The Los Angeles Film Critics Association has chosen Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-hsien (侯孝賢) as a winner of this year’s Career Achievement Awards, crediting him as one of the world’s most influential filmmakers.
Hou “emerged as a leading figure in Taiwanese cinema in the 1980s and 1990s, and is now widely recognized as one of the world’s greatest, most influential filmmakers,” the association said in a statement on its Web site.
Over his 40-year career, he has directed features such as A Time to Live and A Time to Die (童年往事), The Puppetmaster (戲夢人生), Goodbye South, Goodbye (南國再見，南國), Flowers of Shanghai (海上花), Millennium Mambo (千禧曼波), Three Times (最好的時光) and Flight of the Red Balloon (紅氣球之旅), the association said.
Photo: CNA
“Hailed for their exquisite visual beauty, narrative innovation, historical depth and formal mastery, Hou’s films have won numerous international prizes, including the Golden Lion at the 1989 Venice International Film Festival for A City of Sadness (悲情城市) and Best Director at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival for The Assassin (聶隱娘),” it said.
A City of Sadness was the first Taiwanese film to win a top prize at one of the “Big Three” film festivals — Cannes, Venice and Berlin.
Earlier this year, Hou received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Golden Horse Awards, one of the most prestigious and time-honored film awards in the world of Chinese-language cinema.
Also honored with the Career Achievement Award was Harry Belafonte, a Jamaican-American singer, actor and activist described by association as a “living legend” who broke barriers throughout his career.
The association announces the winners of its annual film awards in December and the awards are presented at a ceremony typically held the next month. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the ceremony for this year’s awards has been canceled.
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