Beijing International Film Festival Delayed Due To New COVID-19 Outbreaks In China

BEIJING (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 05th August, 2021) The Beijing International Film Festival has been postponed due to new COVID-19 outbreaks in China, according to the event's official WeChat account.

"Due to the recent outbreaks of the epidemic in many areas of the country, the 11th Beijing International Film Festival, originally scheduled for August 14-21, will be postponed for general safety and health reasons," the statement said.

The organizers have not announced for how long the festival will be put off.

The Russian film "Blockade Diary", directed by Andrey Zaitsev, is supposed to be presented during the main competition. The movie will be released in Russia in September.

The Beijing International Film Festival has been held annually since 2011 with the support of the Beijing government, China Media Group, Beijing City Cinematography Authority, and a number of other organizations. The so-called "Beijing Film Market" has become an integral part of the festival, where filmmakers from across the world gather to sign deals for the joint development, financing, production and distribution of movies.

Over the past 10 years, the total amount of deals made at the festival has reached $25.2 billion.

China, which was the first to report the novel coronavirus in December 2019, has since managed to quickly and effectively curb the epidemic within the country. For a long time, there were practically no locally acquired COVID-19 cases, with most infections coming from abroad. However, the new outbreak, which began in mid-July at Nanjing International Airport, has spread to several other cities and provinces of China. This week a number of cities introduced new restrictions.

In total, the country has recorded over 105,000 COVID-19 cases, including 4,848 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins University.