Hong Kong film star Tony Leung awarded a Venice Film Festival lifetime achievement award

Hong Kong actor and singer Tony Leung has been awarded a Golden Lion Lifetime Achievement at the 80th Venice Film Festival.

The award was presented on Saturday night by the director Ang Lee.

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Earlier Tony Leung, 61, who is no stranger to the Venice film festival, quipped: “I always wanted a Golden Lion. Finally, I can have it for myself. I don't have to share with anybody.”

Three of the films he appeared in won the Golden Lion for best picture. They were: A City of Sadness (1989) by Hsiao-Hsien Hou, Cyclo (1995) by Anh Hung Tran and Lust, Caution (2007) by Ang Lee.

However, he is perhaps best known for his collaborations with director Wong Kar-wai and he was awarded the Best Actor award at the Cannes Film Festival for In The Mood for Love (2000).

He was named by CNN as one of Asia’s 25 greatest actors of all time. In 2017 the British Film Institute (BFI) dedicated a monograph to Leung describing him as “one of the most acclaimed contemporary pan-Asian and global film stars of his generation”.