The 14th SIFF has announced the shortlisted entries of the Mobile SIFF with fifty films from 27 countries and regions vying for Best Short Film, Best Director, Best Creativity, Best Feature, Best Comedy, Best Action Film, Best Animation and Best Documentary, sharing the prize of more than 100,000 RMB. Another 10 films will compete for the People’s Choice by voting. Rehearsal Day starring Xu Zheng has been selected in the Action Film section while No Rest For Rest Rooms starring Michelle Ye is in the Comedy.

Mobile SIFF is a new unit of the festival, showing a new media platform to the industry and providing young directors with international exposure. From November 2010 around 10 thousand short films started arriving from all over the world. Judges have been amazed by some of the creativity and imagination, while some entries adopted a conventional narrative style. The directors come from all levels of society, not only students majoring in cinema, accomplished or new-generation directors, but also amateurs with natural filmmaking skills.

In this era of new media, a growing number of people in film circles are paying attention to short films. Early in the year, Korean director Park Chan-Wook drew a lot of attention with an iPhone film Night Fishing. Then Doze Niu, Pang Ho-Cheung, Chen Zhengdao and a number of younger directors entered the short films area. Coincidentally, among the shortlisted entries of Mobile SIFF this year, there is one shot by iPhone4 in the documentary category with its vivid imagery and arresting perspective.

"SIFF is constructing a special platform for freshmen. We believe that mobile phones, as a brand new media channel, would definitely change the patterns of film with the new media’s powerful influence. It will offer new opportunities to freshmen", said Lijun Tang, SIFF’s managing director. "At the same time, we are glad to see not only nascent talent but also some accomplished directors entering Mobile SIFF. It proves that the film industry has already realized the potential of mobile phones."

As the first A category film festival to launch a Mobile film festival, Shanghai International Film Festival will continue to provide this avenue in the coming years. The list of award winning films for this Mobile SIFF will be released on June 18th. China Mobile subscribers can watch the entries of Mobile SIFF on wap.mobile-siff.com.