Pingyao festival gives top prize to family renovation drama Final Payment
A disputed renovation bill became festival-winning material in Pingyao.
Niu Niu's "Final Payment" and Dong Jie's "Zoom In, Zoom Out" each took two prizes at the 10th Pingyao Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon International Film Festival in China, Variety reported on 30 September 2026.
"Final Payment" claimed the Fei Mu Award for best film, the festival's top prize for Chinese-language cinema. The win carries RMB1 million ($149,000), split equally between the director to develop a next film and the film's distributor in China.
Lead actor Niu Jianrong also won best actor for the film. He is the director's father, and the story grows directly from his own experience as a homeowner locked in a standoff with a contractor over the last payment for a renovation.
Dong Jie's "Zoom In, Zoom Out" took the Fei Mu jury award and the Cinephilia Critics' Award. That left the two features level on two prizes each at the close of the Chinese-language competition.
On the international side, Rafiki Fariala's "Congo Boy" won the Roberto Rossellini Award for best film in the Crouching Tigers competition, the festival strand for cinema from outside China. The prize is worth $20,000, again divided between the director's next film and the film's distributor in China, Variety reported.
There was a spread of other winners across acting, directing and shorts. Sun Yi was named best actress for Wang Xiaozhen's "A Joke". Xu Zao won the Unitree best director award for his debut animated feature "Light Pillar", while Rafael Manuel won best director for "Filipinaña", which was executive produced by Jia Zhangke.
Lenti Liang's "Our Secrets" took best short film in the Fei Mu section. Hong Kong filmmaker Ann Hui received the Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon East-West Award, the festival's honour spanning Eastern and Western cinema.
The 10th edition had been programmed with an eye on film history as well as new work. The lineup included a restoration connected to Fei Mu, the 1940s Chinese director whose name is carried by the main award, alongside work linked to Cristian Mungiu, James Gray and Na Hong-Jin, Variety reported on 17 September.
What makes this stand out is the small scale. A payment row over home repairs. A father acting in a film directed by his child. In Pingyao this year, that close-to-home story carried the top prize and a development grant for what comes next.
