Chinese director Jia Zhangke was honored the "directors of the decade" award on Friday by the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF).

Jia's three films were also included in the "top 30 films in the past decade" selected by a panel composed by 60 critics, historians, and film archive curators around the world.

TIFF Chairman Piers Handling told Xinhua that Jia's films reflected a changing China, and could help people know more about contemporary China.

"Each of Jia's films articulates an abstract structure of time and space, and a more sensual structure of feeling, through which we can see and feel our way to coming to grips with a new, changing world," Handling said. "He is one of the leading filmmakers in our times."

Jia directed five long films in the past decade, with three of them -- "Platform," "Still Life" and "World" included in the top 30 films of the past decade, which shows the panel's predilection for the young Chinese director.

"I have believed that film is one of the best ways to reflect change, and I am still filled with curiosity and confidence in films," Jia said at the award ceremony.

The director also said he believed the award would be a new starting point for his career.

Founded in 1976, the TIFF is now one of the most prestigious film festivals in the world, and is considered a launch pad for many studios to begin "Oscar-buzz" for their films.