The 2014 Beijing International Film Festival has kicked off in the capital city.

In addition to the opening ceremony and the various films to be seen during the festival, the announcement of the winners of the Tiantan Awards is a great source of anticipation for many.

CRI's Luo Laiming has more.

Fifteen films have been shortlisted for the Tiantan Awards at the ongoing 2014 Beijing International Film Festival, including Chinese film "The Grandmaster" ("Yi Dai Zong Shi"), "IloIlo" from Singapore, and "The Enemy Within" from Greece.

Maria Grazia Cucinotta, a well-known Italian actress, is one of the international jury members of the festival.

She co-produced the Sino-Italian film "There Is Always a Reason" which stars Chinese actor Huang Haibo alongside Cucinotta herself.

As the only female jury member, she said that she judged films from the perspectives a feminine perspective and emphasized that emotions came first.

"Emotions. When I see a film that gives me emotions, then that is the film. I'm the only woman in the jury. So I think I would be the more sensitive one. Of course a woman is more sensitive, and you can get more than a man when you see a film. I can give real opinions about films I like, everything. When you see a film, you see everything. The way they direct, the actors, everything. You know, the story. How can you get surprised because you know you can tell stories that you have seen many, many times but every time you know, if the director is very good, you can see the same story from another point of view. And it looks completely different."

Meanwhile, fellow jury member Andres Vicente Gomez from Spain said he tried to forget about the guidelines when judging films.

"When you see the films, you cannot see the guidelines. It's very difficult to see to understand a film with guidelines. You have to confront yourself with the film."

Gomez said frankly that it was curiosity that drew him to Beijing and being a jury member.

As the president of Lolafilms, one of the top film production companies in Spain, this event marked his first visit to China.

Gomez is the most successful and prolific film producer in Spain and one of the most respected producers in the entire European continent.

He shared more of his suggestions for further development of the film festival.

"I've been all my life in festivals. I have 12 years of a member of board of Cannes Film Festival, being the only non-French person. There are 2,800 festivals around the world. So every day you know five or six festivals open somewhere around the world. It's a lot of competition. Funny enough there are very few that can succeed. Every few that attract the world's attention. There are no more than 10 festivals [that attract the world's attention]. Those ten festivals [are successful] is because first of all they are very strict in selection of films that compete. And they try to present films that are innovative, films that present new ways of telling stories."

The 4th Beijing International Film Festival follows the principles of "Share the Screen, Shape the Future".

The official results of the Tiantan Awards will be announced at the closing ceremony on the evening of April 23.