Stephen Chow (L) and Xu Jiao, leading actor and actress of CJ7, meet the press

Lucrative Chinese films of the past year, such as The Assembly, The Warlords, and CJ7, are among the 36 final competitors for this year's Beijing Student Film Festival.

The films not only include box-office leaders, but also small-budget films that have not had as big an influence in the theaters, Xinhua News Agency on Thursday quoted the festival committee as saying.

The 36 candidates were selected from a record-setting 104 submissions, according to the festival's website. Genres span action, war, comedy and art-house films.

Other notable nominations include In Love We Trust, Ganglamedo, and My Left Hand.

The 15th annual Beijing Student Film Festival will run from April 6 to 26. Nominated films will be screened in several local universities, where students will choose their favorite film, director, actor and actress.

Other major awards for Best Film, Director, Actor and Actress will be decided by a judge panel of professionals and students.

The Beijing Student Film Festival is growing in popularity as filmmakers are seeing a potential market among college students.

(CRIENGLISH.com March 27, 2008)