Fifteen contemporary films competed for the Tiantan awards: the seven-member jury, chaired by Hong Kong's John Woo Yu-sum, selected winners in 10 categories.

With prizes for its director Wong Kar-wai, lead actress Zhang Ziyi and cinematographer Philippe Le Sourd, martial arts drama was the biggest winner. Canadian director Richie Mehta's , a drama about a poor Delhi street vendor who travels across India in search of his missing, feared kidnapped, 12-year-old son, was named best feature film.

And although some film critics criticised Peter Chan Ho-sun's for having an over-simplified success storyline as well as for its worship of money, the comedy-drama's three mainland scriptwriters (Zhou Zhiyong, Zhang Ji and Lin Aihua) took the Tiantan for best screenplay.

French cinema also did well this year, with two films winning the Tiantan jury's favour: the charming , a feel-good comedy about a 30-something man who has lived all his life in a Paris apartment with his two aunts and a daily routine of piano practice, is filled with music and dance. Director-scriptwriter Sylvain Chomet composed the winning score.

Based on Austrian novelist Stefan Zweig's 1929 novella and set primarily in pre-first world war Germany, is Patrice Leconte's first English-language film. The romantic drama about the love affair between a young engineer and his rich employer's wife stars Britain's Rebecca Hall and Scottish actor Richard Madden. British actor Alan Rickman, as the older man, took the Tiantan for best actor in a supporting role.

But most of the works in competition had already been screened at other festivals: for example, best visual effects awardee won prizes at last year's Berlinale, the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival and other festivals. Consequently, some observers, including influential mainland critic Mu Weier, said the Beijing festival organisers had to aim for a clear and distinct identity if it were to hold its own on the international stage.

On the business side, the Beijing Film Market, which ran from April 17 to 19, was attended by industry power players such as directors Oliver Stone and Alfonso Cuaron, Paramount Pictures chief operating officer Frederick Huntsberry and Motion Picture Association of America chief Christopher Dodd.

This year, 32 film production, cinema construction and related transactions were signed. With a total value of 10 billion yuan (HK$12.5 billion), the transaction value was up 20 per cent from last year. Amid all this, however, remarks made at the festival's Sino-Foreign Film Co-production Forum by US director Stone regarding the mainland's unwillingness to address Mao Zedong's controversial legacy generated the most international headlines.

"Mao has been lionised in dozens of Chinese films, but never criticised. It's about time. You've got to make a movie about Mao, about the Cultural Revolution. You do that, you open up, you stir the waters and you allow true creativity to emerge in this country. That would be the basis of real co-production," the Oscar winner said at the panel moderated by China Film Co-production Corporation president Zhang Xun.