Ann Hui awarded Venice’s Golden Lion Lifetime Achievement
Madrid Desk, Jul 20 (efe-epa).- Hong Kong filmmaker Ann Hui will receive the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the Venice International Film Festival, the organization’s panel announced on Monday ahead of its 77th edition, which will take place between 2-12 September.
“I am so happy to receive this news and honored for the award. So happy that I feel I cannot find the words,” Hui said in a statement released by the festival’s organization.
“I just hope everything in the world will turn better soon and everybody can feel again as happy as I am at this moment,” she added.
Along with Hui, Scottish actress Tilda Swinton will receive the award for her career’s work.
“To come to Venice, this year of all years, to celebrate immortal cinema and her defiant survival in the face of all the challenges that evolution might throw at her – as at us all – will be my sincere joy,” Swinton said accepting the award.
The director of the Venice Film Festival Alberto Barbera defined Hui as “one of Asia’s most respected, prolific, and versatile directors of our times”, whose career “spans four decades and touches every film genre.”
Hui has directed 26 films, two documentary films, and several short films, including The Secret (1979), Boat People (1982), Song of the Exile (1990), A Simple Life (2011), The Golden Era (2014).
Known as one of the most important figures of the Hong Kong New Wave in the 1970s and ’80s, the veteran filmmaker contributed to transforming the city into one of the world’s most creative hotspots.
“She has been one of the first directors on the Hong Kong scene to bring documentary material into fiction films,” Barbera said about Hui, adding that although “she has garnered widespread success with the public, the cinema of Ann Hui has never abandoned an auteurist approach.”
Swinton, BAFTA and Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for Michael Clayton (2007) and Best Actress award at the 1991 Venice International Film Festival for Edward II, said Venice: “This great festival has been dear to my heart for three decades: to be honoured by her in this way is extremely humbling.”
Regarding Swinton, Barbera said “Her uniqueness lies in her commanding and incomparable personality, uncommon versatility, and an ability to pass from the most radical art-house cinema to big Hollywood productions, without ever eschewing her inexhaustible need to bring to life unclassifiable and uncommon characters.”
The Venice Film Festival is expected to unveil the program for the upcoming edition on 28 July.
The direction of the festival has already announced that fewer films will compete in its official section to ensure health and safety measures during all projections. EFE-EPA
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