Chinese director Zhang Yimou to be the recipient of the 2018 Jaeger-LeCoultre Glory to the Filmmaker award of the Venice Film Festival
La Biennale di Venezia and Jaeger-LeCoultre announce that the great Chinese director Zhang Yimou has been awarded the 2018 Jaeger-LeCoultre Glory to the Filmmaker of the 75th Venice International Film Festival from August 29th to September 8th, 2018, dedicated to a figure who has left a particularly original mark on contemporary cinema. Zhang Yimou has made movies like Hero, Raise the Red Lantern, Ju Dou; he was twice winner of the Golden Lion in Venice, in 1992 with The Story of Qiu Ju and in 1999 with Not One Less.
The award will be conferred to Zhang Yimou on 6 September 2018 in the Sala Grande (Palazzo del Cinema), before the world premiere screening Out of Competition of his new film Ying (Shadow).
Four times in Competition at the Venice Film Festival – in 1991 with Raise the Red Lantern, in 1992 with The Story of Qiu Ju, in 1997 with Keep Cool and in 1999 with Not One Less – winner of two Golden Lions, respectively in 1992 and in 1999, a Silver Lion in 1991 and a Coppa Volpi for Best Actress (Gong Li, in 1992 for The Story of Qiu Ju), Zhang Yimou is the only director to have won all the most important prizes of the Venice Film Festival in less than ten years.
Jaeger-LeCoultre is for the fourteenth consecutive year a sponsor of the Venice International Film Festival, and for the twelfth of the Glory to the Filmmaker award. The prize has been awarded in past years to Takeshi Kitano (2007), Abbas Kiarostami (2008), Agnès Varda (2008), Sylvester Stallone (2009), Mani Ratnam (2010), Al Pacino (2011), Spike Lee (2012), Ettore Scola (2013), James Franco (2014), Brian De Palma (2015), Amir Naderi (2016), Stephen Frears (2017).
The 75th Venice International Film Festival will be held on the Lido from August 29th to September 8th, 2018, directed by Alberto Barbera and organized by the Biennale chaired by Paolo Baratta.