Tickets of SIFF Well-Sold

These days, both group and individual ticket sales for the 14th Shanghai International Film Festival are going well. Up to yesterday, 175,000 audience had bought film tickets and tickets for 167 screenings had been all sold out.

Tickets ranging from 40 to 60 yuan went on sale yesterday at 24 cinemas around the city, including the Shanghai Film Art Center, Stellar Cinema City and Cathay Theater.

With the theater network booking system, movie buffs can buy tickets for any screening at any of the 24 authorized theaters. They can also purchase tickets online or via cell phone.

Many movie fans came to the Shanghai Film Art Center - the festival\'s main site early yesterday morning and waited in a long queue to snap up tickets for the film fest.

Zhu Yonggang, a local university student, bought tickets for the 3D documentary film Pina, which is about the late German dancer and choreographer Pina Bausch.

"I have been waiting for months to watch this acclaimed film," Zhu said. "During the festival, we have a rare chance to see many highly acclaimed art films and experimental movies on the big screen."

Zhang Bin, a manager at the Shanghai Film Art Center, said it had taken more than 600,000 yuan in ticket sales.

Pina, along with Oscar-winning film Black Swan, suspense thriller Vampire by famed Japanese director Shunji Iwai, and Thai romantic comedy A Crazy Little Thing Called Love are among the most popular movies to be shown at the cinema.

"This year\'s film exhibition brings a lot of more recent award-winning productions and attracts a large number of young film lovers." Zhang said.

The most popular films showing in the Stellar Cinema City at Pudong include American crime thriller The Maltese Falcon , classic romantic film Casablanca, British-French animated film The Illusionist and German-Austrian-Estonian historical epic The Poll Diaries.

According to Yu Jianjiang, marketing manager of the cinema, anyone who buys four tickets before Saturday will receive an extra movie ticket (for other movies that are not being shown as part of the festival program).

Yonghua Cinema has sold more than 300,000 yuan worth of tickets for the film festival. Many movie fans came all the way to buy tickets for the classic 1950 drama film Sunset Boulevard and the new complete version of Metropolis, Fritz Lang\'s 1927 sci-fi epic now restored with 25 minutes of lost footage and the original Gottfried Huppertz score.