Hong Kong silver screen star Tony Leung becomes first Chinese actor to win a Golden Lion award for lifetime achievement at Venice Film Festival

Hong Kong actor Tony Leung Chiu-wai paid tribute to his home city and its cinema industry after he became the first Chinese actor to be honoured with a prestigious Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the Venice Film Festival.

The delighted star said in an emotional acceptance speech on Saturday: “This is really a great honour.”

Leung, 61, thanked his wife Carina Lau Ka-ling, also a renowned actress who attended the festival with him, his family, friends and fans, as well as people he had worked with over the past four decades.

“I’m so grateful to have been raised in Hong Kong as well as being nurtured later by the Hong Kong movie industry in general where my acting career began,” he said.

“I also want to share this honour and give thanks to all those wonderful people who I have worked with over the past 41 years because this is a tribute to them as well, and, of course, to Hong Kong cinema.”

Leung was presented with the award in Venice, Italy at this year’s festival, the 80th, which kicked off on Wednesday and will run until September 9.

He bowed to the audience several times and fought back tears after he was given the accolade by renowned Taiwanese filmmaker Ang Lee, whom Leung worked with in the 2007 film Lust, Caution.

Hong Kong’s Tony Leung to receive lifetime achievement award at Venice Film Festival

The announcement that Leung would receive the award was made in March.

Leung won best actor at the Asian Film Awards earlier that month for his role in crime thriller Where the Wind Blows and also took home a special contribution prize.

Hong Kong star Tony Leung hits heights at prestigious Venice Film Festival

The screen legend has appeared in many films over the past four decades, including A City of Sadness (1989), Cyclo (1995), and Lust, Caution, all of which have won Golden Lion awards at the festival.

Leung has also starred in films such as In the Mood for Love (2000), Chungking Express (1994), Infernal Affairs (2002) and recent Marvel hit Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021).