Zhangke Jia

Jia Zhang-Ke (b. 1970, Fenyang, China) grew up in a resettled family in a small town in the northern province of Shanxi. At age 18, he began studying painting but was also interested in literature, writing his first novel in 1991. He attended the Beijing Film Academy and in 1995 founded China’s first independent production company, the Youth Experimental Film Group. He is a leading representative of the “Sixth Generation” of Chinese filmmakers. He debuted in film with The Pickpocket (Xiao wu, 1997), and his writer-director films have won awards at numerous festivals. Karlovy Vary audiences were first introduced to his films that had also been in competition at Venice: The World (Shijie, 2004) and Still Life (Sanxia haoren, 2006). At this year’s Cannes festival, his latest work A Touch of Sin competed for the Palme d’Or, as did two prior works: Unknown Pleasures (Ren xiao yao, 2002) and 24 City (Er shi si cheung ji, 2008).

48. MFF Karlovy Vary