The best actress prize at the Venice Film Festival went to China’s Xin Zhilei for her portrayal in Cai Shangjun’s “The Sun Rises on Us All.”
The 39-year-old actress plays a lady in the movie who is trying to make things right with her ex-boyfriend, who went to jail for a crime she committed. The triumph gives Xin a lot of attention in Europe for the first time, after already winning over fans at home.
“Look, today I am finally here, standing on this world-class stage, competing with so many top performers from all over the world, and receiving this award,” she remarked from the platform after winning her award.
“She said, “I’m proud of myself.”
After the 82nd Venice Film Festival on September 6, 2025, Chinese actress Xin Zhilei posed with the Coppa Volpi for Best Actress for her role in “Ri Gua Zhong Tian (The Sun Rises on Us All).” Photo by AFP
There are a lot of unspoken words in the story, and the dramas of the past come out in little ways.
The main characters can’t move on with their life because they are stuck in anger and regret.
Xin claimed that working on the movie had been “exhilarating.”
“From the start, you know you’re part of a great work when you have to deal with such a rich character, so full of detail and very different,” she remarked during a news conference for the film on Friday before its debut.
She went on, “My character is a normal woman. She is a person like everyone else, and she is not good or bad.”
Variety wrote that Xin and her co-star Zhang Songwen were “outstanding in summoning the convincing chemistry of ex-partners whose passion has long since soured but whose fates remain intertwined.”
The actress takes over from Australian actress Nicole Kidman, who won last year for her portrayal in the sensual thriller “Babygirl.”
Xin grew up in a little town in the extreme north of China, on the border with Russia.
In the movie “Crosscurrent,” which was the only Asian picture in the official competition at the Berlin International picture Festival in 2016, she became well-known in the movie business. It got an award for its cinematography.
She went on to star in a lot of Chinese blockbusters and successful TV shows in her home country.
In 2023, Hong Kong cinema maestro Wong Kar-wai directed the series “Blossom Shanghai,” in which Xin had a big part.
The show, which is about a young man from a poor family who becomes famous in Shanghai’s fast growing economy in the 1990s, was a huge hit in China.
About the Author
