The panorama section of the 8th Beijing International Film Festival started on Friday.

A total of 328 films are scheduled to hit the screens across Beijing from April 6 to 22.

A unit for virtual reality (VR) films was set up for the first time, featuring eight short films produced in countries including the United States, Britain and Iraq.

Ticket packages for "The Dark Knight Trilogy" by Christopher Nolan sold out in seven seconds after sales opened on 12:00 p.m., March 28, beating the previous record of 10 seconds set last year by a film package of late Russian filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky.

All four ticket packages for pre-sale this year were sold out in a flash, as the new record holder was followed by the package of late Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman in 10 seconds, and the "Jurassic Park" series and the "X-Men" series both sold out in 14 seconds.

The festival is set to officially open on April 15.