Chinese director Ning Hao hit back at American filmmaker Oliver Stone, who stirred controversy last week with comments bashing the Chinese film industry for failing to face up to its country’s history.

Mr. Stone told audiences at Beijing International Film Festival last week that China should make films about Mao Zedong and the Cultural Revolution that “stir the water and allow true creativity.”

“You talk about co-production in China, but you don’t want to face the history of China,” Mr. Stone said, adding that he had tried to coproduce films about Mao and the Cultural Revolution with Chinese companies since he first visited in the 1990s but had repeatedly “run into a wall.”

“It is about time,” said the three-time Academy Award winner. “You should open up your past the way the United States opened its past.”

Mr. Ning, who was on the judging panel at the festival, said Mr. Stone was just trying to “finding fault” with the Chinese film industry.