“Pavilion of Women,” a film produced and co-written by Boston University alumna Luo Yan, received a standing ovation at a screening at the General Cinema Fenway 13 Theater last night.

The event began with a speech by Bill Lawson, chairman of the College of Communication’s Department of Film and Television, who praised Yan for her achievements in the film industry after facing the obstacles she has overcome in her life.

“She is one of the most forceful, astounding and charming students I’ve ever had,” Lawson said.

Yan came to Boston from China with only $60 in her pocket, Lawson told the audience. After supporting herself by working as a waitress and a housekeeper, she auditioned for BU’s theater program in the School for the Arts and was offered a full scholarship.

“It’s an honor and privilege to have known Luo Yan and to have been her teacher,” said James Spruill, a College of Fine Arts professor. “From the day I met her, it was clear she was capable of this sort of success.”

Before the showing of her film, Yan presented a $50,000 scholarship to CFA. Yan said she hopes to “help support other students, or someone like [herself], and make a difference for others.”

Yan’s film, based on Pearl S. Buck’s 1946 novel of the same name, is set in 1938 China and stars herself and Willem Dafoe. The film centers around a 40-year-old woman’s unsatisfactory marriage and shifts in her value system. The woman falls in love with an American priest and, consequentially, re-evaluates her society’s traditional conventions.

A question-and-answer session followed the screening. Responding to students’ questions, Yan discussed everything from the financing involved in the making of the movie to her personal aspirations.

Yan said, as with all artists, she too had a message she hoped to express through her film. She said she intentionally portrayed a 40-year-old woman to enhance this message.

“Even as you get older, it is still not too late to find meaning and search for the meaning of life,” Yan said.

Yan said she is currently working on several new projects: three features, a television series and a documentary.

Students agreed the movie was enjoyable.

“I think [the movie] is beautiful,” said Anis Koivisto, a CFA freshman. “And the fact that it is someone from the program that I’m in is incredible.”

“It was a real honor to have her here with us,” said Stephanie Dutchen, a College of Arts and Sciences and COM sophomore. “She seems like she is very talented, and it was a beautiful movie.”