At the recently concluded 46th Cairo International Film Festival, Chinese director Guan Hu was awarded the highest lifetime achievement award, the "Pyramid Honor Award".
As an A-list international film festival, the Cairo International Film Festival has recognized Guan Hu as the first Chinese director to receive the Lifetime Achievement Golden Pyramid since its inception in 1976. This award is one of the highest honors at the festival, signifying the international film community's high recognition of Guan Hu's artistic achievements and marking a significant milestone in Sino-Egyptian cultural exchange.
At the awards ceremony held at the Cairo Opera House, Guan Hu stated in his acceptance speech that he regarded this honor as a new starting point for his creative career. In addition to accepting this honor, he also served as a jury member for the main competition section of this year's Cairo International Film Festival and held the "Ever-Evolving Chinese Stories - Guan Hu Master Class," engaging in in-depth exchanges with filmmakers from various countries.
Guan Hu received the Pyramid Honor Award
In recent years, Guan Hu has become a highly recognized commercial film director, and his stylistic explorations are undeniable in Chinese cinema. From graduating from the Beijing Film Academy in 1992 and self-funding his debut film, *Hair Messed Up*, to standing on the stage of the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Cairo International Film Festival in 2025, Guan Hu has spent 33 years embodying the struggles of a Chinese director. In 2009, he won the Best Adapted Screenplay Award at the 46th Golden Horse Awards for *Cow*, which was also nominated for Best Film in the Horizons section at the 66th Venice Film Festival, marking the beginning of his international award-winning career. Subsequently, works such as *Mr. Six*, *The Eight Hundred*, and *The Sacrifice* garnered numerous awards at major film festivals, including the China Film Directors Association's Director of the Year Award, the Golden Rooster Award, the Golden Horse Award, the Tokyo International Film Festival, and the Toronto International Film Festival, achieving both critical acclaim and critical success.
2024 was a particularly fruitful year for him. *Dog Battle* won the Un Certain Regard Award for Best Film and the Palme d'Or for dogs at the 77th Cannes Film Festival. Simultaneously, in North America, his works received nominations for Best Director at the 34th Gotham Independent Film Awards and Best International Feature Film at the 2024 Independent Spirit Awards, demonstrating the wide influence of his work on the international film scene. *Dongji Island*, set to release in the summer of 2025, held its premiere in the UK. With its humanitarian spirit transcending national borders and top-notch production, the film garnered widespread international attention for the acts of civilian heroism on the Chinese battlefield, becoming a cultural vehicle for conveying universal human values. His upcoming film, *A Man and a Woman*, also reflects Guan Hu's exploration of diverse genres. This modern urban romance film, starring Huang Bo and Ni Ni, premiered at the 2024 Shanghai International Film Festival and won the Best Cinematography Award.
As Guan Hu shared in the "Ever-Evolving Chinese Stories" masterclass, he has always insisted on capturing the rapid changes in Chinese society and culture through the lens of film, from delicate and meticulous character portrayals to grand and profound depictions of the times.