China News Service, Toronto, September 16 (Reporter Yu Ruidong) The 45th Toronto International Film Festival will award the 2020 Special Contribution Award on the evening of September 15.
Zhao Ting, a Chinese female director living in the United States, was awarded the Yibbert Director of the Year Award for the Special Contribution Award of the film festival.
Zhao Ting said in her acceptance speech via video that she thought about what is the most important gain in a relatively short career.
She said that when she first entered this highly competitive industry, she didn't know anyone.
"If I show any signs of vulnerability, or make a mistake, if I mess up, the people who work with me will abandon me," Zhao Ting said. "I have thought so for a long time."
However, in the subsequent filmmaking process, working with different film production teams made Zhao Ting feel very lucky.
"When I achieve success, the people I work with are there. This is how I feel." She said that she hopes to share the honor with the friends who work with me.
Zhao Ting's new work "A Place Without a Back" was screened at this Toronto Film Festival and was listed as one of the "must-see movies" by the festival's official website.
This work recently won the highest award at the 2020 Venice Film Festival-the Golden Lion Award for Best Film.
The Toronto Film Festival also awarded awards such as the Actor of the Year Award and the Emerging Award.
Famous movie stars Anthony Hopkins and Kate Winslet won the Actor of the Year Award.
Due to the epidemic, this year's film festival adopted a combination of physical cinema and online broadcasting for the first time. All kinds of industry exchange activities including this awards ceremony were all conducted in the "cloud".
"A Place without a Back" is Zhao Ting's third feature film.
The film tells the story of a 60-year-old woman who lost everything in the Great Depression and travels through the western United States as a modern nomad living in a motorhome.
The film is starring Francis McDomond, who won the Oscar for Best Actress for "Three Billboards".
Born in Beijing, Zhao Ting studied abroad as a teenager, graduated from the Film School of New York University, and then entered Hollywood.
In 2014, her debut work "The Song That My Brother Taught Me To Sing" and her second feature film "The Knight" were shortlisted or won awards in many international film festivals, which made her talents attract the attention of the industry.
Her latest work will be the Marvel superhero movie "Eternal Race".
The Toronto International Film Festival was founded in 1976. It features a large number of films. It has become a well-known brand event in the Canadian film industry and one of the most prestigious international film festivals in the world.
The Toronto Film Festival will be held from September 10th to 19th.