Tickets for Shanghai International Film Festival go on sale
Arina Yakupova bought SIFF tickets at the Shanghai Film Art Center.
Tickets to the eye-catching Film Panorama section of the 26th Shanghai International Film Festival went on sale at noon on June 7.
Moviegoers snapped up tickets through online ticketing platform Taopiaopiao, as well as the city's 47 cinemas.
The 26th Shanghai International Film Festival will be held June 14–23. The festival will feature approximately 1,600 screenings of over 460 domestic and international films. Filmmakers and actors will also attend some of the premieres and special screenings to interact with audiences.
On June 7, from 12pm to 1pm on Taopiaopiao, 286,000 moviegoers purchased a total of 355,000 movie tickets.
Tickets for around 200 screenings of 36 films were sold out in under 10 minutes. The majority of moviegoers who purchased tickets are between the ages of 18 and 29.
Among the most popular films are the documentary "The Sinking of the Lisbon Maru," the suspense thriller "Se7en," and the fantasy animation "Strame Film" and "Perfect Days."
Tickets for the Film Panorama section can be bought on the online ticketing platform Taopiaopiao as well as at the local cinemas across the city.
A schedule of the festival screenings
Wang Yun, a film enthusiast, has been attending film festivals since 2014. He missed out on "2001: A Space Odyssey," "Once Upon a Time in America," and "Ghost in the Shell" this year because tickets sold out quickly. But he managed to get tickets for "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre," "Gladiator," and "Batman Forever."
Wang said that the Film Panorama section has exhibition displays that provide audiences with insights into the development of world cinema. He also expects the festival to have an audio-visual section to showcase the film industry's most recent technological achievements.
This year's film festival is offering discounted tickets to select films at six downtown cinemas, including the Shanghai Film Art Center, Grand Cinema, and Cathay Theater. The price for each screening at the city's suburban theaters is 50 yuan (US$6.9).
All 47 cinemas will undergo renovations with brand-new subtitle machines to enhance the audiovisual experience. The new subtitle machine provides hardware benefits like low fault and latency, and it will convert the original neon green subtitles to light gray, enhancing their visual appeal to audiences.
More ticket machines have been put up at the cinemas.
A cultural product of the film festival — a transparent bookmark
Movie fans can also take cinematic city walks during this year's film festival.
This year's film schedule has also been optimized. Each unit of the film exhibition has a round of film screenings concentrated in the same cinema, allowing fans who enjoy a specific sort of movie to focus on one cinema to watch these films.
Purchasing movie tickets allows moviegoers to get exclusive ticket stubs, fridge magnets, canvas bags, and other spinoffs.
The festival will partner with the Shanghai Citizens Art Festival to present a series of seminars on film art.
The festival is an annual visual feast for moviegoers everywhere, not just in Shanghai. Film Panorama also draws a large number of admirers from various areas, particularly the Yangtze River Delta region.
Many cinemas, including the Grand Cinema, FANCL Arts Center, and Majestic Theater, are taking consumer wishes into account.
This year, they will receive luggage storage facilities, parking, and meal discounts. Discounted light food packages will also be available.
This year's film festival is also recommending several film-themed city walks. Fans will be given hand-drawn maps that guide them through the city and to time-honored cinemas with many stories to tell.
The film schedule is listed at https://www.siff.com/page/paipian
