Shanghai off to razzle-dazzle start

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Festival News

The 15th edition of the Shanghai International Film Festival 上海國際電影節 got underway this evening with an opening ceremony that dished up several courses of glitz, glamour and grandstanding.

Held downtown at the city's Grand Theatre, the red carpet ceremony gave a large and excitable crowd a 90 minute parade of stars, supermodels and happy memories.

Once inside the hall, the celebrities and officials applauded each other on a grandiose stage decked with strass and larger-than-life projections of the honourees and jury members. Introductions were either bilingual, in Chinese and English, or sub-titled. Official speeches were kept short and on schedule.

Although the festival is supposedly under competitive fire from the Beijing International Film Festival 北京國際電影節, which is held in late April, Shanghai was able to pull off an extraordinary parade with all but a couple of major Chinese stars absent from the pageant.

Guest from Greater China in attendance included Jackie CHAN 成龍, CHOW Yun-fat 周潤發, Tony LEUNG Chiu-wai 梁朝偉, HUANG Xiaoming 黃曉明, FENG Xiaogang 馮小剛, LIN Chi-ling 林志玲, Kitty ZHANG 張雨綺, Cecilia CHEUNG 張柏芝, Michelle CHEN 陳妍希 and juror LI Bingbing 李冰冰 (pictured left).

Overseas figures included Mike MEDAVOY, Aaron ECKHART, Amir NADERI, Famke Janssen, Christy CHUNG 鍾麗緹, JANG Dong-geon 장동건 | 張東健, HUR Jin-ho 허진호 | 許秦豪, HIROSUE Ryoko 広末涼子 and, from the jury, Heather Graham and Jean-Jacques ANNAUD (pictured right).

Executives in attendance included Tom YODA 依田巽, André MORGAN, Gary Kurtz, brothers Dennis WANG Zhongjun 王中軍 and James WANG Zhonglei 王中磊, Mark Ordesky and the Busan International Film Festival 부산국제영화제's LEE Yong-kwan 이용관 | 李庸觀.

There were on-stage lifetime and career achievement awards for Chow Yun-fat, the Shanghai-born Medavoy and veteran Chinese director WU Yigong 吳貽弓, the subject of a small tribute at the festival.

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