Tony Leung Wins Lifetime Achievement Award at 2023 Venice Film Festival

One of Asia's most revered and internationally recognized actors Tony Leung adds another career highlight to his long roster of credits as he wins a Golden Lion Lifetime Achievement Award, becoming the first Chinese actor to receive the high honor.

The Hong Kong actor honored the moment at a press conference before receiving the acclaimed award at the 2023 Venice Film Festival, reflecting on his career and shedding light on his first European movie role.

"I spent a lot of time to prepare my characters," he said. "I was brought up to suppress all the feelings inside. I don’t show all my feelings in front of others. But after I got into acting class, I found a way to express myself in front of other people without being shy, because they don’t know that is me."

He continued, "For my next movie in Europe, I plan to spend eight months, because I’m playing a real scientist. I had no idea what neuroscience is. So, I have read a lot of books, and I have gone university hopping … I told the director, I need to do this little-by-little, so I just scan into the characters, unconsciously, after a certain period of time."

During his speech when accepting the award, Leung wiped tears from his eyes as he thanked his wife Carina Lau Kar-ling, and the Hong Kong cinema industry.

"This is really a great honor," he said. "I'm so grateful to have been raised in Hong Kong as well as being nurtured later by the Hong Kong movie industry in general where my acting career began. I also want to share this honor and give thanks to all those wonderful people who I have worked with over the past 41 years because this is a tribute to them as well, and, of course, to Hong Kong cinema."

Leung first garnered attention in the late '80s with his role in the 1989 film A City of Sadness. But it was his character in the 1992 action film Hard Boiled that many consider to be his breakout moment, signifying his starting moment to superstardom.

Over the span of his career, he has acted in a range of films, taking on numerous types of characters. Some of his acting credits include Chungking Express (1994), In the Mood for Love (2000), Infernal Affairs (2002), 2046 (2004), Lust, Caution (2007), Ashes of Time Redux (2008), and The Grandmaster (2013). In 2021, he made his Hollywood debut playing the antagonist in Marvel's Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.

He is no novice to winning awards at the Venice Film Festival as he has starred in movies that have also won the prized Golden Lion: A City of Sadness (1989) by Hou Hsiao-hsien, Cyclo (1995) by Tran Anh Hung and Lust, Caution (2007) by Ang Lee. Though, this marks the first time he is receiving the honor for himself.

For his latest project, Leung is set to star in the film Silent Friend, directed by Oscar-nominated Hungarian director Ildiko Enyedi.