On June 11, the newly decorated Shanghai Cinema.

On June 11, the audience took photos after picking up tickets at the Shanghai Cinema.

All the above pictures are taken by Wang Zhijie

More than 100 years ago, when the projector lights were lit up at the Shanghai Licha Hotel for the first time, no one expected that the movies in this city would be so bright in the future.

It coincides with the 130th anniversary of the birth of world films and the 120th anniversary of the birth of Chinese films. From June 13 to 22, 2025, the 27th Shanghai International Film Festival, directed by the State Film Administration and co-organized by the China Central Radio and Television Station and the Shanghai Municipal People's Government, will resonate with the film, the people who love movies, and the world, and will continue to create eye-catching coordinates in the world's film map with a feast of light and shadow.

The lights are getting darker and the screen is flashing. Shanghai Grand Theater, the movie "Sauce Garden Lane·Unknown's Case" directed by Chen Kexin was the opening film of the film festival and was premiered in the world after the Golden Gogh Ceremony. The screens of more than 100 theaters in Shanghai resonated with each other... Ticket posts and screens formed a brilliant city of movies.

Every frame is life

In the movie "Good Things", the cool Wang Tiemei rode on a balance bike and ran in the corners of the streets and alleys of Shanghai; the enthusiastic young man Ma Tianmin flew onto a bicycle and shuttled through the neighborhoods. This is the scene in the movie "I'm Rest Today"... Between the light and shadow, on the screen, every frame of the picture is life, and Shanghai's daily life is vivid on the screen.

The camera loves the city, and the city also loves movies. As the birthplace of Chinese films, the film has always accompanied the city during the long years of two 60 years. Just like this year's Shanghai International Film Festival series posters, they are taken in different corners of the city, each corner is a movie picture, "every frame is life." The pictures inside and outside the screen are intertwined, and emotional breathing becomes the source of charm of the film festival.

Shanghai International Film Festival, one of the biggest festivals in the hearts of Chinese movie fans. As China's only international A-class film festival, every year, the Shanghai International Film Festival enriches the supply of public cultural products and creates a festival carnival throughout the city. This year, the film festival screened more than 400 films, from 71 countries and regions, with as many as 1,500 shows, and fans set off a wave of ticket grabbing. At the beginning of the film festival’s invoice, the popular episodes instantly became popular, and the videos were sold out in 26 seconds. According to official data, the film festival was issued in one hour and more than 600 events were sold out. As of noon on June 11, the number of ticket buyers reached 459,600, and about 73% of the shows were sold out, setting a record high, of which more than three ticket buyers became fans of other places.

Whether it is content or service, the screening section of the Shanghai International Film Festival has anchored a goal - to make the charm of the movie city endless.

This year's movie screenings comprehensively consider the hardware equipment, geographical location, service quality, etc. of the registered theaters, and finally selected 43 screening theaters, covering 16 districts in Shanghai and 5 "new cities". Among them, Shanghai Cinema SHO, Shanghai Daguangming Cinema, and Fengxian Jiukeshu Cinema all have "Thousand People Halls", which can meet the needs of more movie fans. There are another 5 cinemas, distributed in five cities: Nanjing, Suzhou, Hangzhou, Ningbo and Hefei.

In terms of content arrangement this year's film festival highlights professional standards from concept to theme. 40 units including the premiere ceremony, salute to the masters, and symbiosis present the beauty of the movie from different angles. For example, the added "Asia Today" unit brings together the annual new works of Asian countries (regions), forming a clear curatorial level from "Chinese New Style" to "Asia Today" and "World Everything"; the "World Everything" unit familiar to movie fans, in addition to Italy, Japan, Germany, and Spain, has launched the first country planning of the UK and Turkey; the "Diverful Perspective" unit selects outstanding genre films from all over the world, introduces experimental images, concert movies, concert movies and other video content forms, broadening the boundaries of film festival movie screenings.

This film festival also launched three "marathon" screenings at Shanghai Cinema and Da Guangming Cinema, including the joint screenings of David Lynch's works "Eraser Head", "Demon Night Panic", "Mulholland Road", "Neon Evangelion Theater Edition: Preface, Break, Q, and End" and the documentary "Catastrophe". The three screenings lasted 6 to 9 hours, becoming the "all-night venue" that many movie fans yearned for.

It is worth mentioning that this year the Film Festival planned 100 preview or post-screening meetings, arranged for the main creators of the film to participate, and had close contact with movie fans, covering most screening units. Two special screenings of the works of the jury chairman of the Golden Gate Awards main competition unit, Giuseppe Tonadore and director Chen Kexin, will be linked with the "Film School" to give more fans the opportunity to enter the "Master Class".

Taking the film festival as an opportunity, related industries such as culture, tourism, commerce, and exhibitions have bred vitality and expanded the broad world for the integrated development of cultural, tourism, business, sports and exhibitions.

Ticket stubs empower the development of "movie "

Shanghai off-screen is all-encompassing and profound in its background. The Huangpu River is surging and the Suzhou River is winding, painting a wonderful and vibrant modern scroll. When you come to this treasure city, how can you be satisfied with leaving after watching the movie?

In this film festival, in addition to the light and shadow feast, movie fans also have a real meal - Meituan and Dianping provide movie fans with food consumption coupons, and launched the "Cheers to the Festival Package" for the first time. Combined with the screening film, the "Watch Movies·CheShanghai" (Che: pronunciation in Shanghai dialect "eat"), allowing movie fans to enjoy the food around the theater...

This year is the Chinese film consumption year. Relying on the strong atmosphere of the movie city, the Shanghai International Film Festival has linked many partners in Shanghai's institutions, business districts, business platforms and other partners to plan many linkage projects. Ticket posts have become the key to the deep integration of culture, tourism and business, and many linkage projects have effectively empowered the development of the "movie " economy.

This year, the film festival will be issued on both Damai and Taopiaopiao. In addition to buying tickets, movie fans can also purchase Shanghai Film Festival cultural and creative products. The film festival also innovates cultural and creative gameplay, with the content echoing curation, and launched multiple "Salute to Masters" series of special products, with the number of categories doubled, and the gameplay of co-branded models, blind box models, combination sets and other gameplays were launched simultaneously.

There are multiple easter eggs hidden in the ticket stub for the film festival. In addition to Didi taxi discounts and attractions ticket discounts, there are also special activities such as ticket stub redemption, lottery, and linkage collection of chapters launched by various cinemas, as well as creative peripherals such as film festival cultural and creative products, badges, and card penetration. Ticket stubs are also linked to the exhibition: during the film festival, fans can visit the "120th Anniversary of Chinese Film and the Wudake Password Special Exhibition" at the Daguangming Cinema; ticket-buying audiences at Huangpu Theater can visit the "Singing the Clarion of Movement" for free - a joint exhibition commemorating the 90th anniversary of the singing of "March of the Volunteers"; at Caoyang Cinema, audiences can visit the "Find Memory of the 1980s and 1990s" hand-painted film poster exhibition.

The film festival also exerts its appeal, links social resources, and expands the coverage of "movie ". The ticket subsidy activities jointly carried out with UnionPay and Pudong Development Bank are expected to benefit over 100,000 people; × The customized packaging of the co-branded coffee cup and Guangming Yoube Dairy products of the Shanghai Film Festival has attracted attention as soon as it was launched; Ctrip launched a linkage product for hotels, attractions and movie tickets, encouraging movie fans to travel with the movie... The long-tail effect of film and television IP continues to extend.

In addition, many screening theaters also provide luggage storage services to facilitate foreign movie fans; launch "Movie Travel" related services to provide ticket-buying audience with rights and interests such as discounts on hotels, check-in gift packages, discounts on cooperative attractions... Going to a movie appointment is becoming a real "full experience".

Taking movies as a medium, the Shanghai International Film Festival is not only a carnival for the majority of movie fans, but also a window to observe the vitality, consumption trends and the integration of culture and tourism in China.

More ways to open Shanghai

The day before the opening of this film festival, the "Citizens' Watching Manual" was upgraded to the "Movie Life Manual" and sent to major screening theaters. This booklet, nicknamed "Movie Watching Book" by movie fans, has been incorporated into urban cultural and tourism elements for the first time this year and is very popular.

The century-old history of the development of film culture and film industry has accumulated rich human resources for the city of Shanghai. Open the manual, movie viewing guide, cinema life map, ticket stub discount information, and late-night snack guide... The film festival connects movie fans with literary and artistic life circles, allowing the film festival to not only watch movies, but also play around the city.

This year, the film festival organizers and the opening film "Sauce Garden Lane·Unfortified Case" jointly created a special screening event across the city. The story of the film is set in Shanghai, and the shooting scenes are almost all in Shanghai. After the Golden Gogh Ceremony on June 14, the film will carry out "Premiere Roadshow" and "Surprise Airborne". Fans can not only participate, but also print the special commemorative ticket booth for the opening movie to be remembered and check in at the filming site of Zhapu Road, Hongkou.

The main screening theaters and business districts in Shanghai have "restored" the scenes in the film festival posters, and fans can "enter the painting" to check in. The Daguangming Cinema on Nanjing West Road has already hung a large poster of the film festival, and the offline installation is also ready. The person in charge of the theater said: "I hope that through these small ritual designs, every movie viewing will become a memory worth collecting." Not far from the theater, it is Yellow River Road, which has become a popular check-in place because of the popularity of the TV series "Flowers".

Check in at the Shanghai History Museum with Shanghai characteristics, ride a bicycle under the sycamore tree to feel the breeze of early summer, and play the character in the painting at Licha Hotel... Turn on the "Explore" function of Alipay, you can "Explore" this film festival agenda through the AI ​​multimodal function and integrate the movie into urban life.

Various measures have brought more possibilities to open up Shanghai.

The International Film and Television Market of the Film Festival introduced the market concept for the first time, and established interactive areas such as cultural and creative markets, signing and meetings related to the film and television industry in public exhibition areas; the "Belt and Road" Film Week held a life market in the Bister Shopping Village in Pudong, showing the Southeast Asian style. New activities such as green screen special effects experience, film culture lectures, pet-friendly open-air movie screenings, creative poster design competitions, etc. are spread all over Shanghai's major landmarks, attracting people and providing citizens with more literary and artistic options.

During the film festival, many areas in Shanghai also became "sub-venues". Come to Yuyuan for a garden party: Yuyuan Mall decorates the old city as a good place for the film festival, attracting Chinese and foreign tourists; take a rafting night tour in Suzhou River: a future theater unit cooperating with Putuo District, with the theme of "film and tourism", and relying on digital film and television technologies such as XR to bring the audience the interactive experience of film and game integration; go to Songjiang to experience the fun of shooting: a science fiction film week, a technology creation unit, cooperating with Songjiang District, is launching a number of activities for the industry and the public, allowing movie fans to enjoy the "protagonist" addiction in Shanghai Film and Television Park.

Gather popularity with festivals, promote consumption with festivals, shape brands with festivals, and promote exchanges with festivals. Let’s meet in Shanghai, meet in the 27th Shanghai International Film Festival, and enjoy the light and shadow feast. (Cao Lingjuan/text)