‍Zhou Jie, a prominent Chinese actress, dancer, and educator, was awarded Remi Career Achievement Award Sunday night in Houston for her contribution to arts.

Hunter Todd, chairman of the WorldFest-Houston International Film Festival, said the award is to "recognize her unwavering dedication to the arts and to our community."

Zhou seizes every opportunity to further her passion for sharing different cultures with the world through films, Todd said at the awarding ceremony held before the screening of the film "Princess of Yang," in which Zhou starred.

"This award celebrates the culmination of nearly five decades of pursuing creative expression and reaffirms our regard for Ms. Zhou Jie," he said.

Set in the Tang Dynasty (618-907), a period of prosperity and flourishing of the arts, the film, released in 1992 in the Chinese market, recounts the tragic love story between Emperor Tang Xuanzong and Princess Yang Guifei who is widely considered one of China's four most beautiful women of all time.

Zhou expressed her gratitude to people both in China and in the U.S. who supported her in the past decades. "The award does not belong to myself, it also belongs to Houston, my second hometown, and in particular to my motherland China."

She told Xinhua that through the window of demonstrating China's history and culture, American people would learn more about China as well as its culture. "I'm confident that they would be fascinated by Chinese culture," she said.

U.S. fantasy drama "William" premiered at the opening night of the 52nd WorldFest-Houston International Film Festival on Friday in Houston, U.S. state of Texas.

Another opening night film was "The Star and the Sea," co-directed by Li Qiankuan and Xiao Guiyun in 2009.

As part of the film festival, the WorldFest Focus on China brings the screenings of 15 Chinese feature films along with several Chinese short subjects, providing a window of the emerging Chinese film production for American audiences.

WorldFest, founded over 52 years ago, has since evolved into the third competitive international film festival in North America, following San Francisco and New York film festivals.

As one of the oldest independent film and video festivals in the world, WorldFest has discovered a long list of famous persons such as Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, and Ang Lee.

WorldFest received over 4,500 category entries from 74 countries and regions across the world for its 2018 edition.