Since the inception of cinema, this art form has stood as a bridge for cultural communication and the exchange of ideas. In this realm of imagination and creative expression, Juliette Binoche—with a career spanning more than four decades—has become an iconic figure who navigates diverse cinematic traditions with effortless grace. Her artistic practice continually pushes the boundaries of the expressive potential of cinema, imbuing each of her works with a unique and enduring vitality.

The 16th Beijing International Film Festival is honored to welcome renowned French actress and director Juliette Binoche, the Jury President of the Tiantan Award, to deliver a Film Masterclass. This masterclass, themed "A Journey Without Borders: Juliette Binoche's Artistic Exploration", will bring together the acclaimed artist in dialogue with young Chinese directors Liang Ming and Jing Yi. Drawing on her acting experience and the evolution of her creative identity, they will explore how to forge a distinctive directorial voice from the diverse cinematic aesthetics they have absorbed across global cinema.

Juliette Binoche - a name in cinematic history that defies simple definition and is nearly impossible to replicate. Across a more-than-40-year cinematic career, she has worked across numerous languages and cultures, navigating with rare ease between auteur cinema and the industrial film system. Raised in the tradition of French auteur cinema, she has emerged as one of the most iconic actresses in European art cinema, moving across international film circles and ultimately stepping into directing. Binoche’s acting career has in many ways tracked the shifts in global cinematic landscape over the past four decades. For Binoche, acting has never been a fixed professional paradigm, but an ongoing creative artistic practice.

A Still from Three Colors: Blue

Binoche’s creative journey, which spans both auteur cinema and the industrial film system, has secured her a unique place in the history of international cinema. In 1997, she won an Academy Award (Oscar) for her delicate and moving performance in The English Patient, becoming the second French actress to receive this honor. She also holds a historic distinction as the first actress ever to claim the Best Actress Award at all three major European film festivals—the Venice International Film Festival (with Three Colors: Blue), the Berlin International Film Festival (with The English Patient), and the Cannes Film Festival (with Certified Copy).

A Still from The English Patient

In the early 1980s, 19-year-old Binoche stepped into the lens of André Téchiné, embarking on an extraordinary journey with the world of cinema. She soon etched an iconic moment into cinematic history with The Lovers on the Bridge, her celebrated collaboration with Leos Carax. A wealthy heiress dancing beneath fireworks along the Seine—an image that has become an indelible cinematic memory for a generation of film lovers.

A Still from The Lovers on the Bridge

In the years that followed, Binoche continued to navigate diverse cinematic traditions with remarkable versatility. In Krzysztof Kieślowski’s Three Colors: Blue, she delivered a restrained yet nuanced portrayal, capturing the inner struggle between grief and liberation. In The English Patient, she captivated audiences worldwide once more, embodying a battlefield nurse who is tender yet resolute. In Abbas Kiarostami’s Certified Copy, she continually layers her character's emotions within an enigmatic relationship blurred between truth and pretense, letting the figure shift fluidly between reality and performance. For Juliette Binoche, each collaboration with directors with unique artistic voices is more than a bold artistic exploration; it is also a deliberate process of absorption, collision and refinement, quietly forging her own unique creative language.

A Still from Certified Copy

In 2025, Binoche stepped into directing with her debut feature In-I In Motion, channeling decades of profound reflections on the body, emotion and time into a highly self-aware auteur expression. This is far more than a mere shift in identity; it is the natural extension of her lifelong artistic exploration. This time, she begins to translate all the perceptions of light, shadow, rhythm, and emotional subtlety she has honed as a performer—together with the rich cinematic aesthetics she has absorbed from cinema around the world—into a new language of staging and narrative: a language entirely her own as director Juliette Binoche. Her focus has quietly shifted from "how to interpret" to "how to construct".

Poster for In-I In Motion

At this BJIFF Masterclass, she will hold an in-depth dialogue with two young Chinese filmmakers: Liang Ming and Jing Yi. Liang Ming has emerged in China’s independent film landscape with a distinctively personal journey. His transition from actor to director has afforded him a firsthand and profound understanding of identity shifts within visual creation. His works center on the delicate interplay between individual experience and the social fabric of the times, while maintaining a consistently open, exploratory approach to cinematic language.

Liang Ming

Liang Ming’s debut feature Wisdom Tooth (2019) was selected for the Bright Future Competition at the International Film Festival Rotterdam, and earned him the Best Director Award at the Pingyao International Film Festival. Carefree Days (2023) was selected as the Opening Film of the New Directors Competition at the San Sebastián International Film Festival. It also won Best Feature Film in the Forward Future International Competition Section at BJIFF, and received nominations for Best Director and Best Screenplay at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards.

A Still from Wisdom Tooth

A Still from Carefree Days

Director Jing Yi's films are defined by a poetic visual language and profound humanistic insight, embodying the distinctive artistic voice of young Chinese filmmakers on the international stage. His debut feature The Botanist was officially selected for the Forward Future Section. The film is set to release on April 14th through the Nationwide Alliance of Arthouse Cinemas. The film was awarded the Grand Prix of the International Jury in the Generation Kplus Section at the 75th Berlin International Film Festival, Best Director in the Firebird Award for Young Cinema Competition (Chinese Language) and the FIPRESCI Prize at the 49th Hong Kong International Film Festival, and was selected for Young Chinese Filmmakers Global Promotion Programme at the Cannes Film Festival.

A Still from The Botanist

Through an in-depth immersion in specific cultural contexts, Director Jing Yi, with a visual language honoring diversity, explores the shared sentiments of different ethnic groups toward life and nature. This creative approach, which actively forging resonance amid differences, strikes a profound chord with Juliette Binoche’s own artistic journey.

Jing Yi