Jia was honored with the "director of the decade" award by TIFF in 2010, with three of his films included in the "top 30 films in the past decade".
Jia will act as a jury member at the upcoming 67th Cannes Film Festival. He will host a news conference there about his undisclosed new film.
He recently told the Hangzhou-based newspaper City Express that he enjoys working on juries at film festivals.
He said he loves watching movies in a small dark room. It is a delight to both the eye and the mind, because he can appreciate many masterpieces and voice opinions.
Chinese director Zhang Yimou's new film Coming Home, which will hit Chinese screens on May 16, will be shown at this year's Cannes, but not in competition. Jia isn't distressed that the film won't be competing for the Palm D'or because he says it's already a great honor for a film to be showing at Cannes.
But he adds that he regrets that Chen Daoming and Gong Li, the main actor and actress of Coming Home, won't have the opportunity to compete for acting awards.
Jia tells the Guangzhou-based newspaper Yangcheng Evening News that, as is shown in the trailer, Chen and Gong's performances are concentrated, which he says he hasn't seen in recent Chinese films.
It's the second time for Jia to work as a jury member at the French film festival. In 2007, Jia was appointed the jury chairman of Cinefondation, a Cannes program for short and mediumlength motion pictures from film schools.
"As short film gains online popularity in China, a new type of film production company, which focuses on making films to be shown online, has sprung up in the country," Jia says.
"These companies offer more opportunities for young filmmakers. However, they may at the same time drag down the overall quality of the film industry," he says.
We recommend:
Print
Save