Wu Tianming

Wu Tianming was born in 1939 in Shaanxi. He first took drama classes. He co-directed two films with Teng Wenji and then, alone, The River Without Beacons. Director of the Xi’an studios, he shot several films and employed the filmmakers of the “fifth generation”: Chen Kaige, Zhang Yimou, Tian Zhuang zhuang. Threatened by censorship, he was forced to go into exile in the United States where he remained for eight years. Back in China in 1994, he shot The King of Masks. In 2002, he directed CEO. The FICA of Vesoul paid tribute to him in 2007 by presenting all his films and awarded him an honorary Cyclo d’or. In 2013, he shot Song of the Phoenix. He died in March 2014.