Asia's most popular film festival outside of China will honor Chinese films this year.

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The 61st Sydney Film Festival (SFF) is scheduled to run from June 4 to 15, and will feature a special "Focus on China" segment.

Chinese citizens who will be in Sydney, or who plan to travel to Australia during these 11 days, will do well to head over to the SFF to view six of the best new Chinese films that will be making their Australian premiere.

One of these films, Black Coal, Thin Ice, has been chosen for Official Competition at the festival. This movie, which is directed by Diao Yinan, stars Liao Fan, Gwei Lun Mei and Wang Xuebing. It is in Mandarin with English sub-titles.

This magnificent film noir won the prestigious Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival, or Berlinale, last February.

The Golden Bear is the highest prize awarded for the best film at the Berlinale. Held annually in Berlin, Germany, the Berlinale is one of the world's leading film festivals.

The film also won the Dragons & Tigers Award at the Vancouver International Film Festival in October 2013.

The daring and diverse program at the SFF consists of 183 titles from 47 countries. There will be 15 world, 122 Australian and 6 international premieres screening at multiple locations in Sydney.

The SFF's "Focus on China" will be a wonderful visual and cerebral treat for audiences that will find themselves immersed in all things Chinese.

The Chinese films at the SFF come from some of the China's most innovative and exciting filmmakers and writers.

The films included in SFF's Focus on China segment are Beijing Ants (a documentary about life at street level in Beijing); Dancing in the Room (a weird comedy about a young woman living on the fringe of society in Bejing);

Lake August (a beautiful story about contemporary life in rural China); Mothers (a look at the complexities of China's family-planning policies and their victims); The Private Life of Fenfen (a young Chinese migrant worker's tragic love story is broadcast to migrant workers across China) and Black Coal, Thin Ice (a retired cop and a beautiful woman involved in a murder investigation).

The SFF website is at http://www.sff.org.au/public/home/.