Tony Leung’s First Golden Rooster Win Caps a Week of Chinese Cinema’s Global Rise

China celebrated its Golden Rooster Awards with a glittering ceremony held at the Xiamen Strait Grand Theater in Xiamen, Fujian Province.

The southern seaside city hosted generations of stars, from current sensation Jackson Yee (Resurrection) to acclaimed director Zhang Yimou, in an event regarded as a highlight of the annual state-run Golden Rooster and Hundred Flowers Film Festival.

Hong Kong’s Tony Leung Ka Fai took the spotlight, earning his first Golden Rooster best actor honor for his chilling turn as the villain in the Larry Yang-directed thriller The Shadow’s Edge — a quarter-century after captivating global audiences in Jean-Jacques Annaud’s steamy The Lover.

“I hope this is just the beginning of a new journey,” the veteran actor said.

Behind the glamour, the business of filmmaking remained a central focus as the Chinese industry gathered for seminars and workshops intended to shape its future.

Here’s what The Hollywood Reporter learned from the week:

Zhang Yimou Urges Filmmakers to Stay Focused on the Story

Zhang Yimou brought considerable gravity to the proceedings. The 76-year-old filmmaker appeared at the Golden Rooster Awards, presenting the Best Feature Film prize to director Shen Ao and his World War II drama Dead to Rights, while also mingling with stars and watching the show as audiences did as a massive dragon drone flew overhead.

Yimou also helped open the industry side of the festival with a seminar titled “Stories That Travel: Chinese and Asian Cinema in Dialogue with the World,” which brought together international festival representatives and soon turned to artificial intelligence and its influence on cinema.

With Zhang’s adaptation of Liu Cixin’s sci-fi epic The Three-Body Problem in development, the director revealed he had begun experimenting with the technology, including a dedicated on-set team to explore how AI might fit into filmmaking.

In his own distinctive way, the director then framed the week ahead. He urged fellow filmmakers to embrace new tools but cautioned against losing sight of storytelling’s core.

“The new technology is moving too fast,” the director said. “The moment you blink, you are behind it. So, embrace this era. But for me filmmaking is about the story that’s in my heart, and the only thing I can do is to tell it the best way I can.”

Star-Studded Golden Roosters Celebrate a Big Year for Local Cinema

Coming into the week, the news was that Chinese cinemas had been dominated by Chinese films this year, with eight of the top 10 box office titles being domestic productions.

The industry has emphasized content diversification, and the two films that topped “China’s Oscars” could hardly have been more different in style and subject.

Shen’s Dead to Rights, with Golden Rooster Best Actress winner Gao Ye, collected more than $380 million and was set against the Nanjing massacre and the real-life photo studio that documented the horror. The film was described as a gripping, often brutal story featuring two of China’s most bankable stars, Gao and Liu Haoran (Detective Chinatown).

Lan Hongchun’s Dear You, which won both the Special Jury Prize and Best Screenplay, collected around $300 million and explored the story of one of thousands of migrant Chinese families separated by economic hardship in the 1950s and ’60s. The film was called a languid tearjerker featuring largely unknown performers.

Dear You was the surprise hit of the year in China and reached an enthusiastic global audience. Lan was emotional on stage. “It feels like I’m dreaming,” he said. “I want to thank my grandma in heaven, because she told me so many stories when I was little.”

How Chinese Stories Are Going Global

Opening night under the stars at Bailuzhou Park Water Square in Xiamen brought out young families who packed the venue for the China debut of another film centered on the Chinese diaspora and, hopefully, domestic appeal.

The Singapore-Spain-Italy production The Violinist had already won best film at the 2026 Annecy International Animation Film Festival and best animated film at the 19th Asia Pacific Screen Awards. Set among the Chinese community, it followed the fortunes of two childhood friends separated by war, and it held audiences, including children, spellbound.

“Singapore’s animation industry is very small, and the country is small too. So, with a production of this scale, one person can’t do it alone,” co-director Ervin Han explained. “We started by looking overseas for co-producers. As it happened, we had a lot of friends in the animation industry. So, all together, we’re telling a story about a part of the history of us Singaporean Chinese.”

Producer Cristiano Bortone also took the stage before the premiere and touched on one of the central themes of this year’s festival: sharing Chinese stories with the world. Bortone said of The Violinist that it “delves deeply into Chinese and Asian culture, while also capturing a European style and sensibility.”

“This is the beauty of blending our cultures,” he added.

AI Creator Opens Up on New Tech

China’s next generation of filmmakers was well represented across industry events, filling the room at the “Golden Rooster Film Academy II: Ark Lab AI” workshop.

Lan Tian, creative director behind the joint-generation AI model Seedance 2.5, took the room and did not shy away from discussing its impact during a candid conversation about how the technology was already affecting filmmaking.

The AI industry has been embraced in China and is estimated to be worth around $176 billion, while the short-drama and digital film market is expected to top $6 billion this year. Lan framed the technology’s appeal in terms of savings.

“If you get an investment of one million, or less than one million you might be able to produce something that looks like it cost 10 million,” he said.

But his pitch was also to use the technology as a tool that supports “reality.”

“My girlfriend is an actor so I know there is concern,” he said. “The creative approach I’m talking about may only require a studio and some props that interact with the actors. But I want this prop to be real, too. For instance, if I need to drink water, I want the water to be real.”

Festival Spotlight Turns to Young Filmmakers

While AI dominated proceedings, it was encouraging to see young filmmakers committed to the traditions of cinema.

Yan Siyu was among those featured during pitching sessions that placed emerging talent in front of international festival and studio representatives. Her debut Outside The Room of My Own focused on three generations of women who return to their ancestral village, and she echoed Zhang’s message that opened the week.

“I want to reach out to people to let them know there is this film in China. It’s a female director’s debut and I can say it’s a really good film,” she said. “This film is not just my work, because I have a lot of people supporting me. I can’t let them down. It’s a story that comes from my heart — and in telling it I am sharing my deepest feelings.”

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