The 11th Beijing International Film Festival will be held in Beijing from August 14 to 21, 2021. As the most important part of this year’s BJIFF the Tiantan Award, not only are there highlights in each of the selected films, but the international jury lineup is also professional, authoritative, and popular, bringing together domestic and foreign movie stars to safeguard the Tiantan Award.

 

Previously, the 11th Beijing International Film Festival announced that Gong Li will be president of the international jury for this year’s Tiantan Award. Once the news was released, it triggered heated discussions in China and abroad. Expectations were rising. At a press conference on July 15, the other six members of the international jury were also announced. Actor Chen Kun, director Leste Chen, director Renny Harlin, director Nadine Labaki, Director Wuershan and actor Zhang Songwen will serve on the jury together.

Gong Li, the only actress in the world to have starred in a film that won the top prize at the three major film festivals in Europe.

 

Gong Li has served as on the jury of international film festivals on several occasions. She was president of the 50th Berlin Film Festival jury, president of the 59th Venice Film Festival jury, president of the 16th Tokyo International Film Festival jury, member of the 50th Cannes International Film Festival jury, and president of the 17th Shanghai International Film Festival jury.

 

In the international field, Gong Li’s first main role was in the movie Red Sorghum, which won the Golden Bear Award (for best film) at the 38th Berlin Film Festival. Later, she won the Best Actress Award at the 49th Venice Film Festival for her role in The Story of Qiu Ju, which also won the Golden Lion Award (for best film) there. At the 47th Cannes International Film Festival, Farewell My Concubine, in which Gong Li played the lead role, won the Golden Palm (for best film). After that, Gong Li has won many international awards for her lead role in Breaking the Silence, such as the 24th Montreal World Film Festival Best Actress Award and World Film Artist Achievement Award, the 59th New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actress, and the 77th National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actress.

 

At home and in Asia, Gong Li has won top Chinese film awards, including two Golden Rooster Awards and three Hundred Flowers Awards, Outstanding Actress at the 16th Huabiao Awards, Best Actress at the Changchun Film Festival and Best Actress at the China Film Director's Guild Awards. Her films have successively won many awards such as Best Actress at the 26th Hong Kong Film Awards, the 13th Hong Kong Film Critics Society Awards, and the Asian Film Awards. In 2021, Gong Li won Best Actress at the Hong Kong Film Critics Society Awards for the second time for her outstanding performance in the film Leap, which also won Best Feature Film at the 33rd Golden Rooster Awards.

 

In the field of culture and art, Gong Li was awarded the highest Ordre des Arts et des Lettres award – the Commandeur, by the French Ministry of Culture. She became the first Chinese actress to receive this honor. Gong Li was also appointed UNESCO Artist for Peace and was named one of 16 artists who have influenced human culture and art. In 2019, she became the first person of Asian descent to win the Cannes International Film Festival’s Women In Motion Award.

 

In recent years, Gong has starred in films such as Mulan and Leap.

 

Chen Kun, mainland Chinese actor, graduate of Beijing Film Academy.

 

Chen debuted in the 1999 film The National Anthem. For over 20 years, he has brought a number of both artistic and commercially valued film and television works to audiences. His works include films such as Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress, The Knot, the Painted Skin series, Flying Swords of Dragon Gate and Mojin: The Lost Legend. Chen has also appeared in a number of classic TV series, including Love Story in Shanghai, The Story of a Noble Family, Farewell Vancouver and The Rise of Phoenixes.

 

Chen has won awards such as the Best Actor award at the 30th Hundred Flowers Awards, Outstanding Actor award at the 12th China Huabiao Film Awards and the China Film Performance Art Academy’s Golden Phoenix Award. Films in which he has played a leading role have also been nominated for and won many domestic and foreign awards, including the Cannes International Film Festival, the Golden Globe Awards, the Golden Rooster Awards, the Hong Kong Film Awards, and the Golden Horse Awards in Taiwan.

 

Leste Chen, Director and Producer.

 

In 2004, Leste Chen directed the short film Uninhibited, which was shortlisted for the Venice International Film Critics' Week competition and the Tokyo International Film Festival’s Winds of Asia competition. In 2005, he directed his first feature film, The Heirloom. In 2006, he won the New Currents Award at the 11th Busan International Film Festival for his romantic film Eternal Summer. In 2011, he directed the romantic comedy Love on Credit.

 

In 2014, he was nominated for Best Director and Best Screenwriter at the 15th Chinese Film Media Awards for his suspense-filled drama The Great Hypnotist. In 2015, he directed the bizarre comedy 20 Once Again. In 2016, he produced the crime romance One Night Only. In 2017, he directed the crime thriller Battle of Memories. 2021 has seen the release of Leste Chen’s drama mystery Home Sweet Home, and his coming-of-age movie Upcoming Summer is set to be released soon.

 

Renny Harlin, renowned film director, known in the international film industry for his ability to handle a variety of genres.

 

From action blockbusters to comedies to award-winning dramas, his works span a variety of genres and have raked in more than USD $1 billion at the box office in theaters alone. He rose to worldwide fame in 1990, when he directed Bruce Willis in the box office hit Die Hard 2. Harlin achieved critical acclaim the following year when he produced Rambling Rose, which won the Independent Spirit Award for Best Film. In 1993, directing and producing the action blockbuster Cliffhanger starring Sylvester Stallone launched Renny Harlin into the ranks of Hollywood's top action directors.

 

Apart from these, Renny Harlin has directed dozens of films, including a series of popular films such as The Long Kiss Goodnight (1996), Deep Blue Sea (1999) and Mindhunters (2004). In recent years, Renny Harlin has directed a series of films in China, including Skiptrace (2016) starring Jackie Chan, Legend of the Ancient Sword (2018) and Bodies at Rest (2019).

 

　　

Nadine Labaki, degree in audiovisual studies at Saint Joseph University in Beirut.

 

In 2004, she began writing and coming up with her first feature film, Caramel. The film, which was shot two years later, was selected for the Directors' Fortnight at Cannes in 2007. This cheerful yet rebellious film is an ode to sisterhood between women. Nadine Labaki continued to create on the themes of women and religion, directing Where Do We Go Now?, which premiered as part of the Un Certain Regard section at the 2011 Cannes International Film Festival and won the People's Choice Award at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival.

 

In 2008, she was awarded the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture. In 2018, Nadine Rabacki directed Capernaum, a moving film about the plight of Lebanese refugees, broken childhood, and a dehumanizing society. The film debuted at the 2018 Cannes International Film Festival, where it was selected to compete for the Palme d'Or. It cause a sensation and won the Jury Prize.

 

Capernaum won awards at the BAFTA Awards, the Golden Globe Awards and the César Awards, and was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 91st Academy Awards, making Nadine Rabacki the first Arabic-speaking woman to be nominated in that category. In 2019, Nadine Labaki was president of the Un Certain Regard jury at the Cannes International Film Festival

 

Wuershan, famous director, scriptwriter and film producer in China.

 

As a leading figure of Chinese fantasy films, his films are based on local culture and have a distinctive personal aesthetic. Further, his works underwent strictly industrial-esque production, which led and developed the highest level of industrialization in Chinese film. The films he has directed have won many awards in film festivals, at the same time, they are highly recognized by the market and have achieved repeated successes at the box-office.

 

In 2011, he directed the martial arts comedy The Butcher, the Chef and the Swordsman. In 2012, he directed the fantasy romance film Painted Skin: The Resurrection, which broke 12 box-office records that year. In 2015, he directed the fantasy adventure film Mojin-The Lost Legend and won the “Best Director” prize at the 33rd Hundred Flowers Awards. The Fengshen Trilogy, which was directed by Wuershan, is in post-production. It will be the first time in Chinese film history for a mythological epic trilogy to be shot back-to-back, a truly monumental achievement. It took seven years to prepare and produce this project, and soon, you can watch the trilogy.

 

Zhang Songwen, Chinese actor.

 

Zhang Songwen’s representative works include The Pioneer, 1921, Break Through the Darkness, The Shadow Play, The Bad Kids, End of Summer and Spring Fever.

 

He won Best Supporting Actor at the Chinese Film Media Awards in 2019 with his brilliant acting in The Shadow Play. Songwen also won Movie Actor of the Year at the SIR Film and Entertainment Conference in 2019. He starred in the film End of Summer, which won the KNN Award in the New Currents section, the only international competitive section of the Busan International Film Festival.

 

Aside from acting, he is a famous performance coach in China. His unique teaching ideology and effective training method can rapidly improve actors’ performing abilities and aesthetics. From 2019 to 2020, he has attended acting shows as a tutor and performance coach for two years in a row, such as Real actor and I AM THE ACTOR 3.

 

The 11th Beijing International Film Festival is just around the corner, and the Tiantan Award will set off to fulfill the expectations of audiences at home and abroad. Come to Beijing and watch the best movies in the world. Stay tuned for more exciting events!