The number of films that premiered at this year's Shanghai International Film Festival has hit a record high. And the total number of films of submitted to the festival rose by 1-thousand over last year, to 3,447. The movies came from 108 countries and regions. These numbers suggest the event is GAINING INFLUENCE in the global film world. Here's more.

Just as the Chinese film industry gets more and more influential globally, the influence of the Shanghai Film Festival has grown since it was founded in 1993. It has just been designated as one of the first members of a new film festival committee, set up by the International Federation of Film Producers Associations.

FU WENXIA, DIRECTOR SHANGHAI INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL "We were chosen to be a member for two reasons: One is that our festival has grown more and more professional and influential. The other is that the Chinese film industry and market are developing very fast."

As a calling card of Shanghai, the festival has raised the city's cultural image. It also helps propel development of Shanghai's film industry, and to the coordinated development of the film industry in the greater Yangtze River Delta.

HUA JIAN, DIRECTOR RESEARCH CENTER OF CULTURAL INDUSTRIES, SHANGHAI ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES "A lot of private-owned film and TV production companies and bases have been set up along the Hongzhou Bay, in the region of Jiangsu province that is north of Shanghai. This film festival is an opportunity for these companies to show their strengths, to cooperate, and to step up the development of the industry of the whole region."