Gong Li is a Chinese actress. She starred in three of the four Chinese-language films that were nominated for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film.
Warriors of Heaven and Earth is a 2003 Chinese action adventure film directed by He Ping. The film's notable cinematography captures a wide range of landscapes across China's Xinjiang province. It was China's official entry for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, though it did not get nominated.
Jia Zhangke is a Chinese film director and screenwriter. He is generally regarded as a leading figure of the "Sixth Generation" movement of Chinese cinema, a group that also includes such figures as Wang Xiaoshuai, Lou Ye, Wang Quan'an and Zhang Yuan.
The Golden Lion is the highest prize given to a film at the Venice Film Festival. The prize was introduced in 1949 by the organizing committee and is now regarded as one of the film industry's most prestigious and distinguished prizes. In 1970, a second Golden Lion was introduced; this is an honorary award for people who have made an important contribution to cinema.
Beijing Film Academy is a coeducational state-run higher education institution in Beijing, China. The film school is the largest institution specialising in the tertiary education for film and television production in Asia. The academy has earned international recognition for its achievements in film production.
The World is a 2004 Chinese drama written and directed by Jia Zhangke about the work and the life of several young people moving from the countryside to a world park. Starring Jia's muse, Zhao Tao, as well as Cheng Taishen, The World was filmed on and around an actual theme park located in Beijing, Beijing World Park, which recreates world landmarks at reduced scales for Chinese tourists. The World introduces new technologies like binoculars, coin-operated telescopes, digital cameras, mobile phones and digital services in the theme park as touristic tools to virtually travel around the world, emphasizing the globalization and convenience. It is a metaphor for Chinese society to experience the sense of mobility, but the knowledge is still limited domestically and the environment of simulation is seen as a sense of escaping from the real world. The World was Jia's first film to gain official approval from the Chinese government. Additionally, it was the first of his films to take place outside of his home province of Shanxi.
Platform is a 2000 Chinese film written and directed by Jia Zhangke. The film is set in and around the small city of Fenyang, Shanxi province, China, from the end of the 1970s to the beginning of the 1990s. It follows a group of twenty-something performers as they face personal and societal changes. The dialogue is a mixture of local speech, mainly Jin Chinese and Mandarin. The film has been called "an epic of grassroots". It is named after a popular song about waiting at a railway platform.
Still Life is a 2006 Chinese film directed by Jia Zhangke. Shot in the old village of Fengjie, a small town on the Yangtze River which is slowly being destroyed by the building of the Three Gorges Dam, Still Life tells the story of two people in search of their spouses. Still Life is a co-production between the Shanghai Film Studio and Xstream Pictures.
Unknown Pleasures is a 2002 Chinese film directed by Jia Zhangke, starring Wu Qiong, Zhao Weiwei and Zhao Tao as three disaffected youths living in Datong in 2001, part of the new "Birth Control" generation. Fed on a steady diet of popular culture, both Western and Chinese, the characters of Unknown Pleasures represent a new breed in the People's Republic of China, one detached from reality through the screen of media and the internet.
Dong is a 2006 documentary film by Chinese director, Jia Zhangke. The film follows the artist and actor Liu Xiaodong as he invites Jia to film him while he paints a group of labourers near the Three Gorges Dam and later a group of women in Bangkok. The film was produced and distributed by Jia's own production company, Xstream Pictures, based out of Hong Kong and Beijing.
Cry Me a River is a 2008 short film directed by Chinese filmmaker Jia Zhangke. The film is a romance recounting the reunion of four college friends and lovers after ten years. The leads are played by Jia regulars Zhao Tao and Wang Hongwei, and Hao Lei and Guo Xiaodong, who starred together in Lou Ye's 2006 film Summer Palace. Jia has stated that he was inspired by the classic Chinese film Spring in a Small Town, also about the reuniting of former lovers in a rural river town in eastern China.
Bliss is a 2006 Chinese family drama film directed by Sheng Zhimin and produced by Hong Kong director Fruit Chan. The film was Sheng's first as a director, having previously served as a line producer for Chan and Jia Zhangke on films such as Durian Durian and Platform.
The 68th annual Venice International Film Festival was held in Venice, Italy between 31 August and 10 September 2011. American film director Darren Aronofsky was announced as the Head of the Jury. American actor and film director Al Pacino was presented with the Glory to the Film-maker award on 4 September, prior to the premiere of his upcoming film Wilde Salomé. Marco Bellocchio was awarded with the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement in September. The festival opened with the American film The Ides of March, directed by George Clooney, and closed with Damsels in Distress by Whit Stillman.
Amazing Detective Di Renjie 2, also known as Shen Tan Di Renjie 2, is the second installment in a four-season Chinese television series based on gong'an detective stories related to Di Renjie, a Tang dynasty magistrate and statesman. Written and directed by Qian Yanqiu, the series starred Liang Guanhua as the titular protagonist, and was first broadcast on CCTV-8 on 20 November 2006, two years after the first season. It was followed by Amazing Detective Di Renjie 3 in 2008, and Mad Detective Di Renjie in 2010. The series was released in the United States on March 21, 2018 on Toku.
Shun Li and the Poet is a 2011 Italian drama film directed by Andrea Segre. It won the European Parliament Lux Prize in 2012. Zhao Tao won the 2012 David di Donatello for Best Actress for her performance as Shun Li. It also took out the 2014 Whitehead Award at the 13th annual international film festival.
A Touch of Sin is a 2013 Chinese anthology film written and directed by Jia Zhangke and starring Jiang Wu, Wang Baoqiang, Luo Lanshan, and Zhao Tao, Jia's wife and longtime collaborator. The film consists of four loosely interconnected tableaus set in vastly different geographical and social milieus across modern-day China, based on recent events while also drawing from wuxia stories and Chinese opera. The English title references A Touch of Zen. It was nominated for the Palme d'Or at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival, with Jia winning the award for Best Screenplay.
Mountains May Depart is a 2015 Mandarin-language drama and the 8th feature film directed by Jia Zhangke. It competed for the Palme d'Or at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival. and was also selected to be shown in the Special Presentations section of the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival.
A Dream of Red Mansions is a Chinese serial feature film produced by Beijing Film Studio, released in 6 parts between 1988 and 1989. Directed by Xie Tieli (谢铁骊) and Zhao Yuan (赵元), it is a cinematic adaptation of the 18th-century Chinese novel of the same name. The film took two years to prepare and three years to shoot, and remains, at 735 minutes, the longest ever made in the People's Republic of China.
Ash Is Purest White is a 2018 Chinese drama directed by Jia Zhangke. It was selected to compete for the Palme d'Or at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival. The story is loosely based on the leader of a gang from Jia Zhangke's childhood, whom he had admired as a role model. Like the rest of Jia's films, it opened to widespread acclaim.
The Pingyao International Film Festival (PYIFF), officially as "Pingyao Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon International Film Festival", is a film festival held in Pingyao, Shanxi, China. It was launched in October 2017 by Jia Zhangke, a Chinese film director, screenwriter and leading figure of the "Sixth Generation" movement of Chinese cinema and prestigious festival director Marco Müller. The festival's goal is to bring attention to works done by young, lesser known directors in the Chinese film industry, as well as to encourage communication and cooperation between Chinese and international filmmakers.
