9th Beijing International Film Festival to open Saturday

The Opening Ceremony of the 9th Beijing International Film Festival will be held Saturday night.

The audience will see American actor Christopher Walken, French actress Sophie Marceau, and Chinese stars Hu Ge and Zhou Dongyu.

Actresses Dilraba and Wu Jingyan will perform a dance to show the collision and fusion of Chinese and Western Cultures.

15 films were selected to compete for the Tiantan awards.

The Jury President of the 9th Tiantan Award, American film director Rob Minkoff, is best known for his Academy Award winning film, The Lion King. The animated movie features a star studded cast including James Earl Jones, Matthew Broderick and Jeremy Irons, with music by Elton John and Tim Rice.

Rob Minkoff at press conference in the Beijing Hotel on April 11, 2019. [Photo: IC]

In 2007, Minkoff came to China to work with Jackie Chan and Jet Li in The Forbidden Kingdom. This martial arts mashup is still considered one of the most successful China-US coproductions. Here's how he describes Jackie Chan and Jet Li.

"Both amazing to work with, they were so different, Jackie Chan is a lot of fun, very generous, Jet Li is very serious and very devout. So I would describe people, I would say Jet Li is a Buddhist, and Jackie Chan is a Buddha."

The winners of the 10 Tiantan awards will be announced at the Closing Ceremony on April 20th at the State Production Base of China Film Group.