49th SAN FRANCISCO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL TO OPEN WITH PETER CHAN'S PERHAPS LOVE

First Hong Kong Film to Kick-Off the SFIFF This Moving Musical Romance Features Exquisite Score and Cinematography and a Stunning Cast of Pan-Asian Stars

March 2, 2006

San Francisco, CA - The 49th San Francisco International Film Festival (April 20-May 4) will launch Thursday, April 20, 2006, at the majestic Castro Theatre with Peter Chan's Perhaps Love. The Opening Night film will screen at 7:00 pm with the Gala Opening Night Party to follow at 9:30 pm in the Grand Ballroom of the historical Regency Center.

Director/producer Peter Chan (Comrades, Almost a Love Story, SFIFF 1997) will attend the film and party. Special guests San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and visiting Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoe will introduce the film and officially open the Festival. Additional guests to be announced.

Told through a kaleidoscope of flashbacks and film-within-a-film musical numbers, Peter Chan's Perhaps Love is a lavish and heartfelt romantic triangle set in Shanghai and Beijing. The Hong Kong film boasts a striking pan-Asian superstar cast, including Hong Kong singer/actor Jacky Cheung (July Rhapsody, Ashes of Time), Chinese actress Zhou Xun (Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress, Suzhou River), Japan's Takeshi Kaneshiro (House of Flying Daggers) and Korea's Jee Jin-hee (If You Were Me). The film is shot by master cinematographers Chris Doyle (2046, In the Mood for Love) and Peter Pau (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) and choreographed by Bollywood's acclaimed Farah Kahn (Monsoon Wedding, Vanity Fair). Perhaps Love was Hong Kong's selection for the 78th Annual Academy Awards Best Foreign Language Film competition.

Graham Leggat, executive director of the San Francisco Film Society, said, "We are very excited to welcome Peter Chan back to the International and to open for first time with a film from Hong Kong. Perhaps Love is an ambitious and richly satisfying work. Full of artistry in every frame, it blends Asian and Western musical and romantic cinematic influences to create an epic, elegiac tale of love and loss."

The Gala Opening Night party following the film will be held in the Regency Center (1290 Sutter Street at Van Ness) at 9:30 pm. Party goers will indulge in great food, fabulous beverages, live music and dancing on multiple floors including the Grand Ballroom-a Beaux-Arts treasure on the first level. Admission for the Opening Night film and party is $75 general public/$60 for San Francisco Film Society members; VIP tickets are $125 (includes reserved seating at the Castro Theatre and exclusive VIP celebrity room access at the Regency Center).

The 49th San Francisco International Film Festival runs April 20-May 4, 2006 at the Kabuki 8 Theatres (the Home of the Festival), the Castro Theatre and the Cowell Theater at Fort Mason Center in San Francisco; the Pacific Film Archive Theater in Berkeley; and Landmark's Aquarius Theatre in Palo Alto. Passes will be available to San Francisco Film Society members starting March 6. Tickets will be available to members March 28 and to the general public April 4. To purchase tickets and for ticket information log on to www.sffs.org, call 925.866.9559 or visit the Main Ticket Outlet, located in the atrium of the Kabuki 8 Theatres, 1881 Post Street or the Satellite Ticket Outlet at the Virgin Megastore, 2 Stockton Street. For up-to-date Festival information log on to www.sffs.org or call 415.561.5000.

The 49th San Francisco International Film Festival (April 20-May 4, 2006) is presented by the San Francisco Film Society, a nonprofit arts and educational organization dedicated to celebrating international film and the moving image.