Zhou Xun addresses the audience after winning the Golden Rooster Award for Best Actress at the closing ceremony of the 18th Golden Rooster and Hundred Flowers Film Festival in Nanchang, Jiangxi proinve on Oct 17, 2009. She shares the award with Jiang Wenli.

The film festival was held in Nanchang from Oct 14 to 17, with about 155 films competing for 18 awards.

The Golden Rooster Awards are the most prestigious awards in film given in Chinese mainland. The name of the awards came from the year of the Rooster in 1981, when the awards begin.

The entire event is actually composed of a film festival and an awards ceremony.

Originally the film festival consisted of two distinct events, the Golden Rooster festival, and a separate festival for the Hundred Flowers Awards. The two festivals were combined into a single national festival in 1992.

The Golden Rooster and Hundred Flowers Awards take place on alternate years since 2005, with the Golden Rooster taking place on odd years. Films in the past two years are eligible for the Golden Rooster awards since 2007. [Xinhua]