Edward Yang

Known for: Yi Yi (2000), A Brighter Summer Day (1991)

Edward Yang directed six films between 1982 and 2000, each a meticulous examination of the contradictions of Taiwan's rapid modernization. Yi Yi (A One and a Two, 2000) — a three-hour portrait of a Taipei family across a single summer — won him the Best Director prize at Cannes. His death from cancer in 2007, at 59, ended a career that had become one of the most influential in world cinema.