Jia's film Platform (2000), a production that drew him wide international recognition

Marco Muller, an Italian filmmaker, critic and a longtime promoter of Chinese film on the international arena, has been appointed artistic director for the festival.

According to Muller, many established filmmakers would use the event to screen their most recent productions.

For example, Outrage: Coda from Japanese cinematic icon Takeshi Kitano will have its Asian premiere in Pingyao. Last Flag Flying from US filmmaker Richard Linklater is also due to be screened during the festival. Linklater has many fans in China for his trilogy films Before Sunrise, Before Sunset and Before Midnight.

French avant-garde film director Bruno Dumont will not only screen his Jeannette: The Childhood of Joan of Arc, but also hold a training workshop at the Pingyao festival. But it is clear that Jia also wants to use the event to showcase the talents of outstanding young filmmakers and six filmmakers from both within China and overseas have been given the opportunity to screen their first or second productions at the festival.

While award-winning productions from this year's Berlin, Cannes and Venice film festivals have made the screening list, young filmmakers' works are to be given priority. For example, The Square, a Swedish-French coproduction awarded this year's Palme d'Or, will be among the most highlighted works to be screened.

To honor the centennial anniversary of the birth of Jean-Pierre Melville, a founder of the French New Wave movement, the film festival will also host a special segment to screen 10 of his films.

Jia explains that Melville's films did well both commercially and in expressing his personal style, and could serve as a useful reference for Chinese filmmakers in today's booming market.

"He was deeply influenced by Akira Kurosawa (Japanese filmmaker), and also once greatly influenced many Hong Kong filmmakers like John Woo and Johnnie To," Jia says.

"Such two-way interaction between cinema in the East and West is also what we want to develop in this film festival."

He expects more academic exploration into film history to follow in future film festivals held in Pingyao.

"We have no similar model to follow in China, so we are starting from zero," Jia says. "It will be a process of trial and error, but at least we have begun."