The Beijing International Film Festival, one of China's top movie events, released a shortlist on Friday of 15 films contending for its highest honor, the Tiantan Award.

Hold Your Hands, an art house feature depicting villagers' efforts to escape poverty, and the Chinese Navy-themed action thriller Operation Red Sea are the two domestic nods, with the remaining 13 nominees, including coproductions, from 18 countries and regions.

The annual festival, in its eighth edition, will run from April 15-22.

Most of the nominated films are about ordinary people's struggles. They include Dark Wind, from India, which tells of a blind father's fight for survival, and Scary Mother, a coproduction of Georgia and Estonia, recounting a 50-year-old housewife's passion to be a writer despite no family support.

The other shortlisted entries include Barefoot (Czech Republic), Dede (Georgia, Qatar, Ireland, the Netherlands and Croatia), Dog (France), Eye on Juliet (Canada), Journey's End (United Kingdom), Krotoa (South Africa), Octave (Romania), The Other Side from Hope (Finland, Germany), The Testament (Israel, Austria), and Iranian movies Searing Summer and Untaken Paths.

The 15 nominees were selected from 659 submissions from 71 countries and regions across six continents, a 55 percent increase from the 424 submissions in 2017, according to Ren Qian, deputy chairman of the festival committee.

Prestigious Hong Kong director Wong Kar-wai will preside over the Tiantan Award jury panel, which will pick the winners of 10 awards, including best picture and top visual effects.

The festival chose crime thriller A or B, starring Xu Zheng, as the opening movie, and biographical epic Genghis Khan as the closing film. Some 500 critically acclaimed movies will be screened at 32 Beijing cinemas and colleges starting next Friday.

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