The Beijing Independent Film Festival (BIFF), also widely known as the Beijing Independent Film Exhibition, was one of China’s most influential platforms for independent cinema, long held in Songzhuang and other Beijing venues and sustained by filmmakers, critics, and curators working outside the mainstream industry.

From the mid-2000s through 2014, BIFF provided a public space for screening and exchange across Chinese independent film, documentary, and experimental work. Many titles that later reached international festivals first met audiences here. This selection gathers CathayPlay films that appeared at the festival, tracing the relationship between this vital grassroots event and China’s independent cinema ecology.