Acclaimed Hong Kong filmmaker Ann Hui is to receive the Camellia Award at Busan International Film Festival (BIFF), honouring her contribution to elevating the status of women in the film industry.
She will receive the award at the opening ceremony of the festival’s 31st edition on October 6 at Busan Cinema Center in South Korea.
It will mark a return to BIFF for Hui, who received the Asian Filmmaker of the Year Award at the festival in 2014 and has had more than a dozen features selected to play in Busan over the past 30 years including Elegies, A Simple Life, Our Time Will Come and The Golden Era. Her period drama Eighteen Springs was chosen as the closing film for BIFF’s second edition in 1997.
Since making her directorial debut with The Secret in 1979, Hui has helmed 27 features and two documentaries and is a pioneer of the Hong Kong New Wave - a movement which revolutionised the Hong Kong film scene during the 1970s and ’80s.
A six-time best director winner at the Hong Kong Film Awards and a three-time best director winner at the Golden Horse Awards, Hui achieved the rare feat of sweeping best film, best director, best actor, and best actress at the Hong Kong Film Awards with 1995’s Summer Snow and 2011’s A Simple Life.
She has previously been honoured with the lifetime achievement award at the 2012 Asian Film Awards and the Golden Lion for lifetime achievement at Venice in 2020.
Spanning a wide range of genres, Hui’s films chronicle the everyday lives of ordinary people while weaving intimate personal stories into broader social realities, including portrayals of women, particularly those often pushed to the margins.
“In my previous years, I felt unwilling to receive such taking-stock prizes because I wished to continue making movies,” said Hui. “Now that I’m nearly 80 and find it difficult to make a film, I think the prize comes just in time for me to appreciate it more.”
The Camellia Award, named after Busan’s city flower and established with the involvement of Chanel, was introduced in 2024. Previous recipients comprise South Korean film art director Ryo Seong-hie and Taiwan filmmaker Sylvia Chang.
The 31st BIFF is set to run October 6-15.
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