Shanghai Int'l Film Fest to screen 200 movies

In Shanghai, film buffs will be spoiled for choice this June, when the annual Shanghai International Film Festival gets going. The event is scheduled to showcase more than 200 films from around the world, including some rare and unique works.

Organisers claim this year boasts the strongest program in the festival's history. More than two hundred films will be screened at 25 movie houses around the city at discount prices.

One category will focus on master filmmakers. It will feature the 1953 film "Tokyo Story" directed by Yasujiro Ozu, and a film series starring late Hong Kong actor Leslie Cheung. Other highlights include nine silent films directed by Alfred Hitchcock. The films are said to have taken three years to repair by the British Kinematograph, Sound and Television Society.

Kane Yu, program director of Shanghai Int'l Film Festival, said, "Among the nine Hitchcock films, three have background music and six do not. So the British Kinematograph Society has invited a pianist from the UK for us. We'll put a piano beside the screen, and let him play while the audience watches the movies."

Along with the 1962 classic "Lawrence of Arabia", a 1985 French documentary about the Holocaust will also be screened. Directed by Claude Lanzmann, the film "Shoah" took 11 years to complete, and is nine and a half hours long. It caused quite a stir around the world when it was first released.

Kane Yu said, "If people have the patience to stay in the cinema for nine and a half hours to watch it, I think they will be moved by this great production. "

Hollywood will also be represented at the festival, with recent Oscar award-winning films "Lincoln" and "Silver Linings Playbook", as well as the critically acclaimed "Beasts of the Southern Wild". The festivities begin in mid June.