Films screened at 3rd HIIFF a hit

Since the official opening of the 3rd Hainan Island International Film Festival (HIIFF) in Sanya on Dec 5, nearly 200 films have been screened, attracting large amounts of viewers with tickets for several popular films selling out.

The film panorama is the key section of this year's film festival, including films of the Official Recommendations of the Golden Coconut Awards programme, the H!Future Newcomer Honorary Official Recommendations programme, the Eight Screening Units programme, Beach Screenings and Island Screenings in Sanya, as well as the island-wide screenings of films in Haikou, Danzhou, and Qionghai.

Bai Tianyang, the person in charge of Sanya Shengtang Shidai Cinemas 1 (130), said that this is the first time that the cinema has participated in the film festival, as HIIFF has shown its growing influence.

"We didn't expect much attendance as the films that are being screened are relatively more artistic. However, according to the eight films screened here last weekend, ticket sales were much better than expected, with the attendance rate reaching about 70 percent," added Bai.

As of 3 pm on Dec 7, the box office of films shown in Sanya Shengtang Shidai Cinemas 1 (130) has reached more than 20,000 yuan ($3,059.66), accounting for about 30 percent of the overall box office of the theater. Tickets for Love Song 1980, the opening film of HIIFF, were sold out within a few minutes after tickets became available.

Sanya Wanda & IMAX 1 (127) is currently a theater dedicated to film screenings at the film festival for fans that completed the purchase of tickets on online ticket sales platform Taopiaopiao. A staff member responsible for ticket exchanges at the cinema said that over the past weekend, many popular screenings were full, with the attendance rate of most screenings reaching around 80 percent.

"The film festival has a high level of film selection and the films shown can meet the different needs of fans," said Nie Jingyi and Liu Xinyi, two film enthusiasts who came to Hainan for the film festival from Jiangxi and who bought eight movie tickets at once.