Zhang accepts Coolidge Award in anecdote-filled celebration

An award to rival Oscar?

OK, so maybe the first Coolidge Award is getting a little ahead of itself, but who could really blame the folks gathered at Brookline's Coolidge Corner Theatre on Wednesday night for being prone to tongue-half-in-cheek hyperbole? It isn't every day that Zhang Yimou, the celebrated Chinese director of such crowd-pleasers as "Raise the Red Lantern" and "To Live," is in the house.

"Oscar, eat your heart out," Rikk Larsen said to cheers from the capacity crowd assembled to watch Zhang collect his award following a program of reverent speeches, film clips, and stage performances. Larsen was on hand to represent the Patricia Larsen Foundation, which donated $100,000 to fund the Coolidge Award, $10,000 of which went to Zhang as the recipient of this year's inaugural honor.

"I'm very grateful," Zhang said, holding a smart-looking statuette made of etched Plexiglas that mimics the art deco design of the Coolidge Corner Theatre marquee. "There are very few awards in the world like this."

Indeed, the night began with the architects of the award recounting its genesis two years ago, when Rikk Larsen had a vague notion of raising the Brookline nonprofit's national profile by recognizing groundbreaking achievements in filmmaking. After some debate, the Coolidge Award was born with the intention of honoring artists who "consistently create challenging and original work, thereby expanding the boundaries of cinema," and a decision was made to focus each year on a different category. Zhang emerged as a candidate for this year's foreign-language focus when filmmaker Carma Hinton ("Morning Sun"), a longtime friend of the Chinese director, offered to deliver the Coolidge's invitation while in Beijing.

(Even so, Coolidge Theatre Foundation executive director Joe Zina says they encountered many obstacles along the road to getting the honoree here. "It's a very complicated thing to pull off, to bring someone from China," Zina said before the ceremony.)

Hinton was among the presenters on Wednesday, and if there'd been a Plexiglas prize for best anecdote of the evening, she'd have won it hands down for her recounting of how, in 1986, then-fledgling filmmakers Zhang and Chen Kaige ("Yellow Earth") slept on her kitchen floor while acquainting themselves with New York and Philadelphia.

But hers was just one of many affectionate testimonies given between glimpses of a prolific film career that includes "Red Sorghum," "Keep Cool," "Not One Less,' and this summer's "Hero." Bow Sim Mark, the vaunted founder of Boston's Tai Chi Arts Association and mother of actor Donnie Yen ("Hero"), offered a dramatic martial arts demonstration as homage. And Richard Pena, program director for the New York Film Festival, introduced the man of the hour by reporting that Zhang's upcoming "House of Flying Daggers" -- seen recently by Pena at Cannes -- sets a "new international standard" for creative use of computer-generated images.

Zhang responded to his hosts and local supporters in kind.

"I feel there is great significance in what you are doing here," he told those assembled. "Five or 10 years from now, the Coolidge Award may be the world's most sought after."

The remark drew laughter and applause. Zhang didn't get where he is without pushing the boundaries of wishful thinking, or knowing how to work a crowd.

Janice Page can be reached at jpage22@hotmail.com.