Chinese director Wong Kar-Wai, who presides over this year's jury at the Cannes Film Festival, was awarded the French Legion of Honor on Sunday for capturing the sights and sounds of Hong Kong on film.

 

"Your genius has lit up screens the world over with the colors, perfumes, sounds and emotions of Hong Kong"," French Culture Minister Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres told Wong as he made him a Knight of the Legion of Honor.

 

"You have invented a new cinema, a new way of writing in ink and light which have overturned the public emotions and lit the way for a whole new generation of filmmakers," the minister added.

 

Wong, who won the best director prize here in 1997 with Happy Together, has presented four of his films at the Cannes Festival.

 

He said he was very flattered by the honor that France had bestowed on him.

 

(Xinhua News Agency May 22, 2006)