A poster for Map to the Stars. [Photo provided to China Daily]

As the main sponsor of last year's Venice International Film Festival, iQiyi was licensed to stream 23 nominations from previous festivals, including six award-winning Italian productions that ran exclusively on the video website.

Gong says the website has established close, long-term relationships in the Asia-Pacific and US, and is now looking for new collaborations in Europe.

The producers of 30 films shown at June's Shanghai International Film Festival authorized the site to stream the movies, including the festival's winner, Greek director Pantelis Voulgaris' Little England. It also streamed 20 films from the Hong Kong Summer International Film Festival.

Movies account for about 60 percent of the content China's online video viewers watch. And 60 percent of users watch films online at least once a week, a 2013 website survey found.

Yang from iQiyi says online cinema holds great potential. Only 30 percent of a film's profits in the US come from the box office. The rest flow from other modes of distribution, such as pay-per-view TV, DVDs and video websites.