More than one-hundred Chinese celebrities, including almost all the A-listers from the country's film industry, attended the 13th Huabiao Awards over the weekend. The Huabiao Awards, which means the "Cloud Pillar Awards", is China's only government film awards ceremony.
Most of the important awards were shared by double winners. Feng Xiaogang, director of "The Assembly" and Chen Kaige, director of "Forever Enthralled" both won the best director award.
Winner of Best Director, Chen Kaige said, "The credit for this cannot only be attributed to me. I'm enthralled by the height of Chinese culture. I will do my best to spread our culture."
"The Assembly" lead actor Zhang Hanyu and actor Guo Jinglin snatched the best actor award. The best actress award went to Zhang Ziyi for "Forever Enthralled" and Fan Zhibo for "Emergency".
Winner of Best Actress Zhang Ziyi said, "Just before the celebration of our mother country's sixtieth birthday, it's my great honor to stand on this stage to share this award with all the veteran artists, the audience, and my family members. I'm very happy."
This year for the first time, awards were given to Chinese filmmakers based outside the mainland. John Woo received the honor for best overseas Chinese director. The Hong Kong director, known for his high action thrillers, scored a box office hit in the two-part Chinese-language historical epic "Red Cliff," with combined earnings of 600 million yuan RMB, or 88 million US dollars.
