Cover Xin Zhilei, who won Best Actress at Venice Film Festival 2025 (Photo: Instagram/@xin_zhilei)
Xin Zhilei, who won Best Actress at Venice Film Festival 2025 (Photo: Instagram/@xin_zhilei)
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China’s Xin Zhilei makes history as the first Chinese woman in 14 years to win best actress at the Venice Film Festival for her role in ‘The Sun Rises on Us All’. But the multi-talented actor has far more than screen presence up her sleeve.
Chinese actor Xin Zhilei has made history, becoming the first Chinese woman in 14 years to win best actress at the Venice Film Festival. She received the Golden Lion trophy for her moving performance in Cai Shangjun’s The Sun Rises on Us All (2025), a role that has cemented her as one of contemporary cinema’s most compelling talents.
Xin stars as a weary fashion retailer navigating a fraught reunion with her former lover, who has just been released from prison after serving time for a crime she committed. In her emotional acceptance speech, the 39-year-old described the win as a dream she had pursued since the beginning of her career. Her triumph follows earlier winners Gong Li in 1992 and Deanie Ip in 2011, marking another proud milestone for Chinese cinema.
Born in Heilongjiang and a graduate of the Central Academy of Drama, Xin has also built an impressive career across stage and screen. Here are seven of her most memorable performances.
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1. ‘Crosscurrent’ (2016)
Above Xin Zhilei in ‘Crosscurrent’ (2016) (Photo: courtesy of IMDB)
Xin Zhilei in ‘Crosscurrent’ (2016) (Photo: courtesy of IMDB)
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In Yang Chao’s romantic arthouse feature Crosscurrent, Xin embodies An Lu, a woman as fluid and elusive as the Yangtze River itself. Appearing to the voyager Gao Chun (played by Qin Hao) at different ports, she shifts identities with each encounter, dissolving the boundaries between the real and the imagined. A spectral cipher for the river’s memory and China’s contested histories, An Lu becomes hauntingly timeless. Xin’s enigmatic performance captures this mystery with spellbinding grace.
2. ‘Ruyi’s Royal Love in the Palace’ (2018)
Above Xin Zhilei in ‘Ruyi’s Royal Love in the Palace’ (2018) (Photo: courtesy of x.com/@xinzhileidays)
Xin Zhilei in ‘Ruyi’s Royal Love in the Palace’ (2018) (Photo: courtesy of x.com/@xinzhileidays)
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Xin turns up the intrigue in Ruyi’s Royal Love in the Palace, the hit Chinese period drama chronicling the marriage between the Qianlong Emperor and Empress Nara, or Ruyi. She plays Jin Yuyan, a favoured consort known for her temper, ruthless authority and political plotting against Ruyi. The series remains a fan favourite, thanks in part to Xin’s layered portrayal of courtly ambition.
3. ‘My Robot Girlfriend’ (2020)
Above Xin Zhilei in ‘My Robot Girlfriend’ (2016) (Photo: courtesy of TV Media)
Xin Zhilei in ‘My Robot Girlfriend’ (2016) (Photo: courtesy of TV Media)
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Xin showed her versatility in the part-sci-fi, part-romantic film My Robot Girlfriend. Breaking from her usual historical and dramatic roles, she portrays a robot identical to the woman the protagonist, Fang Yuan, falls in love with. The film allowed Xin to step into lighter, more playful territory while expanding her already wide-ranging repertoire.
4. ‘Blossoms Shanghai’ (2023)
Above Xin Zhilei in ‘Blossoms Shanghai’ (2023) (Photo: courtesy of x.com/@xinzhileidays)
Xin Zhilei in ‘Blossoms Shanghai’ (2023) (Photo: courtesy of x.com/@xinzhileidays)
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In Wong Kar-wai’s acclaimed TV series Blossoms Shanghai, Xin plays Li Li, a mysterious entrepreneur from Shenzhen who opens a restaurant on Huanghe Road, one of Shanghai’s busiest social hubs of the 1990s. Feisty yet sentimental, Li Li becomes entangled with the business elite, embodying the glamour and turbulence of the decade. Xin’s compelling performance earned her a nomination for Best Actress in Film and Television at the 2024 Huading Awards.
Read more: 5 things to know about Wong Kar-wai’s debut TV series ‘Blossoms Shanghai’
5. ‘Prima Facie’ (2023)
Above Xin Zhilei in ‘Prima Facie’ (2018) (Photo: courtesy of x.com/@xinzhileidays)
Xin Zhilei in ‘Prima Facie’ (2018) (Photo: courtesy of x.com/@xinzhileidays)
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On stage, Xin delivered a searing one-woman performance in Prima Facie, Suzie Miller’s award-winning play about a star barrister whose faith in the legal system crumbles after she suffers sexual assault. Demanding both emotional intensity and technical mastery, the 120-minute monologue was met with critical acclaim. Xin was recognised with the Best Leading Performance prize at the Shanghai Magnolia Stage Performance Awards, further establishing her as one of China’s most fearless performers.
6. ‘By Your Side’ (2023)
Above Xin Zhilei in ‘By Your Side’ (2023) (Photo: courtesy of x.com/@xinzhileidays)
Xin Zhilei in ‘By Your Side’ (2023) (Photo: courtesy of x.com/@xinzhileidays)
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Xin reprised her Prima Facie role in the eight-minute short film By Your Side, produced by Li Moxiao and directed by Han Xia. This adaptation shifts the lens to backstage dynamics, casting Xin as an actor who notices a colleague’s discomfort after receiving unwanted advances during a rehearsal. Though brief, the film’s commentary on gendered power relations resonated widely with audiences. Released on streaming platforms including Bilibili and Youku, it showcased Xin’s commitment to projects with both artistic and social relevance.
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7. ‘The Sun Rises on Us All’ (2025)
Above Xin Zhilei in ‘The Sun Rises on Us All’ (2025) (Photo: courtesy of x.com/@xinzhileidays)
Xin Zhilei in ‘The Sun Rises on Us All’ (2025) (Photo: courtesy of x.com/@xinzhileidays)
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Xin’s Golden Lion-winning role came in Cai Shangjun’s neo-noir drama The Sun Rises on Us All. Starring opposite Zhang Songwen, she plays a woman whose life remains inextricably bound to her former lover, a man who once took the fall for her crime. Years later, love and resentment intertwine as their unresolved past resurfaces. Shot against Guangzhou’s humid, shadow-filled nights, the film is raw, intimate and emotionally exacting. Anchored by Xin’s mesmerising performance, it explores sacrifice, guilt and the impossibility of redemption with devastating clarity.
Zabrina is the Senior Editor, Arts and Culture of Tatler Hong Kong. She specialises in performing arts, visual art and film. Her wanderlust was first fuelled by the Mighty Rovers Antarctica Expedition 2010. Over the years, she has interviewed A-list artists and filmmakers, including Oscar winners Chlóe Zhao and Tim Yip, Golden Horse winner Sylvia Chang, In the Mood for Love cinematographer Christopher Doyle, Pachinko author Min Jin Lee, and Coachella’s first Chinese solo singer Jackson Wang. She won gold at the WAN-IFRA Asian Media Awards for her 2021 feature on the waves of hate crimes targeting Asian Americans.
