Toronto International Film Festival Director Piers Handling has taken 10 Canadian films to Beijing for a Canadian film exhibition.

The 10 art films are to be shown at the exhibition called "Canada's ten best: new cinema from the north".

At Friday's opening ceremony, Handling said that cinema is a very important and easy medium to promote cultural exchanges between countries.

"It's still a little bit of mysterious I think for the rest of the world - what's going on in China, what's happening. Of course we are reading all the time about the growing influence of power of China. What's going on? I think people are just curious to see things that Chinese are producing - whether it's music, whether it's fashion, whether it's arts, visual art, whether it's... And of course cinema is very important. It's easy to export films and have them shown around the world".

Sun Xianghui is the Director of the China Film Archive. She says cultural exchanges help to enhance the understanding between nations.

"Actually there is a long history of cultural exchanges between China and Canada. Over the years, of course, these cultural exchanges of ours have become more active and more enriched. So such exchanges of movies - Canadian films coming to China and Chinese films going to Canada -- have in effect well promoted the mutual understanding between the two peoples".

The exhibition, which opened on Friday and will run till Nov. 12, is sponsored by the China Film Archive and Toronto International Film Festival.