Despite Beijing's -10C weather, the schoolyard of the Beijing Film Academy (BFA) was completely full on Sunday as students came to compete for the chance to attend the alma mater of famous directors such as Zhang Yimou, Chen Kaige and Jia Zhangke.
While more than 18,000 students enrolled to take part in the BFA art exam, BFA plans to only recruit 513 undergraduate students and 75 higher vocational students for 2014.
The other top art school, the Central Academy of Drama, also saw more than 30,000 students taking its art exam on Friday, one-third more than last year. About 137 candidates will compete for each seat for the film/TV acting major.
Famous directors aren't the only ones to have graduated from BFA. The school's performance major has cultivated many famed film stars including Zhao Wei, Xu Jinglei and Yao Chen.
As such this major is still one of the hottest, attracting more than 5,000 students to take the entrance exam. Sadly, only 50 undergraduates will actually be accepted.
While the performance major has reduced the number of exams from three to two, exam content will stay the same: The first test requires students to recite lines and give an improvisational performance, while the second round of testing consists of an oral test of student's knowledge about art, history and common knowledge about society. This last round also looks at students' physical and vocal abilities.
One of the examinees, Yao Mengmeng, was practicing dancing outside. She was taking every chance to prove that she was the best candidate.
"I always put myself into the performance while watching TV," Yao told China Central Television (CCTV). "If the actors cry, I cry; if they laugh, I also laugh out loud."
A young man, Jiang Wei, who had just finished the first test, described the process to CCTV, "Our performance was called 'our sassy girls.' The situation was two couples quarreling about buying watermelon at the cinema. I didn't know how to act in my role, that of a policeman, at first."
According to BFA's 2014 enrollment guide, the top eight examinees will be given priority admission so long as their college entrance exam scores are above BFA's minimum entry score.
Jiang Lifen, deputy dean of BFA's Performance School, explained that the first test lasts from February 9 to February 13.