Chinese Showbiz: Future Stars Make Me a Famous Director and Mogul

In 2014, Xiao He was a documentary director so obscure that no one in the industry had heard of him.

That is, until a once-in-a-century geomagnetic storm caused him to accidentally receive a distress signal sent across time by four actresses in 2025.

From then on, his life went into overdrive.

In 2015, he made Free Solo, documenting the life-or-death challenge of climbing El Capitan without safety gear. The film won the Best New Director award at the Amsterdam International Film Festival, making him an overnight sensation.

In 2018, he made Gravity, with its long takes in space. It grossed $773 million worldwide and won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

In 2020, he made Interstellar, which grossed over $1.18 billion worldwide and won the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects.

In 2022, he made The Wandering Earth, which earned 5.288 billion yuan at the Chinese box office. It won him the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film for the second time and ushered in the first year of Chinese science fiction cinema.

Xiao He became the second international directing legend after Big Brother Long to receive an Academy Award for Lifetime Achievement!