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Shanghai was once the cradle of China's film industry, but in recent years there's little question of which city has been sitting in the director's chair. The Beijing Film Academy has produced a long list of internationally-recognised alumni including award-winning director Zhang Yimou and actors like Gong Li. Now it's Shanghai's turn at stardom with the opening of the city's first institute of the silver screen, the Film Academy of Tongji University (FATU).

"I believe this academy will help the local film industry to grow up hai pai [Shanghai style]," says Zhong Qin, the University's deputy director of administration.

The institution's first dean is Huang Shuqin, the daughter of renowned Chinese theatre director and theoretician Huang Zuolin. Huang is one of China's most prominent filmmakers, best known as the director of Forever Young, which won a special prize at the Tashkent International Film Festival 1984, and Woman, Human, Demon, a landmark exploration of identity and gender roles.

Nor is Huang the only luminary. "Our purpose," says Zhong, "is to bring film management talents to a slumping market." To help dig Shanghai out of the movie pit, the academy will boost its star drawing power with a board of famous advisors, featuring actors like Zhang Ruifang, Sun Daolin and Zhou Xingchi.

The joint establishment of FATU by Tongji University and the Shanghai Film Studio is not before time. Since the early 1990s, the quality of locally made films has been in decline, especially those made in Shanghai. DVD imports are partially to blame, together with a general lack of professionalism in the film industry.

In an attempt to raise the bar, FATU will offer courses in directing, cinematography, animation and film studies. So who qualifies? "We don't have special requirements for the applicants," says Zhong, "anyone who passes the entrance examination has the opportunity to be a director or a star."