Tian Zhuangzhuang
Part of the first class to reenter the Beijing Film Academy in 1978 (along with Fifth Generation helmers Zhang Yimou, Tian Zhuangzhuang and Chen Kaige), Ning Ying's career veered away from the path of her male counterparts when she was allowed to study abroad in Italy's Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia. While in Italy, she met Italian director Bernardo Bertolucci, whom she would act as an assistant director for in the 1987 epic "The Last Emperor".