Zhang Yimou (simplified Chinese: 张艺谋; traditional Chinese: 張藝謀; pinyin: Zhāng Yìmóu; born 14 November 1950) is a Chinese filmmaker. He made his directorial debut with Red Sorghum (1987), which won the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival. Since then, he has established himself as a leading figure of China's Fifth Generation directors and one of the most successful directors in the world. Zhang directed the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympic Games as well as the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games. Since 2004, Zhang has collaborated with local governments across China to promote tourism through the “Impression” series of outdoor live stage productions, beginning with Impression Liu Sanjie in Yangshuo. Despite his frequent official affiliations, Zhang has, at various points in his career, fallen foul of Chinese censors.
One of Zhang’s early recurring themes is the resilience of ordinary people, as in To Live (1994) and Not One Less (1999). Beginning with Hero (2002), which ushered the Chinese film industry into the era of big-budget blockbusters, his work increasingly reflected an interest in grand narratives and critical engagement with politics and history, as in Curse of the Golden Flower (2006), One Second (2020) and Under the Light (2023). His films are also noted for their rich use of colour, as in Raise the Red Lantern (1991) and House of Flying Daggers (2004), and for their portrayals of women that propelled “Mou Girls” to stardom, such as Gong Li, Zhang Ziyi and Ni Ni. His highest-budgeted film to date is the all-star The Great Wall (2016), which became his greatest bomb. His highest-grossing film to date is Full River Red (2023), which became the seventh highest-grossing film of all time in China. Zhang was awarded an honorary doctorate from Yale University in 2010 and from Boston University in 2018. In 2022, he joined the Beijing Film Academy as a distinguished professor.
