Ann Hui is getting another major reason to celebrate nearly five decades of telling stories that Hollywood rarely stops to notice.
The Hong Kong New Wave trailblazer will receive the 2026 Camellia Award at the Busan International Film Festival, an honour recognising filmmakers who have helped advance the standing of women in the film industry.
Hui, 79, will accept the prize at the festival’s opening ceremony on October 6 at Busan Cinema Center.
And, in classic Hui fashion, she has a refreshingly honest take on all the attention.
“In my previous years I felt unwilling to receive such taking-stock prizes because I wished to continue making movies,” Hui said in a statement.
“Now that I’m nearly eighty and find it difficult to make a film, I think the prize comes just in time for me to appreciate it more.”
Fair enough. After all, Hui has spent much of her career making sure ordinary people get extraordinary screen time.
Since her 1979 debut The Secret, she has directed 27 features and two feature-length documentaries, tackling stories about Vietnamese refugees in Boat People, family identity in Song of the Exile, working-class life in The Way We Are and aging, care and family in A Simple Life.
Her trophy cabinet is already packed. Hui has won Best Director at the Hong Kong Film Awards six times and Taiwan’s Golden Horse Awards three times.
In 2020, she became the first female director to receive Venice’s Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement.
Now Busan is adding another flower to that bouquet.
“I am so happy to return to Busan,” Hui added, “and meet an audience that is among the most savvy and cinematically literate in the world.”
Hui will be honored alongside Michelle Yeoh, this year’s Asian Filmmaker of the Year, during the October 6-15 festival.
