One of China's most popular and acclaimed sixth-generation filmmakers, Zhang Yuan, took the best director award at the third Europe-Asia International Film Festival for his multiple award-winning movie Little Red Flowers.

 

 

This is Zhang Yuan's fourth best director award for the film, after winning at the Berlin, 10th Peking University and Abbas International Film Festivals.

 

Based on a novel by renowned Chinese writer Wang Shuo, Little Red Flowers will also participate at the equivalent of the Chinese Oscars, the 43rd Golden Horse Awards to be held in Taiwan next month.

 

The film vividly tells the story of a group of 300 three-to-six-year-old children in a state-owned kindergarten in 1960s Beijing.

 

The director was named by Time Magazine as one of the top 100 youth leaders in the 21st century and was also awarded a cultural peace award by the UN in 2001. 

 

(CRI October 12, 2006)