Jia Zhangke

Known for: Still Life (2006), Platform (2000)

Jia Zhangke made his first three features without official Chinese government approval — Xiao Wu (1997), Platform (2000), Unknown Pleasures (2002) — and became the most internationally recognized filmmaker documenting China's economic transformation and its human costs. Still Life (2006) won the Golden Lion at Venice. He has described his work as an attempt to recover the lives of ordinary people from the official historical record.