Bi Gan Honored at Las Palmas de Gran Canaria Festival

Chinese filmmaker Bi Gan will receive an Honorary Golden Lady Harimaguada at the 25th edition of the Las Palmas de Gran Canaria International Film Festival, which is also hosting a full retrospective of his work alongside a carte blanche selection curated by the director.

The festival described Bi as “one of the most original and relevant filmmakers of the last decade” whose films are “true masterpieces,” according to festival director Luis Miranda.

Bi will attend the festival and receive the award on April 29 at Cine Yelmo Las Arenas. A screening of his latest feature “Resurrection,” winner of the Jury Special Prize at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival, will be followed by a discussion with the filmmaker, alongside his 2016 short “Secret Goldfish.”

Titled “Bi Gan Blues,” the retrospective nods to his breakout debut “Kaili Blues,” which won the festival’s top prize in 2016. The program brings together six works spanning his career, including the features “Kaili Blues,” “Long Day’s Journey Into Night” and “Resurrection,” as well as three short films “The Poet and Singer,” “A Short Story” and “Secret Goldfish.”

As part of the festival’s carte blanche tradition, Bi has selected Fei Mu’s “Spring in a Small Town” and Jia Zhangke’s “The World” to screen alongside his own films — two landmark works that reflect key strands of Chinese cinema shaping his artistic outlook.

The inclusion of “The World,” which won the Golden Lady Harimaguada and best cinematography in 2005, also underscores a broader continuity within the festival’s history: Jia received the same honorary award at its 10th anniversary edition, placing Bi within a lineage of Chinese auteurs recognized by the festival across generations.