The French Film Panorama is coming back to China in April with an extended program and the largest ever artist delegation.

The seventh annual event will kick off in the Chinese cities of Beijing, Chengdu, Wuhan, Guangzhou and Shanghai on April 1, Li Peng, an official with the French Cultural Center in Beijing and the festival's promoter, said Sunday.

Li said the festival will showcase 13 recently released feature films and 12 short films, including The Hedgehog by Mona Achache and Self Defense by Thomas Gayrard.

In the past, the number of films had never reached 25, and so this year's festival will be the largest ever, Li said.

A delegation of 20 artists will visit China, including Denis Dercourt, whose film Tomorrow at Dawn competed in the UN Certain Regard section at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival.

The 2009 drama about two brothers dealing with their "existential crisis" will be screened at a gala gathering to highlight the event on April 15 in Beijing.

The festival, which will run until April 30, has been jointly organized by Unifrance, an organization promoting French cinema worldwide, and the French Embassy in China.

All the screenings will be in French with Chinese subtitles and they will be followed by Q&A sessions with the public, according to Li.

(Xinhua News Agency March 28, 2010)