The 18th China Golden Rooster and Hundred Flowers Film Festival (Jinji Baihua) opened on October 14 with a star-studded gala event attended by some of China's most well-known actors and filmmakers. This year's festival is expected to be grander than ever before, hoping to gain ground on dwindling industry and audience appeal.

The festival is being held in Nanchang, Jiangxi Province and as it is the 60th anniversary of both the People's Republic of China and the China Film Association, which founded the Golden Rooster Film Awards in 1981, this year's four-day festival is expected to be the best yet.

Regarded as China's first and most authoritative film festival, the Golden Rooster and Hundred Flowers Film Festival combines two major film awards but has been losing support in recent years. According to a survey by China Youth Daily about last year's Hundred Flowers Awards, decided by popular vote, 97.4 percent of those surveyed had not voted at all, while 77 percent were not interested and 68.3 percent thought that nowadays the awards did not accurately represent the audience.