HK film director ecstatic about Venice lifetime honor

Hong Kong director Ann Hui On-wah will be honored with the lifetime achievement award at this year's Venice International Film Festival - making her the first Chinese female director to receive the honor.

Hui will be honored alongside Scottish actress Tilda Swinton.

Hui, 73, said: "I am so happy to receive this news and honored for the award.

"So happy that I cannot find the words. I just hope everything in the world will turn better soon and everybody can again feel as happy as I am in this moment."

The decision was made on the recommendation of the director of the festival, Alberto Barbera, who regarded Hui as "one of Asia's most respected, prolific and versatile directors of our times."

He said her career has spanned four decades and touched every film genre.

"In a trailblazing fashion, through her language and her unique visual style, not only has she captured the specific aspects of the city and the imagination of Hong Kong, she has also transposed and translated them into a universal perspective," Barbera said.

The award ceremony will be held in September.

Hui is known as one of the leading figures of the Hong Kong new wave film movement during the 1970s and 1980s.

She has won six best-director awards at the Hong Kong Film Awards - more than anyone else - and received the same award at the Golden Horse Awards three times. Among Hui's best-known films are Boat People (1982), Song of the Exile (1990), Summer Snow (1995), Ordinary Heroes (1999), The Way We Are (2008), A Simple Life (2011) and The Golden Era (2014).

Hong Kong director John Woo Yu-sen also received the Venice lifetime achievement award in 2010.

Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development Edward Yau Tang-wah congratulated Hui yesterday.

"Ann Hui is a pioneer of Hong Kong and Asian cinema of our time," Yau said.

"The award is in recognition of her exceptional contribution to the film industry. We take pride in her achievement in successfully showcasing to international audiences the top-notch, exquisite and sensational Hong Kong film productions through her unique film language and visual style."

Yau said Hong Kong's film industry has been facing acute challenges in the past years, and the government has earmarked about HK$260 million under the Film Development Fund to reenergize the industry.

Swinton, 59, started making films with director Derek Jarman in 1985 with Caravaggio, and gained wider international recognition in 1992 in Orlando.

wallis.wang@singtaonewscorp.com