Fans Find Shanghai Film Festival a Hot-Ticket Item

Tickets for the 10th Shanghai International Film Festival are selling like hotcakes.

Shanghai Daily reports, group ticket sales for the festival started last Thursday. On Saturday, sales opened to individuals at 21 theaters across the city, including the Shanghai Film Art Center, the Wanda International Cinema and Paradise Warner Cinema City.

The Shanghai Film Art Center - the festival's main site - attracted hordes of movie buffs, some of whom came early to snap up tickets.

Shao Zhenhua, manager of the center, said they had taken more than 1.05 million yuan worth of ticket sales. The most popular films among the 180 or so movies showing at the center have been "Perfume: The Story of A Murder", "High Heels" and Oscar-winning film "The Lives of Others".

About 200 foreign and domestic pictures will be presented during the festival - which runs from June 16 until 24 - including recent productions and a retrospective exhibition of Japanese director Akira Kurosawa and Spanish film maker Pedro Almodovar.

A schedule of films to be screened during the festival can be found online at www.siff.com.