An online film festival titled "Weeks of Chinese Cinema" was officially launched at a ceremony held in St Kliment Ohridski university on Monday.

Internet users in Bulgaria will be able to enjoy six full length movies made by some of China's most famous directors. The movies will be streamed without cost for two weeks on Vbox7.com, the largest video-sharing site in the country.

The film festival, marking the upcoming Chinese New Year, is being organized by China Radio International, the Chinese Embassy in Bulgaria, Vbox7 and its parent company Vbox7, along with Xinhua News Agency and St Kliment Ohridski university in Sophia.

Addressing the event, the Chinese Ambassador to Bulgaria Guo Yezhou said the goal of the project was to use cinema and the internet to open a window to Chinese culture and create a better understanding of contemporary China.

Krasimir Yanev, Netinfo's CEO, said the six movies show an important part of the real China that Bulgarians may not know enough of.

These films will hopefully open for Bulgarians the enigmatic book called China, Yanev said.

The six Chinese movies, which will be streamed with Bulgarian subtitles, are "Close to the Sun", "Anayi" (both directed by Chou Chou), "Urtin Duu" (directed by Hasi Chaolu), "Ganglamedo" (Dai Wei), "The Little Shoe Polisher" (Zhu Zheng, Li Zhenping) and "Ergun Caravan"

(Xinhua News Agency January 17, 2011)