Zhao Tao studied Chinese Folk Dance at Beijing Dance Academy before beginning to work with director Jia Zhang-ke in 2000 with Platform and later The World (2004) and 24 City (2008). Their pair’s collaboration soared with Still Life (2006), which won the Golden Lion Award at the 63rd Venice Film Festival. She also helped produce Jia’s Useless (2007), which won the Horizons Documentary Award at the 64th Venice Film Festival. As the leading actress of the Italian film Shun Li and the Poet (2012), she won Best Actress at the David di Donatello Awards, the first time an Asian actress was awarded the prize. She also starred in the critically acclaimed A Touch of Sin (2013) and Mountains May Depart (2015).
The Asia Pacific Screen Academy expresses its respect for and acknowledgement of the South East Queensland Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. We pay our respects to the Traditional Owners of country, including the custodial communities on whose land works are created and celebrated by the Asia Pacific Screen Awards. We acknowledge the continuing connection to land, waters and communities. We also pay our respects to Elders, past and present. We recognise the integral role Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and First Nations peoples continue to play in storytelling and celebration spaces.
