TICKETS for the coming 20th Shanghai International Film Festival have been snatched up by early birds at cinemas and quick fingers in front of mobile phones.

Group and individual tickets, priced from 40-60 yuan, went on sale at 8am today online at dianying.taobao.com. Many movie buffs got up early to snatch up tickets online through mobile phone or waited in long queue to buy tickets at downtown cinemas, such as the Shanghai Film Art Center, Grand Cinema and Peace Cinema.

The film fest will run from June 17 to 26. During the festival, more than 500 movies - both classic films and recent productions from all over the world will be shown at 45 local cinemas around the city.

Film Panorama is a traditional and popular program of the film fest. Last year the festival's box office totaled more than 20 million yuan (US$2.9 million), making it highest-grossing film festival in the world.

According to the officials from the festival's organizing committee, more than 353,000 tickets had been sold by 6pm tonight. Tickets for many screenings have been sold out online and at the cinemas within an hour.

Officials said that "early birds" waited overnight about 36 hours at the Shanghai Film Art Center to snap up tickets of their favorite screenings. Some movie fans went out of their way from the neighboring provinces to the city to buy tickets.

In terms of the great enthusiasm of audience, the organizing committee is considering to add a few more screenings. Information about the added screenings will be released at the festival's Weibo and WeChat accounts.

Popular screenings include Japanese romance film "Hirugao," Romanian award-winning drama film "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days," "Loving Vincent" - the world's first fully painted feature film, documentary film "Florence and the Uffizi Gallery," David Lynch's thriller film "Eraser Head" and American crime film "Pulp Fiction."

Zhang Yingjie, a local public relations manager and movie fan bought tickets for the Disney animated classics "The Lion King" and "Fantasia," as well as Mel Gibson's epic movie "Braveheart."

"Every year I attend about five to eight film screenings at the festival," Zhang said. "I have spent a lot of time selecting movies to watch in advance. As a fan of Disney movies, it is great to know that the 7-minute 'Steamboat Willie,' the first Disney cartoon with synchronized sound will be screened ahead of all the Disney feature films."