The Shanghai International Film Festival has launched an anti-piracy short film project for its upcoming tenth edition (June 16-24). The first in a series of ten anti-piracy-themed short films will be directed by Feng Xiaogang and will premiere at SIFF's opening ceremony on June 16.

At a press conference held yesterday, the SIFF committee unveiled 10 scripts chosen from thousands of submissions and a best script out of the ten.

The best script, entitled 10 Months In Pregnancy, is written by a school teacher from Henan province, and revolves around a young couple whose baby is stolen by people traffickers.

Feng will direct the short film while Huang Xiaoming and Li Bingbing, who worked with Feng in The Banquet and A World Without Thieves, will star.

The SIFF committee will also arrange finance and provide assistance for the making of the other nine selected projects. The ten films will all be premiered during the festival period.

'Piracy has made me lose millions of renminbi a year. I hope this film will awaken the public awareness to resist piracy,' Feng said at the press conference.

The 10th SIFF is expanding its scope with the aim of developing closer relations with the pan-Asian film industry. Apart from a previously-announced film market, there will also be a projects market (June 17-19), details of which will be announced in May.

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