Director Guan Hu won the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Cairo International Film Festival and regarded the Pyramid Trophy as a new starting point for creation

On November 21, local time, the 46th Cairo International Film Festival awarded the "Pyramid Honorary Award", the highest award for lifetime achievement, to China director Guan Hu, in recognition of his continuous efforts and outstanding contributions in the field of China film for more than 30 years. At the awards ceremony held at the Cairo Opera House, Guan Hu maintained the humility unique to a film and television creator. In his acceptance speech, he said that he regarded this honor as a new starting point for his creative career. In addition to accepting this honor, he also served as a judge of the international main competition unit of this Cairo International Film Festival, and held the "Evolving China Stories-Guan Hu Master Class" to conduct in-depth exchanges with filmmakers from all over the world.

Thirty-three years of light and shadow quest, from independent pioneer to international attention

From graduating from the Beijing Film Academy in 1992 and raising funds to shoot his first film "The Hair Is Disorganized" to standing on the podium of the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Cairo International Film Festival in 2025, Guan Hu spent 33 years writing a China director's history of progress. This director, who has been recognized by important awards at home and abroad such as Cannes, Venice, Rooster, Huabiao, and Golden Horse, has become an indispensable and important force in the China film industry with his continuous artistic innovation and profound insight into the times.

In 2009, he won the Best Adapted Screenplay Award at the 46th Taiwan Film Golden Horse Awards for his "Bullfight". At the same time, the film was shortlisted for the Best Film in the Horizon Unit of the 66th Venice Film Festival, opening his path to international awards. Since then, works such as "Lao Pao 'er","Eight Hundred" and "Jingangchuan" have successively won awards from major domestic and foreign film festivals such as the Director of the Year of the China Film Directors Association, the Golden Rooster Award, the Golden Horse Award, the Tokyo Film Festival, and the Toronto Film Festival. Both reputation and awards have been received. 2024 is a bumper year for him."Dog Rounds" won the "Best Picture" and the Dog Palme d'Or Jury Award in the 77th Cannes International Film Festival. At the same time, in North America, its works have been successively nominated for professional awards such as the "Best Director" at the 34th Gotham Independent Film Award and the "Best International Film" at the 2024 American Film Independent Spirit Award, demonstrating the widespread influence of his works in the international film industry. "Arctic Island", which will be released in the summer of 2025, held its premiere in the UK, allowing China's feats to resonate in the world. With its humanistic spirit and top-notch industrial production that transcend national borders, it has aroused widespread attention from the international community to the righteous actions of civilians in the Eastern Battlefield and become a cultural carrier that conveys common values of mankind.

As an international A-category film festival, the Cairo International Film Festival has its Pyramid Honorary Award named after the Egyptian cultural symbol "Pyramid", which represents the peak of film artistic achievements. The selection criteria cover artistic innovation, cultural influence and industry contribution. The winners are all benchmark figures in the global film industry. Since the establishment of the Cairo International Film Festival (CIFF) in 1976, Director Guan Hu is the first China director to receive the Lifetime Achievement Golden Pyramid. This award is one of the most symbolic and highest-level honorary awards of CIFF. It marks the high recognition of Guan Hu's artistic achievements by the international film community and also writes a strong and colorful contribution to cultural exchanges between China and Egypt.

Crossing the creative landscape of types, artistic creation is embarking on a new journey

As the founder and core creative force of Seven Impressions Company, Guan Hu not only continues to export high-quality film works, but also supports many young directors through the company's platform to promote the diversified development of China's film industry. His works have also always made breakthroughs in technological innovation and narrative experiments. From the immersive war experience of "Eight Hundred" to the multi-perspective narrative of "Jingangchuan", he has always been committed to exploring the boundaries of film language. Not only has Guan Hu won many international honors in the film field, but Guan Hu has also achieved outstanding and pioneering achievements in the TV drama industry: "Black Hole", the anti-corruption classic of police and bandits, has set off a viewing boom that has left thousands of people empty, and the first "Living Migrant Workers", which deeply focuses on the living conditions of migrant workers, also sits firmly on the "ceiling" of realistic themes with a score of 9.5 points, demonstrating his all-round creative strength of film and drama. While continuing to expand the creative landscape, Guan Hu and his Seven Impressions team are preparing a number of film and television projects with different styles. From the comedy movie "Lao Zhan, whose sentence is worth ten thousand sentences," adapted from Liu Zhenyun's literary works, to the realistic drama series "Plain Man", these projects demonstrate his ambition and ability to control different themes, and also confirm his strong creative vitality.

The much-awaited new book "A Man and a Woman" also reflects Guan Hu's exploration of diverse genres. This modern urban emotional blockbuster starring Huang Bo and Ni Ni tells the story of the two protagonists who accidentally met after staying in a Hong Kong hotel with poor soundproofing, and went from strangers to healing each other. The film demonstrates Guan Hu's precise control of emotional themes with its "taboo and healing" characteristics. It premiered at the 2024 Shanghai International Film Festival and won the Best Photography Award. Its production level has been professionally recognized.

As Guan Hu shared in the master class on "The Evolving Story of China", he has always used film lenses to capture the rapid changes in China's society and culture. From delicate portrayals to magnificent and profound descriptions of the times, his works present to the audience a vivid, three-dimensional, rich and growing image of China.

At the award ceremony, Guan Hu held the Pyramid Honorary Trophy in his hand and revealed his determination and expectation for the future. This honor is not only an recognition of his past achievements, but also an expectation for future creation. Since his career, Guan Hu has always been exploring the infinite possibilities of film art. As he said, the "Pyramid Honorary Award", the highest award for lifetime achievement, is just a new beginning. For this director who always maintains his passion for creation, every milestone on the artistic path is the starting point for the next work.