Film producer Bill Kong has been behind many of the landmark Chinese films of the past quarter century, most notably as co-producer of Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000), for which he received a Best Film Bafta and an Oscar nomination in the same category. After receiving his education in Canada, he returned to Hong Kong in the early 1980s to take over Edko Films, the cinema operator and distributor established by his father that is behind the Broadway and AMC cinema chains.

He diversified into film production in the 1990s, and has since worked with a stellar line-up of directorial talent, acting as producer or co-producer on films including Zhang Yimou’s The Flowers of War (2011), House of Flying Daggers (2004), and Curse of the Golden Flower (2006), Stephen Chow’s Kung Fu Hustle (2004), and Lee’s Lust, Caution (2007). He also co-produced Monster Hunt (2015), the highest grossing Chinese film ever when it was released and was executive producer of the live-action remake of Mulan (2020).

(Photo: Inga Beckmann)