Born in Shanghai in 1965, Lou Ye won the Rainer Werner Fassbinder Prize for Best Director for his film Weekend Lover (1993) at the 45th Mannheim-Heidelberg International Film Festival. In 2000, his Suzhou River garnered numerous awards and accolades, including the VPRO Tiger Award at the 29th International Film Festival Rotterdam and the Grand Prix at the Filmmax Festival in Tokyo in 2001. Purple Butterfly (2003) appeared in competition at the 2003 Cannes International Film Festival.