air screenings bring audiences together after dusk. Imagine watching a film under the night sky, surrounded by strangers who are, for two hours, feeling the exact same thing as you.

The initiative sits within a broader festival programme that spans hundreds of screenings and cultural events across the city, with more than 70% of international titles making their China premiere.

Moreover, pop-up markets, parks and cultural venues across Beijing host film-themed activities, while more than 600 businesses participate with discounts and special promotions, weaving cinema into shopping, dining and leisure across the city.

At the center of this shift is the initiative “Follow the Movies to Travel”. It maps films onto real locations and invites audiences into the worlds they’ve just watched. Themed routes link filming sites with historic neighborhoods and cultural landmarks in Beijing, allowing visitors to walk through traditional streets seen in films or explore districts shaped by the stories they have just watched.

Film tourism is hardly new. Audiences have long traveled to New Zealand for The Lord of the Rings or to Dubrovnik for Game of Thrones. What distinguishes Beijing’s approach is its urban scale: rather than drawing visitors to different landscapes, it embeds cinema into the everyday fabric of a megacity, as if the entire urban landscape has quietly become a film set.

This connection between storytelling and place is also reflected in this year’s competition lineup. One of the entries, All the Good Eyes, spans nearly four decades and traces the entangled lives of two families in Northeast China. The result is a narrative inseparable from its setting, inviting audiences not just to watch, but to imagine traveling there. As director Zheng Zhi put it in an interview, “There’s so much to eat and explore here. I hope audiences will come visit Shenyang after watching the film.”

The rise of cinema culture

This shift also reflects a broader trend unfolding across China’s film industry. In recent years, cinemas have quietly evolved from places where people simply watch films into spaces where they connect. Going to the movies is increasingly a social ritual — friends meet, couples date, families spend time together. In an age dominated by short videos and fragmented attention, the collective immersion of sitting in a dark room with strangers — laughing, gasping, or falling silent together — has become something surprisingly rare, and therefore more valuable.

From there, together with themed screenings, pop-up markets and crossovers with dining, travel, and retail, a growing “cinema+” culture is taking shape. What audiences are really buying is no longer just a ticket, but a layered cultural experience.

This evolution is not only revitalizing China’s domestic film market, but also making it more attractive for international films seeking engaged audiences. Cinema, in this sense, is no longer just a screen — it’s becoming a gateway into a wider cultural lifestyle.

If you’re curious to explore this shift further, we also discussed it in our podcast Round Table China — feel free to tune in for more behind-the-scenes insights.

By:  Chen Ziqi, editor for the podcast Round Table China

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