The "Special Contribution Award" is one of the tribute awards issued by the Toronto International Film Festival to recognize outstanding contributors to the film industry and their extraordinary achievements. Winners of this year’s tribute awards also include: actors Amy Adams, Cate Blanchett, Jarrell Jerome, directors David Cronenberg, Mike Leigh, etc. The honorary chairperson of this Toronto Tribute Awards is Korean-Canadian actress Sandra Oh. The awards ceremony will be held on September 8.
"Zhao Tao has conquered audiences around the world through her starring roles in classic films such as "The Good Man in Three Gorges" and "Old Friends in Mountains and Rivers"." The Toronto International Film Festival commented on this, "This year she returned to the Toronto Film Festival to participate in "The Romantic Generation" Premiering in North America. In this film, Zhao Tao plays the protagonist 'Qiao Qiao' with a powerful performance. Previous winners of this award include Hong Kong actor Andy Lau and Grammy Award winner Dionne. "Warwick."
Toronto International Film Festival President Cameron Bailey said: "In the collaboration between Zhao Tao and Jia Zhangke, she captured the complexity and importance of the great changes in China's times. Zhao Tao is the 21st century." Iconic face, she contributed her best performance in "The Romance Generation"
"The Romance Generation" stills
Filmmaker Zhao Tao entered the film industry in 2000 when she starred in "Platform" directed by Jia Zhangke, and worked with the latter successively. He has produced seven feature films, among which "The Good Man" won the Golden Lion Award at the 63rd Venice International Film Festival. In addition, she won the 56th Italian Film David Award for Best Actress for "I Am Rei" directed by Andrea Seggia, and won the Best Performance Award at the Miami Film Festival for "Old Man". "江湖 sons and daughters " won her the best actress crown at the Chicago Film Festival, Minsk Film Festival, and the Australian Asia Pacific Film Awards, and was named the second best actress of the year by the National Association of Film Critics. In 2020, Zhao Tao was named the 25 greatest actors so far in the 21st century by the New York Times, ranking 8th.
As a well-known couple in the film industry, Jia Zhangke and Zhao Tao have long been in contact with the Toronto International Film Festival. Toronto's "Platform Competition" is named after Jia Zhangke's film. In 2010, the festival awarded Jia Zhangke the "Best Director of the Decade of the New Century". In the past ten years, the films "Old Friends in Mountains and Rivers" and "Children of Rivers and Lakes" directed by Jia Zhangke and starring Zhao Tao have also been selected to premiere in Toronto as their North American premieres.
