‘Mulan’ star Gong Li set as chairman of Beijing film festival jury

‘MULAN’ actor Gong Li will serve as the chairman of the international jury doling out the top Tiantan Awards at this year’s Beijing International Film Festival (BJIFF), Variety reported.

The festival’s 11th iteration is set to take place in person in the Chinese capital from Aug 14-21, 2021.

According to BJIFF’s official announcement of Gong’s role, it mentioned all of Gong’s past experiences as jury chairman at major festivals, such as the 50th Berlin International Film Festival, the 59th Venice International Film Festival, the 16th Tokyo International Film Festival, and the 17th Shanghai International Film Festival, noting that in 1997, she also served as a jury member at Cannes.

It did not, however, mention her turn as jury president of the Taipei-based Golden Horse Awards in 2018. That year, an awards speech mentioning Taiwanese independence caused a political rift between the festival and its Chinese attendees after Beijing demanded that its artists boycott it. Chinese media have not mentioned Taiwan’s festival since.

Gong recently portrayed the shapeshifting sorceress character Xianniang in Disney’s ‘Mulan’ opposite young star Liu Yifei in the titular role. The film grossed US$41 million in China last November, according to Box Office Mojo.

Among her more recent roles, however, she is perhaps better known in China for portraying the Chinese national volleyball team’s coach Lang Ping in ‘Leap,’ the sports biopic from Hong Kong director Peter Chan that was submitted as China’s entry to the Oscar race this year.

The Beijing International Film Festival was founded in 2011. It has typically occurred in April, but was postponed until the summer last year due to Covid-19. This April, the festival announced that it would once again be delayed and run instead in mid-August.