China's film industry has witnessed an increasing for five years in succession and it hit a new record last year by producing 402 feature films, according to the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT).

In 2007, China's total box office reached 3.3 billion yuan (about 449 million US dollars), according to Tong Gang, director of the Film Bureau of the SARFT.

Meanwhile, the movie channels of domestic television stations also contributed 1.38 billion yuan (about 186 million US dollars) to the film industry.

Last year, China exported 78 feature films to 47 foreign countries and regions, and they earned a total of 2.02 billion yuan (about 273 million US dollars) from the oversea sale.

In 2007, 208 Chinese films participated in 97 international film festivals, and 29 Chinese films won 49 awards in 19 international film festivals, according to the SARFT official.

Besides feature films, China also produced a large number of documentaries, cartoons and other film products including 122 digitalized works last year.

(Xinhua News Agency January 12, 2008)