Hong Kong Film Awards 2022 preview: who will win, and who should win, the best film, director, actor and actress prizes

The Hong Kong Film Awards ceremony returns on July 17 to recognise the best locally produced films released in 2020 and 2021, after skipping last year

Musical biopic Anita is a front runner for best film, while Benny Chan is likely to get best director for Raging Fire – which was in post-production when he died

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Louise Wong in a still from Anita, a musical biopic of the late Canto-pop superstar Anita Mui Yim-fong. The movie is in the running for best film at the Hong Kong Film Awards 2022.

Published: 6:15pm, 15 Jul 2022

After a one-year postponement because of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Hong Kong Film Awards (HKFA) ceremony is back on July 17 for its 40th edition to recognise the best locally produced films released both in 2020 and 2021.

The winners in the awards’ 19 categories will be announced in a star-studded ceremony at the Kowloon Bay International Trade & Exhibition Centre in Kowloon Bay. It will be broadcast live on ViuTV from 7.30pm.

Post film editor Edmund Lee picks the likely winners in the awards’ top four categories.

Best film

Nominees: Raging Fire, Anita, Limbo, Zero to Hero, Drifting

While probably not the best film on this list, Anita, a musical biopic of the late Canto-pop superstar Anita Mui Yim-fong, is perhaps the slight front runner in the category as the runaway local box office champion of the past two years.

With an abundance of goodwill behind it, Longman Leung Lok-man’s nostalgic film, set in 1980s and ’90s Hong Kong, grossed more than HK$61 million (US$7.8 million) in less than two months in cinemas towards the end of 2021, before receiving a high-profile streaming release on Disney+ earlier this year.

By comparison, another pair of box office hits, the explosive action movie Raging Fire and the wholesome sports biopic Zero to Hero (Hong Kong’s submission for best international feature film for the 2022 Oscars), may find it harder to compete.