Tiantan Award
From the Golden Rooster Best Actress to the Tiantan Award Jury Member: Zhang Xiaofei Joins the Competition Section Jury of the 16th BJIFF
Zhang Xiaofei stands among the most widely recognized and box-office-drawing actresses in China today. Grounded in the professional training she received at the Performance Department of the Beijing Film Academy and tempered by a decade on the stage, she ultimately completed a remarkable transformation on the big screen, from a familiar face on the Spring Festival Gala to a Golden Rooster Best Actress winner. Her performances do not depend on a display of technique; instead, sincerity, ease, and a finely judged balance between humor and emotion become the very breath of her characters. From Hi, Mom to Last Suspect, YOLO, and Malice, she has continued to expand her range across genres including comedy and suspense. The total box office of the films she has starred in has surpassed 10 billion yuan, making her the first actress born in the post-85s to reach this milestone in Chinese film history. The 16th BJIFF is honored to announce that acclaimed actress Zhang Xiaofei will serve as a jury member for this year's Tiantan Award Competition Section.
Zhang Xiaofei, Tiantan Award Jury Member
Anshan City, in Liaoning Province, sits deep in the industrial heartland of northeastern China, where winter nights can plunge to well below minus ten degrees Celsius. It was there, in 1986, that Zhang Xiaofei was born. By 2026, the girl who once spent more than an hour each day on the bus to dance lessons had become a Golden Rooster Best Actress, standing on one of the highest stages in Chinese cinema. Yet the warmth in her radiant smile has never changed.
Zhang Xiaofei’s journey to the screen was far longer than people imagine. In 1997, at just 11 years old, she boarded a slow green train from Anshan to Beijing on her own and began studying in the Minzu University of China College of Dance. Four years later, she joined the Song and Dance Troupe of the Chinese People's Armed Police Force. In 2005, she made her first truly independent choice of her life: she threw herself into six months of all-out preparation for the entrance exam and won admission to the Performance Institute of the Beijing Film Academy. In the talented class of 2005 at Beijing Film Academy, she consistently ranked at the top, and her teachers admitted her with the expectation that she would become a leading dramatic actress. In 2009, she graduated first in her major.
Yet graduating at the top of her class did not hand her a ticket to the screen. In the years that followed, she went from set to set, dropping off resumes and audition materials, only to be met time and again with the same polite dismissal: “Just leave it here.” No roles meant no income. She once described herself as "a tray of steamed buns fresh out of the steamer—lift the lid, and they cool almost at once."
A Still from Hi, Mom
Around 2011, Zhang Xiaofei was admitted to the China Broadcasting Performing-Arts Troupe, where she met Jia Ling. Close in age and both making a life in Beijing far from home, the two share a deep mutual appreciation. When Jia Ling needed a supporting actress, Zhang came to mind—"there's a beautiful host in the troupe who graduated from the Performance institute of the Beijing Film Academy." That introduction marked the beginning of a partnership that would last for more than a decade. In 2015, Zhang Xiaofei made her debut on the CCTV Spring Festival Gala in the sketch Little Considerate Daughter. She went on to appear on the Spring Festival Gala for several years in a row, becoming one of the best-known faces in Chinese comedy for audiences across the country.
Poster of Hi, Mom
On the first day of the Lunar New Year in 2021, the film Hi, Mom directed by Jia Ling premiered. Adapted from her earlier sketch of the same name, the film transforms a daughter’s longing and guilt over her late mother into a tender reunion across time. The moment young Li Huanying, played by Zhang Xiaofei, walks through the crowd in a white shirt, brings tears to the eyes of both the audience on and off the screen. The film ultimately grossed 5.4 billion yuan at the box office, and she won Best Actress at the 34th China Golden Rooster Awards for this role at the end of that year. Her acceptance speech struck a deep chord: "There was a time when I thought my dream might never come true. But life tells us—we must hold fast to our dream and never give up."
Zhang Xiaofei did not remain in the safety of her "National Mom" image after that breakthrough. In 2023, she starred in the crime thriller Last Suspect and the urban drama Alliance. In 2024, she played the sharp-edged Le Dan in YOLO. In March of the same year, Zhang Xiaofei starred in a film that grossed over RMB 10 billion, becoming the first post-85 actress in Chinese film history to achieve this milestone. In 2025, she played Ye Pan, a media professional caught in a media storm, in the suspense film Malice written and produced by Chen Sicheng, showing a coldness and sharpness that was completely different from her previous roles.
Photo of Zhang Xiaofei at the Golden Rooster Awards
From Anshan to Beijing Film Academy, from the Spring Festival Gala stage to the Golden Rooster award stage, Zhang Xiaofei has spent nearly twenty years making her way along a long and winding path In her performances, joy never feels superficial, and sorrow is never overstated or sentimental. But it was in this unpretentious sincerity that she found her own language of performance.
"Huairou—The Northernmost and Most Beautiful of Beijing." This year, Zhang Xiaofei will serve as a jury member for the Tiantan Award in Huairou, Beijing. With her strong grounding in performance and her wide-ranging understanding of cinema, she will review films from around the world and choose the works that truly move audiences and bring something fresh to the screen. Let us look forward to the birth of new excellent films for the Tiantan Award!
