Many other Chinese films and filmmakers have been honored at previous editions of the World's oldest international film festival.
A City of Sadness
A City of Sadness by Taiwan director Hou Hsiao-hsien was the first Chinese film to have been recognized by the Venice Film Festival. It announced a strong Chinese presence and paved the way for many other awards that Chinese productions would win later by snatching the top prize - the Golden Lion Award for Best Picture - at the 46th edition of the festival in 1989.
The story was set in the late 1940s when the Kuomintang arrived from the Chinese mainland and threw Taiwan into turmoil.
A review by China Youth Daily says it "quietly speaks about history through the fall of a family at a
time when the fate of individuals was closely linked with the fate of Taiwan."
Gong Li
Chinese actress Gong Li rose to international fame by winning the Best Actress Award at the 49th Venice Film Festival for her role in the Story of Qiu Ju, in which she played a woman from rural China who defies social norms to seek justice.
The film depicts the struggles of ordinary people from rural areas of China through a stubborn Qiu Ju who insisted on "getting an answer" from authorities after her husband was wounded by their village chief.
This film directed by Zhang Yimou also won the Golden Lion Award in 1992.
Not One Less
Zhang Yimou went on to win another Golden Lion with his 1999 film Not One Less. With the same focus on people from China's countryside, Not One Less addresses the problems in education and the gap between urban and rural lives of China.
13-year-old Wei Minzhi was called to an elementary school as a substitute teacher for a month. The old teacher who had to rush back home for his ill mother told Wei not to lose one single student. Wei struggled to keep her class together as many poor students chose to go into cities and seek employment.
Zhang Yimou and his production crew chose young students who had not received any professional training in acting to play the protagonists in Not One Less, which lent the film a raw but realistic feel.
Brokeback Mountain
Another Chinese filmmaker with two top awards from the Venice Film Festival is Taiwan director Ang Lee. Lee won his first Golden Lion with American production Brokeback Mountain at the 65th edition in 2005.
A review by Shanghai-based The Bund called this "a eulogy" about two lonely men and their love for each other under red mountains and a mint sky.
The LA Times carried a review by Kenneth Turan which says "Brokeback Mountain" is a groundbreaking film because it isn't. It's a deeply felt, emotional love story that deals with the uncharted, mysterious ways of the human heart just as so many mainstream films have before it. The two lovers here just happen to be men.
Lust, Caution
Ang Lee received another nod from the Venice panel with his espionage thriller 'Lust, Caution' about love born out of an assassination plan in Shanghai in the 1940s, when the city was occupied by Japanese armies.
Tang Wei played Wang Jiazhi who was tasked to lure a special agent into a trap so her group could carry out the assassination.
The Associated Press compared Tang Wei's performance in Lust, Caution to that of Naomi Watts' in Mulholland Dr., saying "it requires her to be entirely separate, distinct people depending on the situation, a feat she pulls off flawlessly."
Cai Shangjun
Deanie Ip
Cai won the Silver Lion Award for Best Director with People Mountain People Sea, a story about a man who tried to avenge his brother's death.
A Xinhua review says while Cai could have made it a Hollywood-style hero's adventure, he stepped over the sagas and conflicts within the story and tackled it from a realistic point of view instead.
Deanie Ip became the Best Actress of the Venice Film Festival in 2012 for her role as a servant in Sister Peach – a story about the relationship between Sister Peach and the young lord from the family she works for.
Source: China Plus