Hong Kong Film Awards faces calls to change voting system after controversial Ten Years named best picture

The Hong Kong Film Awards will discuss a group of filmmakers’ proposal on changing its “unfair” voting system, after a controversial low-budget production scooped the city’s top film prize in April.

However, the Motion Picture Industry Association has been the lone voice in proposing changes to the system among 14 organisations involved in the voting, as the other members either declined to comment on the proposal, or could not be reached.

In April, some filmmakers were shocked after Ten Years, which depicts a dystopian future with diminished human rights as Beijing exerts greater control over Hong Kong, upset the odds to win best picture at the annual film awards.

The decision sparked debate on whether the accolade was politically motivated, given current divisions in the city. Film Awards Association chair and film director Derek Yee Tung-sing admitted judges could have been “driven by sentiment” in making their decision, while Daniel Lam Siu-ming, head of Universal International film production company, warned that his company might quit the awards if the “irrational” film awards voting system was not changed.

Currently, a group of 55 jurors, mostly filmmakers and actors, and hundreds of voting members from 14 organisations such as the MPIA and the Film Directors’ Guild, are responsible for choosing a winner for each of the awards’ various prizes. Yet their votes weigh differently, as the jurors’ vote account for 55 per cent of the total score, while the group of hundreds of voters account for the remaining 45 per cent.

MPIA chairman Crucindo Hung Cho-sing told the Post that the “imbalance” has to end.