Award badge with laurel leaves, indicating a nomination for Best Direction at the Australian Film Institute in 2009.
Award badge with laurel leaves, text reads "Nominee Best Film Australian Film Institute (AFI) 2009".
Award graphic with laurel leaves and text reading "Winner Best Soundtrack Album Screen Music Awards Australia 2010" in white on a black background.
Award emblem with laurel branches, text reads 'WINNER Best Feature Film Score Screen Music Awards Australia 2010'
Laurel wreath surrounding text that reads "WINNER Best Achievement in Sound for Film Sound Recording Australian Screen Sound Guild 2009"
Award badge with laurel leaves reading 'Nominee People's Choice Award Toronto International Film Festival 2009' against a black background.
White laurel wreaths on black background surrounding text stating the winner of the 2009 São Paulo International Film Festival for Best Foreign Feature Film.

Mao’s Last Dancer

2009

Director:

Bruce Beresford

Cast:

Bruce Greenwood

Kyle MacLachlan

Chi Cao

Runtime: 117 min

Cinematographer: Peter James

Distributor: ATO Pictures

Awards

Audience Award Best Foreign Feature, São Paulo IFF (2009); Screen Music Awards Best Feature Film Score and Best Soundtrack Album (2010); 7 wins and 20 nominations total

Synopsis

Mao’s Last Dancer follows Li Cunxin, a peasant boy from rural China selected at age eleven to train at Madame Mao’s Beijing Dance Academy. Decades of gruelling discipline shape him into a world-class ballet dancer, and when he is sent on a cultural exchange to Houston, he defects — sparking an international incident and a personal reckoning between the life he was given and the life he chooses. Based on Li Cunxin’s bestselling memoir.

Poster for the film 'Mao's Last Dancer' featuring a man holding a Chinese flag, reaching upward with a determined expression.
HOW TO VIEW

SAMUEL GOLDWYN FILMS/ATO PICTURES