Some 1,000 film stars, directors and critics gathered in
Shanghai Saturday night to kick off the Seventh Shanghai
International Film Festival, a fiesta that was put off a year
due to the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak in
2003.
Sixteen films, nine from Europe and seven from Asia, will
compete for the Jin Jue Award at the nine-day festival, which will
end on June 13. Another 10 new film from Asian countries will also
vie for the title of Asian New Talent Award during the
festival.
The six-member judge panel for the Jin Jue Award includes
committee president and noted Chinese director Ding Yinnan,
Koreandirector and producer Park Chul-soo, Japanese director Kuroki
Kzuo, chairman of Hong Kong Film Awards Association Limited Manfred
Wong, French director Oliver Assayas and Ron Henderson, founder and
artistic director of the Denver Film Society.
China phenomenon, Asia fashion and international experience will
highlight the film festival's forum while an international TV
festival will also be launched here Sunday.
The annual Shanghai International Film Festival, initiated in
1993, is the only of its kind in China and one of the two Category
A international film festivals in Asia.
(Xinhua News Agency June 6, 2004)
