Jia Zhangke
Director
Director of the film Still Life, which won the Venice Film Festival's Golden Lion Award in 2006.
He majored in Film Theory at the Beijing Film Academy and created a trilogy of films based in his home province of Shanxi.
His success operating outside of China's state-run film bureaucracy led NPR film critic John Powers to name him as one of the most important filmmakers of his generation. He was a leading figure of China's Sixth Generation of cinema.
He married actress Tao Zhao in January 2012.
His 2008 film 24 City featured actress Joan Chen of The Last Emperor fame.