A Taiwanese-born director educated in the USA - Ang Lee's films to date have straddled a number of contrasting worlds. Lee has always been fascinated by the conflict of cultures and by intergenerational strife. These themes can be seen at work in his first films Tui shou (92) (aka Pushing Hands) and The Wedding Banquet (93), the story of a gay man who feigns a marriage to keep his traditional Taiwanese parents happy.  Eat Drink Man Woman (94) completed this trilogy and received a Best Foreign Film Oscar nomination.

Lee's next film was a huge departure. Sense and Sensibility (1995), was his first Hollywood mainstream movie and seemingly a leap into the unknown. Nevertheless, Lee handled the material adroitly, and the film won a Best Picture Oscar nomination, with Emma Thompson winning Best Adapted Screenplay.

Lee's next project was The Ice Storm (1997), an adaptation of Rick Moody's 70s novel about bored New England suburbanites and their children's rites of passa...

A Taiwanese-born director educated in the USA - Ang Lee's films to date have straddled a number of contrasting worlds. Lee has always been fascinated by the conflict of cultures and by intergenerational strife. These themes can be seen at work in his first films Tui shou (92) (aka Pushing Hands) and The Wedding Banquet (93), the story of a gay man who feigns a marriage to keep his traditional Taiwanese parents happy.  Eat Drink Man Woman (94) completed this trilogy and received a Best Foreign Film Oscar nomination.

Lee's next film was a huge departure. Sense and Sensibility (1995), was his first Hollywood mainstream movie and seemingly a leap into the unknown. Nevertheless, Lee handled the material adroitly, and the film won a Best Picture Oscar nomination, with Emma Thompson winning Best Adapted Screenplay.

Lee's next project was The Ice Storm (1997), an adaptation of Rick Moody's 70s novel about bored New England suburbanites and their children's rites of passage. The movie recreated the era beautifully and featured powerful performances from Sigourney Weaver and Kevin Kline. Lee was acquiring a reputation as an excellent handler of actors.

After the Civil War drama Ride with the Devil (99), Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (01) was rapturously received, a sprawling period epic with flying martial artists, stirring music from Tan Dan, and beautiful locations – at one point the characters fight atop a bamboo forest. The film went on to become the highest grossing foreign-language film ever released in America.

Lee then attempted an adaptation of the Hulk (2003) with Eric Bana, which had a lukewarm reaction. But his next film won him the Best Director Oscar. Brokeback Mountain (2005), based on a short story by E. Annie Proulx, is about two cowboys who have a love affair over decades, and is a sensitive and beautiful film.