This year's Shanghai International Film Festival holds outdoor movie screenings. [Photos provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

To welcome bigger audiences during the ongoing Shanghai International Film Festival, the organizer has put together outdoor screenings to make up for fewer cinema tickets under the COVID-19 containment measures this year.

Outdoor projection sites have been set up in seven commercial centers and 36 communities in the city, and audiences can enjoy the shows in the summer breeze in late evening. Some sites will invite movie industry insiders and actors to share their views with audience before or after the movie.

Altogether 320 movies, 232 making their China debuts, will be presented during the festival, at 29 cinemas in the city. The municipal COVID-19 containment measures demand indoor cinemas have no more than one-third of seats occupied during each screening.

This year's Shanghai International Film Festival holds outdoor movie screenings. [Photos provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

The first major international film festival to take place in China after the outbreak of COVID-19, the Shanghai festival is sparing no effort to ensure public safety.

All tickets are sold to verified ID holders, and audiences will have their temperatures taken upon entering the cinema, which also provides hand sanitizer, free masks and disposable gloves. Audiences are asked to keep their masks on throughout their stay in the cinema, so no food or beverages are available.

The festival suggested cinemagoers arrive a few minutes earlier than usual to avoid a long waiting period at the vending machine to pick up their tickets.