Zhang Ming, chairman of the jury for the 4th 86358 Short Film Festival, announces Blessed Winter as the Best Film at the closing ceremony in Fengyang, North China’s Shanxi province on Aug 28, 2020. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

The budding festival attracts both acclaim and criticism.

"The participating works lack diversity as they are all drama shorts. But short film programs in many other film festivals usually include subsections focusing on other genres like animation, thriller, comedy and sci-fi," pointed out filmmaker Zhang Ming who headed this year's jury.

Besides the 86358 Short Film Festival, a number of smaller-scale film festivals, such as the China International New Media Short Film Festival, the FIRST International Film Festival and the Beijing University Student Film Festival are putting a spotlight on Chinese language shorts.