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SHANGHAI -- The Shanghai Vancouver Film School opened on Monday as the joint-venture school seeks to breed international talent for the world's second largest film market.

The SH-VFS, a partnership between the Vancouver Film School and Shanghai University, will offer four one-year-long programs in film production, sound design for visual media, animation and visual effects, and makeup design for film and television.

The programs are vocational without a diploma.

Shanghai, the cradle of the Chinese film industry, is trying to develop the kind of skills needed for a film industry so they can grab a larger share of the domestic market.

China's domestic film box office is divided almost equally between movies made in China and international films, mainly American blockbusters.

Its total box office was near 22 billion yuan ($3.6 billion) in 2013 and expected to reach 28 billion yuan this year.

The Vancouver Film School, founded in 1987 in Vancouver, Canada, has achieved international recognition for its contribution to the film industry.