Acclaimed Chinese filmmaker Zhang Yimou is to be feted with two honours at the Asian Film Awards on Sunday (March 10) in recognition of his career and recent box office success.
Zhang will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award and the 2023 Highest-Grossing Asian Film Award for Full River Red, which made $667m worldwide according to ticketing agency Maoyan following its release in January last year.
It marks a return to AFAs for the director, who won the Asian Film Contribution Award at in 2010 and best director in 2021 for One Second.
“Having been in the industry for over four decades, I am grateful to everyone who appreciates my films,” said Zhang of the upcoming honour. “I consider myself very fortunate to have chosen filmmaking as my lifelong profession. Thank you for your enduring support and encouragement. I will keep learning and strive to surpass myself. Always having anticipations for the future, I hope that my best film will be my next one.”
It is the second lifetime honour bestowed on the director in less than six months as Zhang accepted a lifetime achievement award in October at Tokyo International Film Festival, which is a co-organiser of the AFAs. He also received a box office achievement award at the CineAsia conference in Bangkok in December.
Zhang is regarded as a key figure of China’s Fifth Generation filmmakers and began his career in 1978. After graduating in 1982 from the Beijing Film Academy, he made his directorial debut with Red Sorghum, which won the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival in 1988.
Three of his features secured Oscar nominations for best foreign language film: Ju Dou in 1990; Raise The Red Lantern in 1991; and Hero in 2003. His 2004 wuxia romance House Of Flying Daggers also proved an international success.
Tackling a wide range of film genres throughout his career, he has also won two Golden Lions at the Venice Film Festival with The Story Of Qiu Ju in 1992 and Not One Less in 1999. Three of his films played in Competition at Cannes, including To Live, which won the grand jury prize and went on to win a Bafta.
His more recent features have included The Great Wall, One Second, Cliff Walkers and Full River Red.
The 17th Asian Film Awards will take place at the Xiqu Centre in Hong Kong’s West Kowloon Cultural District on March 10, a day before the opening of Hong Kong Filmart.
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