Jean Reno, Rob Minkoff Join Beijing Festival Star Lineup

Patrick Frater

French actor Jean Reno and American director Rob Minkoff (“The Lion King”) will join Bille August on the jury for the main competition section of the Beijing International Film Festival.

The panel also includes Hong Kong director Mabel Cheung, Chinese actress Jiang Wenli, Italian producer Paolo del Brocco and Romanian director Radu Jude.

The festival, now in its seventh edition, runs April 16-23, at locations across the Chinese capital.

Films in competition and competing for the Tiantan Award include “Caffe,” the first film to be made under the Chinese-Italian co-production treaty, last year’s Hong Kong-Chinese box office hit “Operation Mekong,” and Chinese wartime drama “Mr. No Problem.”

International selections include “The Sis,” “The House of Others” and “Dim the Fluorescents,” which have all been rewarded at other events on the festival circuit.

A documentary section includes “The Ivory Game,” Jacques Perrin’s “Les Saisons,” and the recent “Casting JonBenet.”

In a crowd-pleasing move, the festival will screen all seven previous installments in the “Fast & Furious” franchise and all of the past “Pirates of the Caribbean” titles. “Dead Men Don’t Tell Tales,” the new “Pirates” film, is expected to be released in China in May. And in a nod to film education, the festival will unspool seven films by indie icon David Lynch.

BJIFF Tiantan Awards contenders
“A Kid” (aka “Le Fils de Jean”) dir. Philippe Lioret (France)
“Alma de Sant Pere” dir. Jarmo Lampela (Finland)
“Coffee” (aka “Caffe”) dir. Cristiano Bortone (Italy, China and Belgium)
“Dim The Fluorescents” dir. Daniel Warth (Canada)
“House of Others” (aka “Skhvisi Sakhli”) dir. Russudan Glurjidze (Georgia, Russia, Spain and Croatia)
“Kanon” dir. Saiga Toshiro (Japan)
“Luka” dir. Giorgi Barabadze (Georgia)
“Mr. No Problem” dir. Feng Mei (China)
“Night of a 1000 Hours dir. Virgil Widrich (Luxembourg, Austria and The Netherlands)
“Operation Mekong” dir. Dante Lam (Hong Kong and China)
“The Death and Life of Otto Bloom” dir. Cris Jones (Australia)
“The Poisoning Angel (aka “Fleur de Tonnerre) dir. Stephanie Pillonca (France and Belgium)
“The Sis” dir. Marjan Ashrafizadeh (Iran)
“Tiger Theory” (aka “Teorie Tygra”) dir. Radek Bajgar (Czech Republic and Slovak Republic)
“Two Lottery Tickets” (aka “Doua Lozuri”) dir. Paul Negoescu (Romania)

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