The 11th Beijing Students Film Festival gets under way on April 18 at the China Millennium Monument in Beijing.

The annual festival, previously called the Film Festival for University Students in Beijing, this year will involve 37 colleges and universities from across the country and will wind up on May 15 in the capital.

Approved by the Ministry of Education, the festival is organized by the Arts and Media School of Beijing Normal University, the China Film Foundation, the Film Channel of China Central Television, and China Film Archives, according to the festival's spokesperson Qu Lei.

The major events of this year's festival include screenings of at least 30 films by domestic film makers, including director Huo Jianqi's Nuan, Mao Yue's Road to Riches (Xiaokang zhi Lu), Xie Dong's The Coldest Day (Dongzhi), Lu Yue's The Foliage (Meiren Cao), Mailisi's and Saifu's Taekwondo, He Ping's Heroes of Heaven and Earth (Tiandi Yingxiong) and Xu Jinglei's My Daddy and I (Baba he Wo).

Most of these films will be screened and judged during the festival by a panel of college students and film academics in competition for the festival's 10 awards including "Best Loved Picture By College Students," "Best Feature Film," "Best Visual Effects," "Best Actor" and "Best Actress."

Other highlights will include the Fifth Students Digital Video (DV) Works Competition with more than 100 entries from at least 30 colleges and universities across the country, and the first Students' Cartoon and Animated Short Film Competition, with about 110 entries from 20 universities and colleges nationwide.

The festival also features a couple of academic seminars on such topics as a review of Chinese film history, since the centennial of China's film industry falls in 2005, French cinematic art, digital film art, the future development of China's privately-run film companies, and the increasing popularity of digital video production among young Chinese, with DV cameras dropping in price and becoming affordable for more and more Chinese households.

A film essay writing and script writing competition will be held to encourage college students to present their ideas on the future of the Chinese film and television industries, and to show off their creative potential for these industries.

"I am happy to see this film festival growing along with the Chinese film industry, which is also undergoing dramatic changes," said young director Xie Dong, whose maiden work The Coldest Day will be screened at the opening ceremony of the festival on April 18.

Since 1993, the festival has attracted a total of at least 1 million college students in Beijing and has brought a string of younger generation film artists to stardom.

(China Daily April 12, 2004)