A list of mainland Chinese films released in 1996:
| Title | Director | Cast | Genre | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cello in a Cab | Guan Hu | Geng Le, Kong Lin |
Drama | Also known as The Street Rhapsody |
| East Palace, West Palace | Zhang Yuan | Hu Jun, Si Han |
Drama | One of the first Chinese films to address LGBT issues, screened at Cannes |
| The Emperor's Shadow | Zhou Xiaowen | Ge You, Jiang Wen |
Historical/Drama | |
| Farewell Our 1948 | Guan Hu | Drama | ||
| The King of Masks | Wu Tianming | Zhu Xu | Drama | |
| Living Dream | Hu Xueyang | Drama | ||
| Signal Left, Turn Right | Huang Jianxin, Yang Yazhou |
Ding Jiali | Comedy | |
| The Singer | Huo Jianqi | |||
| Sons | Zhang Yuan | Docudrama | Tiger Award winner at the 1996 International Film Festival Rotterdam | |
| A Story of Xiangxiang | Teng Wenji | Drama | ||
| The Strangers in Beijing | He Qun | Drama | ||
| Sun Valley | He Ping | Zhang Fengyi | Drama/Western | Entered into the 46th Berlin International Film Festival |
| Temptress Moon | Chen Kaige | Gong Li, Leslie Cheung | Historical/Drama/Romance | Entered into the 1996 Cannes Film Festival |
| Touching Starlight | Zhang Ziyi |