2019-04-29

NING Hao Takes up the Post the Jury Chairman of the 22nd SIFF Asian New Talent Awards

The Shanghai International Film Festival (SIFF) Organizing Committee announced today that the famous Chinese director NING Hao will be the Jury Chairman of the 22nd SIFF Asian New Talent Awards. There is a close bond between Ning Hao and the Asian New Talent Awards. In 2005, NING Hao, as a newcomer in the film world, won the Asian New Talent Awards with his MONGOLIAN PINGPONG, which was a recognition as well as encourage for him at that time. Now, he, rejoining us through this platform, will tap Asian new talents and new works of the new generation.

As the only international non-specialized competitive film festival in China, SIFF takes it as an unshirkable responsibility to discover and support new filmmakers. The Asian New Talent Awards is another key competition unit in addition to the Golden Goblet Awards, which is dedicated to discover the new generation of Asian film and bring more new faces to the industry. Since its birth in 2004, the Asian New Talent Awards has brought world recognition as well as a promising future to many young Asian directors, such as NING Hao, Pema Tseden, CAO Baoping, TOM Lin of Taiwan, China, Hassan Yektapanah of Iran, Ravi L. Bharwani of Indonesia, etc. The previous chairman of the jury of the Asian New Talent Awards, including JIA Zhangke, Shunji Iwai, Tung-shing Yee, Wang Xiaoshuai, Nansun Shi and some other famous Asian filmmakers.

Ning Hao is the fourth talented director in China with over 100 million box office, who perfectly combines commercial value with art. He has become the man of the hour as a director with his high return on investment films of distinctive personal style.

NING Hao

In 2005, NING Hao, at the very beginning of his career, won the Asian New Talent Awards with his MONGOLIAN PINGPONG. In 2006, his CRAZY STONE became the winner of the Best Original Screenplay and Best Director (Nomination), etc. at the Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival and Awards. In 2009, CRAZY RACER made him the fourth hundred-million box office director after ZHANG Yimou, CHEN Kaige and FENG Xiaogang; in 2012, GUNS AND ROSES were staged and his film studio was upgraded to a film and TV culture company, named Dirty Monkeys Studio; in 2013, NO MAN’S LAND with NING Hao as the screenwriter and director received the Most Popular Film of 14th Chinese Film Media Awards, and was shortlisted for the main competition unit of the 64th Berlin International Film Festival; in 2014, BREAKUP BUDDIES, produced by Dirty Monkeys Studio and directed by NING Hao, topped the yearly box office list at home with a box office of 1.17 billion; another comedy film by him CRAZY ALLIEN also has met the audience during the Spring Festival of 2019.

NING Hao, sharing the same ideal with the Asian New Talent Awards, values high and is ready to support new filmmakers. The Dirty Monkey 72 Transformations Film Project initiated by him in 2016, aiming to cultivate and support film talents, has signed with 14 young directors and released works such as BROTHERHOOD OF BLADES II: THE INFERNAL BATTLEFIELD and DYING TO SURVIVE, etc.

Stage photo of DYING TO SURVIVE

In 2018, NING Hao was invited to be the awarding guest of the Asian New Talent Awards when he noted that it seemed he had returned home. He believes that the Asian New Talent Awards is a talent scout for him and reaffirms its contribution to the film industry. In 2019, NING Hao will reunite with us through this platform, which means a lot to his film career, as the chairman of the Asian New Talent Awards Jury.