Director stresses indie spirit

Chinese director Jia Zhangke celebrates after winning at the 66th Cannes Film Festival. Photo provided to China Daily

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Jia will act as a jury member at the upcoming 67th Cannes Film Festival. He will host a news conference there about his undisclosed new film.

He recently told the Hangzhou-based newspaper City Express that he enjoys working on juries at film festivals.

He said he loves watching movies in a small dark room. It is a delight to both the eye and the mind, because he can appreciate many masterpieces and voice opinions.

Chinese director Zhang Yimou's new film Coming Home, which will hit Chinese screens on May 16, will be shown at this year's Cannes, but not in competition. Jia isn't distressed that the film won't be competing for the Palm D'or because he says it's already a great honor for a film to be showing at Cannes.

But he adds that he regrets that Chen Daoming and Gong Li, the main actor and actress of Coming Home, won't have the opportunity to compete for acting awards.

Jia tells the Guangzhou-based newspaper Yangcheng Evening News that, as is shown in the trailer, Chen and Gong's performances are concentrated, which he says he hasn't seen in recent Chinese films.