Venice, Italy - China's Xin Zhilei won the best actress award at the Venice Film Festival on Saturday for her role in "The Sun Rises on Us All" directed by Cai Shangjun.
In the film, the 39-year-old actress plays a woman trying to make amends with her former lover, who served time in prison for a crime she had committed.
The win brings Xin major recognition in Europe for the first time having already conquered audiences at home.
"Look, today I am finally here, standing on this world-class stage, competing with so many top performers from all over the world, and receiving this award," she said from the stage after accepting her award.
"I am proud of myself," she added.
Unspoken words play a large part in the story, in which the dramas of the past emerge in small touches.
The protagonists, paralysed by bitterness and regret, are unable to get on with their lives.
Xin said she had found it "exhilarating" to work on the film.
"When you are faced with such a rich character, so full of detail and very different, you know from the outset that you are part of a great work," she said Friday at the film's news conference ahead of its premiere.
"My character is a normal woman, she is a human being among many others, she is neither good nor bad," she added.
Variety said Xin and co-star Zhang Songwen were "outstanding in summoning the convincing chemistry of ex-partners whose passion has long since soured but whose fates remain intertwined".
With her new award, the actress succeeds Australian actress Nicole Kidman, who won last year for her role in the erotic thriller "Babygirl".
From a modest background, Xin grew up in the far north of China, near the border with Russia.
She first made a name for herself in cinema in the film "Crosscurrent", the only Asian representative in the official competition at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2016. It won an award for cinematography.
She went on to star in Chinese blockbusters and several popular television series in her native country.
Xin had a notable role in "Blossom Shanghai", a series released in 2023 and directed by Hong Kong cinema legend Wong Kar-wai.
The series, which tells the story of a young man from a modest background rising to prominence in the rapidly expanding economy of 1990s Shanghai, was a spectacular success in China.
