Jia Zhangke (Chinese: 贾樟柯; pinyin: Jiǎ Zhāngkē, born 24 May 1970; Fenyang) is a Chinese film and television director, screenwriter, producer, actor and writer. He is the dean of the Shanxi Film Academy of Shanxi Media College and the dean of the Vancouver Film School of Shanghai University. He graduated from the Literature Department of Beijing Film Academy. He is generally regarded as a leading figure of the "Sixth Generation" movement of Chinese cinema, a group that also includes such figures as Wang Xiaoshuai, Lou Ye, Wang Quan'an and Zhang Yuan. Jia's early films, a loose trilogy based in his home province of Shanxi, were made outside of China's state-run film bureaucracy, and therefore are considered "underground" films. Beginning in 2004, Jia's status in his own country rose when he was allowed to direct his fourth feature film, The World, with state approval. Jia's films have received critical praise and have been recognized internationally, notably winning the Venice Film Festival's top award Golden Lion for Still Life. He received the Leopard of Honour at the Locarno Film Festival in 2010, the Carrosse d'Or lifetime achievement award at the Cannes Film Festival in 2015, and an honorary award at the Visions du Réel in 2024. Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek hailed him as "one of the top directors in the world today.".

Filmography

• 2026Being Towards Death — Self, Thanks
• 2026Filipiñana — Executive Producer
• 2026Jia Zhangke's Dance — Producer, Director
• 2026Proudly Amateur — Director
• 2026Torino Shadow — Director, Writer, Executive Producer
• 2025Art College 1994 — Gu Yongqing (voice)
• Crossroads with Luo Yonghao
• 2025Heaven and Hell — Executive Producer
• 2025Mostly Sunny — Dr. Cai
• 2025The Lychee Road — Zhong Shu Official
• 2025The Sun Rises on Us All — Thanks
• 2024A River Without Tears — Executive Producer
• 2024Black Dog — Uncle Yao
• 2024Caught by the Tides — Director, Writer, Executive Producer
• 2024Moonlight Madness — Guest in room 622, Presenter
• 2024Wheat Harvest — Director
• 2023Out of Jungle — Director
• 2023The Best is Yet to Come — Coal Mine Owner, Producer, Executive Producer
• 2022Home — Executive Producer
• Jia's Talk — 自己, Creator
• 2022Peacock, Peacock — Director
• 不要回答
• 2021Close-Up — Director
• 2021Memoria — Co-Producer
• 2021Swimming Out Till the Sea Turns Blue — Self, Director, Writer
• 2021The Great Director
• 2021Tomorrow Will Be Fine — Executive Producer
• 2021Tracing Her Shadow — Executive Producer
• 2021White Building — Co-Producer
• 2020A Song for You — Producer, Executive Producer
• 2020Keep Rolling
• 2020The Calming — Producer, Executive Producer
• 2020Visit — Writer, Director
• 2019Neighbors — Producer
• 2019Number One — Supervising Producer
• 2018Ash Is Purest White — Director, Executive Producer, Writer
• 2018Dead Pigs — Executive Producer
• 2018Half the Sky — Executive Producer
• 2017Life After Life — Executive Producer
• 2017One Night on the Wharf — Producer
• 2017Revive — Writer, Director
• 2017Still Born — Producer
• 2017Where Has Time Gone? — Director, Writer, Producer
• 2016Beautiful 2016 — Director
• 2016Everybody's Fine — (cameo)
• 2016The Hedonists — Director, Writer
• Thirteen Talks
• 2015Chen Ling — Producer
• 2015K — Producer
• 2015Mountains May Depart — Director, Screenplay, Executive Producer
• 2015Our Time: A Decade of Daring — Director
• 2015Smog Journeys — Director, Writer, Producer
• 2014Black Coal, Thin Ice — Thanks
• 2014Fidaï — Producer
• 2014Great Heat — Executive Producer
• 2014Lao Pan's Day and Night — Director
• 2014The Continent — Su Mi's Uncle
• 2013A Touch of Sin — Distinguished Guest, Director, Writer, Executive Producer
• 2013Forgetting to Know You — Producer
• 2013Venice 70: Future Reloaded — Director
• 2012Memories Look at Me — Producer
• 20113.11 A Sense of Home Films — Director
• 20113.11 A Sense of Home: Jia Zhang-ke — Director
• 2011Cao Fei — Director
• 2011Mr. Tree — Executive Producer
• 2011Pan Shiyi — Director
• 2011Yulu — Director, Producer, Executive Producer
• 2010I Wish I Knew — Director, Screenplay
• 2009Perfect Life — Co-Producer
• 2009Plastic City — Producer
• 200824 City — Director, Writer, Producer
• 2008Black Breakfast — Director, Editor
• 2008Cry Me a River — Director, Writer
• 2008Remembrance — Director, Writer
• 2008Stories on Human Rights — Director
• 2008Useless — Director, Director of Photography
• 2007Our Ten Years — Director, Writer
• 2006Dong — Director, Writer, Director of Photography
• 2006Karmic Mahjong — Mobster
• 2006Still Life — Director, Screenplay, Co-Producer
• 2006Walking on the Wild Side — Producer
• 2005This Moment — Director
• 2004The World — Writer, Director
• 2003All Tomorrow's Parties — Associate Producer
• 2003My Camera Doesn’t Lie — Jia Zhangke
• 2002Unknown Pleasures — Man singing in street (uncredited), Director, Writer
• 2001In Public — Director, Editor, Director of Photography, Writer
• 2001Platform — Director, Writer
• 2001The Condition of Dogs — Director, Director of Photography, Editor
• 1997Pickpocket — Writer, Director, Producer
• 1996Du Du — Director, Screenplay
• 1995Xiao Shan Going Home — Writer, Director, Editor
• 1994One Day in Beijing — Director
• In the Qing Dynasty — Screenplay, Director
• Mamma Dunhuang — Director, Writer
• Pseudo Idealist
• 在那里 — Director

Appearances as themselves (11)

• 2026Presi dall'onda - Conversazione con Jia Zhangke — Self - filmmaker
• 2020Citizen Kitano — Self
• 2016Jia Zhangke, A Guy from Fenyang — Self
• 2015About Cinema — Self
• 2014Flowers of Taipei: Taiwan New Cinema — Self
• 2013Boundless — Self
• 2007Xiao Jia Going Home — Himself
• 2005Made in China — Self
• 2003Shiny Stars, Rusty Red — Himself
• 2002Overloaded Peking — Himself
• Golden Horse Awards — Self