Chinese drama Final Payment and Rafiki Fariala’s Congo Boy have been awarded the top prizes at the 10th Pingyao Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon International Film Festival.
The festival, founded by Jia Zhangke in China’s Shanxi province, handed out its awards at a ceremony on Tuesday (September 29).
The Fei Mu Awards for Chinese-language features handed the best film prize to Final Payment by Shanxi-born Niu Niu. The award includes a cash prize of $150,000 (RMB1m), with half given to the director for the development of their next film and half to the distributor in China.
The film, about a man who clashes with a contractor over a home renovation payment, also picked up the best actor award for Niu Jianrong.
African feature Congo Boy won best film in the festival’s Roberto Rossellini Awards, which comes with a cash prize of $20,000, split between director and Chinese distributor. The film received its world premiere at Cannes, where its lead actor Bradley Fiomona Dembeasset won the Un Certain Regard best actor prize.
Further prizes saw the Fei Mu award for best director go to Xu Zao for animation Light Pillar, which premiered at the Berlinale earlier this year, and Filipino filmmaker Rafael Manuel win the Roberto Rossellini best director trophy for Filipiñana, which also played Berlin after winning a jury award at Sundance.
Pingyao honoured Hong Kong filmmaker and actress Ann Hui with the Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon East-West Award earlier in the festival. Further honours went to Marco Müller and Han Sanping with the International Contribution to Chinese Cinema Award, and producer Tang Yan, founder of Hello Group, with the 10th Anniversary Award.
The 10th edition of the festival ran from September 24-30, opening with 4K restoration of Fei Mu’s 1948 classic Spring In A Small Town and closing with Hong Kong comedy-drama Good Trip.
Pingyao 2026 winners
Fei Mu Awards
Best Film: Final Payment, dir. Niu Niu
Best Director: Xu Zao, Light Pillar
Best Actress: Sun Yi, A Joke, dir. Wang Xiaozhen
Best Actor: Niu Jianrong, Final Payment, dir. Niu Niu
Jury Award: Zoom In, Zoom Out, dir. Dong Jie
Special mention: Suzhou Quartet, dir. Cai Chengjie
Roberto Rossellini Awards
Best Film: Congo Boy, dir. Rafiki Fariala
Best Director: Filipiñana, dir. Rafael Manuel
Jury Award: Ben’imana, dir. Marie-Clémentine Dusabejambo
Special mention: Yesterday The Eye Didn’t Sleep, dir. Rakan Mayasi
Honorary awards
Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon East-West Award: Hui On Wah Ann
International Contribution To Chinese Cinema Award: Han Sanping, Marco Müller
10th Anniversary Award: Tang Yan
No comments yet