The 12th Beijing International Film Festival (BJIFF) has revealed the list of films it will screen during its annual celebration.

More than 130 classic films will be screened at 18 local theaters during the much-anticipated Beijing Film Panorama section from Aug. 12-21. The list includes 16 films that are racing for the festival's Tiantan Award, from China's "In Search of Lost Time," India's "Jai Bhim" to France's "The Family."

The other highlights include plenty of films by Theodoros Angelopoulos, considered a Greek master, such as "Megalexandros," "Ulysses' Gaze," and "The Beekeeper." The retrospective of his films is the largest of its kind on the Chinese mainland. At the same time, on the 40th anniversary of the release of "The Teahouse," in-depth cooperation will be carried out with Beijing People's Art Theatre.

The selection boasts the latest digitally restored versions of classic works such as China's classic animated feature "Uproar in Heaven," François Truffaut's "Antoine Doinel" franchise, Martin Scorsese's "The Last Waltz," and Kinuyo Tanaka's "The Moon Has Risen." Newly restored and remastered in Dolby Vision, Paramount Pictures' "The Godfather" will mark its 50th anniversary with a special screening.

The 25th anniversary of Hong Kong's return to the motherland will be marked by a special screening event. The list includes some old classics and new films, such as the 4K version of classics "The Shaolin Temple" and "Once Upon a Time in China," as well as the more recent "Time" and "Sunshine of My Life."

For blockbuster franchise fans, Warner Bros. Discovery will bring eight installments of the "Harry Potter" series to IMAX screens during the festival. This will also be the prelude to an online game and offline exhibition fan carnival campaign in Beijing from Sept. 1 to Oct. 9 to mark Back to Hogwarts Day (Sept. 1), a momentous day in the wizarding world calendar.

In addition, the animation exhibition will show three classic Japanese theatrical anime series films, including "One Piece." In addition, there will be one special screening of the newest release, "One Piece Film: Red," a film that debuted in Japan just on Aug. 6. Another anime classic, "Ghost in the Shell," will have both its 4K and IMAX versions screened. The critically acclaimed new Japanese animated feature "Inu-Oh" by Masaaki Yuasa will also meet the audience in Beijing.

Documentary films will form a highlight feature too in the festival. Beijing audiences will see the IMAX 3D version of a series of documentary shorts such as "The Last Glaciers," "Under the Sea," and "Space Station." National Geographic will also present highly acclaimed "Fire of Love" and "The Rescue."

Beijing Film Panorama will go out of town this year to hold a "Beach Screening" event at the Azure Coast in Qinhuangdao, Hebei province. A sports film week will be arranged to exhibit classics such as "Woman Basketball Player No. 5," "The Everlasting Flame: Beijing 2008," and "Gipsy Queen."

The tickets will be sold on Wednesday at noon on the Maoyan ticketing platform. All cinema partners of the BJIFF will rigidly enforce the pandemic prevention and control requirements. Online real-name booking will be adopted, and the occupancy rate for each screening shall not exceed 75%. 

Furthermore, the festival will again work with the iQIYI streaming platform to hold a two-week "Online BJIFF" event to stream more than 100 films online.

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