The Shanghai International Film Festival (SIFF) has announced the line-up of projects for its Co-production Film Pitch and Catch (Co-FPC) initiative, which aims to stimulate co-production with an emphasis on the Asian region.

The three-day event (June 16-18), at the Crown Plaza Hotel in Shanghai, will bring together potential co-producers and investors with 32 projects from Chinese and overseas filmmakers.

Overseas projects include Italian filmmaker Maurizio Sciarra's The Everlasting Moment, along with projects from the US, Canada, New Zealand, Korea and Japan. Sciarra's romantic drama, set in Yunnan and Guizhou, has been scripted by Ni Zhen whose credits include Zhang Yimou's Raise The Red Lantern.

The line-up also includes one project from Korea - a biopic of famous dancer Choe Seung Hui, from Oasis co-producer Lee Joon-dong - and three Japanese projects, including $10m drama Li-liang, to be directed by Takashi Koizumi and produced by Satoru Iseki and Beijing-based Polybona.

Also among the 32 projects are Hong Kong filmmaker Pang Ho-cheung's The Bus and Taiwnese filmmaker Yee Chih-yen's Cafe Astoria, both of which also appeared in the recent Hong Kong Asia Film Financing Forum (HAF).

Chinese filmmakers include Xie Dong with Speed Post, about five strangers in Beijing who meet over the internet, and Xin Li with Romance Of The Three Kingdoms, which is being produced by Infotainment Media. The line-up also includes projects from eight Chinese newcomers selected from the International Student Shorts Award at SIFF.

The SIFF projects market was held for the first time last year and will be split this year into two sections - China Film Pitch and Catch (CFPC) for eight recommended Chinese projects, and Co-FPC for both domestic and international projects. Foreign projects are required to have Chinese elements.

Among last year's projects, 11 reached financing agreements and four are now being produced. The year's SIFF runs June 14-22.

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