Golden Horse Awards 2020 nominations: film by debutant director from Hong Kong among leading contenders, as China boycott continues

Tsai Ming-liang feature Days, romantic comedy My Missing Valentine, and Hong Kong actor Chan Kin-long’s Hand Rolled Cigarette vie for best feature film prize

Also in the running are mystery Dear Tenant and The Great Buddha+ director Huang Hsin-yao’s new film Classmates Minus

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Babyjohn Choi in a still from The Way We Keep Dancing, which has six nominations for the 2020 Golden Horse Awards.

Published: 1:19pm, 1 Oct 2020Updated: 11:30pm, 1 Oct 2020

Lam Ka-tung vehicle Hand Rolled Cigarette and dance drama sequel The Way We Keep Dancing will fly the flag for Hong Kong cinema at the 57th Golden Horse Awards this year.

The most prestigious awards for Chinese-language cinema, the Golden Horse Awards have often been called the “Oscars of Chinese-language cinema” because of their reputation for consistently recognising films for their artistic accomplishments, irrespective of their origin or commercial appeal.

Once again, no films from mainland China will be in competition – Beijing ruled last year that mainland filmmakers would not be allowed to take part in the awards, which take place in Taiwan. China’s Communist Party regards the island as a renegade Chinese province.

At the last awards ceremony attended by filmmakers from China, in 2018, the Chinese indie gem An Elephant Sitting Still was named best picture ahead of films with much higher profiles.

With China’s boycott of the event apparently still in place, the list of nominees for this year’s awards, announced on Wednesday evening, is predictably dominated by Taiwanese productions. The romantic comedy My Missing Valentine leads the field with 11 nominations, followed by nine for Classmates Minus, the latest film by Huang Hsin-yao, who was behind the 2017 hit The Great Buddha+ .

The other films named in the best narrative feature category include Days , a meditative drama by art-house filmmaker Tsai Ming-liang which premiered at the Berlin film festival in February; the mystery drama Dear Tenant; and crime drama Hand Rolled Cigarette, the directorial debut of actor Chan Kin-long, which is nominated in seven categories, more than any other Hong Kong film in contention.

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