"Loach Is A Fish Too," a movie featuring Chinese migrant workers, opened the 13th Beijing Student Film Festival in the China National Film Museum on Saturday.

The movie, directed by Yang Yazhou, follows the story of two migrant workers from the countryside who share the same name "Ni Qiu" - meaning loach in Chinese - as they try to subsist and love with dignity in Beijing.

As winner of the Best Artistic Contribution at the Tokyo International Film Festival last year, it will vie for 12 awards with other 29 Chinese-made films at the festival which runs until April 29.

Yang, who is adept at portraying common people's lives, said after the opening ceremony that he brought his movie to the festival for a sincere communication with the students.

The Beijing Student Film Festival, which began in 1993, is the year's first film festival on the Chinese mainland. It is sponsored by the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Radio & Television and the Beijing Normal University (BNU).

A total 150 universities across the country are participating in the festival this year, up 50 over last year, according to Huang Huilin, one of the festival's initiators and a professor of the Arts and Communications School at BNU.

Film makers and actors from 24 of the 30 entered films will have talks with the audience during the film exhibition this year, she added.

"It is the festival that gives me the chance to enjoy the big-screen's charm with limited pocket money and to communicate with the directors and actors," said Yao Sijiang, a BNU at the opening ceremony.

As a bridge linking the young people to the films, the festival has made an outstanding contribution to the promotion of Chinese-made films, said Tong Gang, director of the Film Bureau of the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, at the ceremony.

Besides Beijing, opening ceremonies also took place in the cities of Shanghai, Tianjin and Nanjing on Saturday, with "Internet Teenagers," "A Bright Moon" and "The Forest Ranger" as the opening films.

Source: Xinhua