Eight award-winning documentary films from the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) are showing in Beijing for the first time at UCCA (Ullens Center for Contemporary Art) Art Cinema.

On the first day, hundreds watched The Player, which won Best Dutch Documentary at IDFA 2009, and The Monastery: Mr. Vig and the Nun, winner of the Joris Ivens Award at IDFA 2006.

"It's a rare opportunity to watch documentaries at such an acclaimed documentary film festival in Beijing, which is very exciting for me," says Ding Bo, a student from Beijing Film Academy, who studies photography.

Called "Best of IDFA", the selection of documentaries, also includes Dutch documentary legend Heddy Honigmann's The Underground Orchestra, Gonzalo Arijon's Stranded, winner of the 2007 Joris Ivens Award, and The Yes Men Fix the World, winner of the 2009 IDFA DOC U! Award and the Berlin Film Festival Panorama Audience Award.

As the largest documentary festival in the world, IDFA, which was started in 1988, screens more than 250 international documentaries annually.

"Though not a mainstream film genre, documentary has a stable group of fans in China and non-fiction filmmakers serve the journalistic work, investigating problems and engaging the sympathy or the viewers," says Xie Meng, the director of UCCA Art Cinema.

On the following weekends, some Chinese documentary filmmakers have been invited to interpret the award-winning documentaries and will discuss them with audience members after the screenings.

"When movie-goers are fed up with computer-generated blockbusters, they will find a peaceful corner by watching documentaries," Xie says.