Greeted by hundreds of cameras flashing in a persistent rain, more than 300 film stars arrived at the Shanghai Grand Theater on Saturday evening, as the 14th Shanghai International Film Festival raised its curtain.

Being one of Asia's biggest annual film events, this year's festival has attracted such international stars as Susan Sarandon, Matt Dillon and Mischa Barton.

Talking about his favorite Chinese directors, Dillon, the American actor who has earned an Oscar nomination for his supporting role in the 2004 film Crash, said he'd like to work with John Woo and Wong Kar-wai, both of whom he admires.

The opening red carpet show also saw A-list Chinese stars arriving with umbrellas. That included Fan Bingbing, Li Bingbing, Chen Kun, Kwai Lun-mei, and the newly-wed couple Sun Li and Deng Chao.

American director Barry Levinson led six other jury members on the red carpet. In the following week, Levinson and his team will watch 16 films to decide who deserve the festival's top prize, the Golden Goblet.

Films in competition include Chinese romantic-fantasy film Rest on Your Shoulder, Japanese family drama Bunny Drop, and the U.S.-Argentina-Spain co-production, There Be Dragons.

This year's festival features an unprecedented level of involvement by filmmaking amateurs. A new section called Mobile SIFF was introduced, which accepted short film submissions from all over the world. Chinese director Tsui Hark will lead actress Zhao Tao and Thai director Nonzee Nimibutr to select winners from 50 finalists. Winners will receive financial support from the festival.

For regular movie fans, the festival is a place to get access to arrays of great films. Seven film noir classics, including The Maltese Falcon and Gilda, will be screened to mark the 70th anniversary of the genre. Also on the screening agenda are recent films including Black Swan, True Grit and Pina.

The festival will conclude on June 19.

(CRIENGLISH.com June 12, 2011)