By Louise Dixon
VENICE, Italy (AP) --Hong Kong director Ann Hui paid tribute to her home city as she received a lifetime achievement award from the Venice International Film Festival.
The acclaimed director said she wanted to "revert this honor back to Hong Kong," the city where she grew up.
"It has given me an education and a scholarship to study in London. It has given me my life experiences. And my chances to work and find fulfillment. I treasure even my sufferings there and all those crazy cool people. And now I will go home and try to help the younger filmmakers so that they will also get life achievement prizes in the future," she said at a news conference.
Hui's impact on the Hong Kong film industry and Asian cinema is second to none.
The 73-year-old director has had a career spanning five decades which officially started in 1979 when she released her debut feature film "The Secret." The movie quickly elevated her to join the key figures in Hong Kong cinema including Tsui Hark, John Woo and Patrick Tam, among others.
She has worked with major Asian film stars including Maggie Cheung ("Song of the Exile"), Tang Wei ("The Golden Era") and Chow Yun-fat ("Love in a Fallen City") and produced nearly 30 films.
Hui's films have been screened at major international film festivals including Cannes, Berlin and Venice. She's a five-time winner of Best Director at the Hong Kong Film Awards.
Jury President Cate Blanchett presented the award Tuesday to Hui, who finished her acceptance speech with a rousing "Long live cinema!"
Hui is also at this year's festival with her new film "Love After Love."
An adaptation of Eileen Chang (Zhang Ailing)'s first published short story, the film tells the story of a young girl from Shanghai who travels to Hong Kong for her education.
To finance her studies, she starts working for her aunt, who she soon finds out earns money luring rich and powerful men.
It's showing out of competition.
SCHROM x Yacht Club and Be Electric Studios Launch Electric XR for Virtual Production
SCHROM x Yacht Club, a full-service live-action, tabletop, and postproduction company, has teamed with Be Electric Studios, a soundstage, equipment rental, and virtual production company, to launch Electric XR, a virtual production collective.
Industry veteran Thomas Rossano will lead the new venture, which provides advanced virtual production solutions across multiple facilities. He brings over 25 years of experience in live-action, tabletop, postproduction and talent curation to enhance Electric XR’s offerings as a resource for brands and agencies, as well as other production companies in need of virtual production solutions. Additionally Rossano continues to serve as EP at XR New York (XR-NY), a role he’s held since December 2022. SCHROM x Yacht Club originally established XR-NY to help provide XR services for third-party rentals. While XR-NY will continue to function independently for SCHROM X Yacht Club, it now operates under the Electric XR umbrella.
Rossano’s expertise spans producing live-action commercials, branded content, interactive and experiential content. In addition to leading Electric XR, he holds responsibilities at SCHROM x Yacht Club which include driving business development, collaborating with sales reps and expanding the company’s creative talent network. Rossano’s career includes serving as an exec producer at Hungry Man for about 11 years, right from that company’s inception. He then went on to become a partner at Station Film where he also had a lengthy tenure. Later he was a partner at PRISM. Then after the pandemic hit, he became a freelance EP for nearly two years, looking into opportunities in virtual production, which led him to XR NY and now Electric XR. Over the years, he has produced high-profile... Read More