Organizers revealed on Monday that this year's Pingyao International Film Festival will see many films premiered, indicating the worldwide recognition for the event.

The film festival was initiated by Chinese arthouse filmmaking master Jia Zhangke and Italian film historian Marco Muller in 2017. The two, serving as the founder and artistic director respectively for the festival, along with local officials attended a press conference in Beijing to make announcements for the third edition of the annual festival held in Pingyao, a 2,700-year-old ancient city and a World Cultural Heritage site in central Shanxi province. 

The first batch of film titles to be shown were announced by Jia at the press conference, including 52 films from 26 countries and regions. Among the 49 to be shown in the film festival's official section, 28 will have their world premieres, accounting for 57.1% of the total; 36 will have their Asian premieres, and each of the 49 films will be premiered in China. There will be another batch of titles to be announced before the festival opens.

Jia revealed a total of 382 films had applied for screening at the festival, and 122 of them are from foreign countries including India, the United States, France, Italy, Thailand, Brazil and Singapore. All the films were selected by eight program planners from more than 1,300 films all over the world.

Particularly, Tushar Hiranandani's "Bull's Eye" (India), the opening film for the festival, will also have its world premiere. Jacob Cheung's "The Opera House" will close the festival with its own world premiere. Other notable films to be screened include Zu Feng's "Summer of Changsha," Ye Qian's "Koali & Rice," Joe Odagiri's "They Say Nothing Stays the Same," Maya Da-Rin's "The Fever," César Diaz's "Our Mothers," Jérémy Clapin's "I Lost My Body," Mati Diop's "Atlantics," Igor Tuveri's "5 is the Perfect Number," and Takashi Shimizu's "Howling Village."

"After the first two festivals, the Pingyao International Film Festival has got global recognition in the world film industry and among international filmmakers," Jia Zhangke said.

With director Ang Lee's special authorization, this festival has been named after his Academy Award-winning film "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" (2000) as the Pingyao Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon International Film Festival. It aims to celebrate the achievements of the international cinema and also promote the works of young Chinese directors, especially those produced in the non-Western world including China, Asia, Eastern Europe, Latin America and Africa.

As for the theme of this year's festival — "One to Everyone," Jia said, "The 'one' means a film master recognized in the industry. 'Everyone' means the public. We expect more possibilities to happen between 'one' and 'everyone,' just as one man's film spirit can inspire thousands of people; a film festival can also serve thousands of people."

A poster was also released with the creative vision of a "little movie planet," as Jia describes the Pingyao film festival. "The movie is a unique and magical planet, and all the film creators and audience are the residents. There are young people wandering on the planet, with shining creative ideas," he said.

The Pingyao festival will be a "boutique festival" — modest in scale, but with ambitious aspirations, the organizing committee added.

There is also a Made-in-Shanxi section to support local filmmaking, featuring the world premieres of Shanxi-related films such as Yang Jin's "Thata Girl," Shen Cong's "Brothers," Zhang Xian's "Best Director" and Yin Dawei's "Father, Father."

Chinese film legend Xie Fei, as this year's festival mentor, will give a masterclass to explore how to cultivate and help young filmmakers. 

One of most renowned Chinese filmmakers Zhang Yimou will also attend, and give a masterclass themed "Every Second Counts."

The Festival Mentor's Choice section will feature special screening of Xie's "A Mongolian Tale," and Zhang's 4K high-definition remastered "Red Sorghum."

The 3rd Pingyao International Film Festival will run from Oct. 10-19, according to the organizing committee.

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