Shanghai Film Museum opens to the public. Pictured is Nanjing Road under a spotlight. Gao Erqiang / China Daily

Shanghai Film Museum celebrated its grand opening on June 16, following the launch of the 16th Shanghai International Film Festival.

At the opening ceremony, a group of China's most respected film makers, such as Qin Yi, Wu Yigong, Jia Zhangke and Hark Tsui, unveiled a sculpture in front of the museum.

The sculpture is brand new, but the image is familiar to every filmgoer in China. The statue is of three people, representing the worker, the peasant and the soldier, and it is an image that has appeared at the beginning of each film production by Shanghai Film Studio for decades.

"We not only want to evoke the memories of the older-generation film makers and the history, but also inspire the young, and let them fall in love with film," Ren Zhonglun, president of Shanghai Film Group, said at the opening ceremony.

It took the group almost 10 years to collect and categorize the artifacts and documents for the museum. After careful selection and curatorial work, the museum decided to exhibit 3000 items among its collection. "We have some extremely valuable historical documents, costumes and props," Ren said.

Director Jia Zhangke donated the scripts from his Gold Lion award winning film Still Life as well as the 2013 Cannes Film Festival Best Screenplay award certificate of his latest project A Touch of Sin.

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