Cecilia Yip and Rebecca Li Manxuan joined by Dora Bouchoucha and Carla Gutiérrez on stage and they share the message: 'Be true to yourself and just don't try to please everybody.'
Women in Motion session in Shanghai and they turned their attention to how they saw the Chinese film industry had evolved. Yip first emerged in Chinese-language cinema in the early 1980s – winning the best actress gone at the Hong Kong Film Awards for – and recalled how she was immediately struck by the objectification of the actresses she worked with, as much as herself.
But times, she said, had slowly changed.
“They used to refer to us as ‘flower vases’,” said Yip. “It caused me a lot of distress but it is not a phrase you hear anymore. Women roles these days carry real depth. ”in 2023 – said she had learned to trust her talents, and to persevere, and that now she was being offered “characters with layers.
” “It’s not like is going to happen right away,” she said.
“Sometimes a little bit of failure at the beginning may strengthen our motivation and let us know which aspects we can do better. ” The timely discussion came at a time of increasing presence of women and for female-centric movies in Chinese cinema, as recent hits including last year’s Shao Yihui-directed comedyFilm Festival continued he French luxury brand’s commitment to highlighting “women in arts and culture to change mindsets and combat gender inequality” – an initiative launched in 2015 and which in the past has collaborated with the likes of international A-listers Michelle Yeoh and Julianne Moore to get the message across.
On stage with Yip and Lee at the historic Cathay Theater in Shanghai this year were the Tunisian producer Dora Bouchoucha and Peruvian documentarian Carla Gutiérrez, in town to serve on the main feature and documentary juries, respectively. The session was designed both to inform and inspire and Bouchoucha looked to her own, vast career as a leading light for women in African and Arab cinema to point the way forward for any young filmmakers in the audience while Gutiérrez took up the opportunity on stage to share the origins of a career that brought her acclaim for“I remember that sense of being transported somewhere, that sense of, you know, feeling myself what the character feels,” she said.
“Then when I saw this one documentary, I also saw how non-fiction reality is so compelling. It takes you through a journey, it takes you through a through a ride where you know you become very empathetic to somebody else’s experience.
” Fittingly, given all four panelists were tasked with reflecting on their careers, it all came to a close with the question of what message might those gathered share with their youngerselves, on the first day of their careerFor Gutiérrez the message would me to make more noise.
“I’m already a very blunt, loud person. But I would want to tell myself, be louder! ” she laughed. Heat VisionThe Hollywood Reporter is a part of Penske Media Corporation. © 2026 The Hollywood Reporter, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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