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Asian cinema: Hong Kong film
LifestyleEntertainment

Hong Kong Film Awards 2026 nominations in full: Sons of the Neon Night leads disputed race

Amid controversy over four titles removed from the ballot, Sons of the Neon Night and Back to the Past dominate the award nominations

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Lau Ching-wan in a still from Sons of the Neon Night. The film is leading in nominations for the 44th Hong Kong Film Awards, with 12 nods.
Edmund Lee

It says much about the lack of quality and quantity in today’s Hong Kong cinema that the three films leading the race for honours in the 44th Hong Kong Film Awards (HKFA) are all “urban myth” titles – high-profile projects that wrapped years ago but languished on the shelf until 2025.

This year’s nominations are dominated by high-concept genre filmmaking, with Juno Mak Chun-lung’s hyper-stylised crime thriller Sons of the Neon Night leading the pack with 12 nods, closely followed by the nostalgic sci-fi drama Back to the Past, a sequel to the 2001 TVB drama series A Step into the Past, with 11.
Both films are heavyweights in the technical categories, although the true front runner looks to be Ciao UFO, which counts best film, best director and best screenplay among its 10 nominations. Patrick Leung Pak-kin’s film about three former childhood friends bonded by a shared UFO sighting in 1985 was named best picture by the Hong Kong Film Critics Society last month.
Charlene Choi Cheuk-yin in a still from Ciao UFO. Photo: Golden Scene
Charlene Choi Cheuk-yin in a still from Ciao UFO. Photo: Golden Scene
The current edition of Hong Kong’s most prestigious film event has been shrouded in controversy since the HKFA Association finalised its provisional list of contenders in mid-January, when it became apparent that four prominent local productions had been excluded with no reason given, raising questions about the awards’ integrity.
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The February 10 ceremony announcing this year’s nominations proved a non-event for observers waiting for clarification on the unprecedented development. HKFA chairman Derek Yee Tung-sing addressed the harsh reality of the industry – and the use of artificial intelligence in filmmaking – but made no mention of the disqualified titles.

Another conspicuous absence in this year’s list of nominees is the “Best Asian Chinese language film” category, which used to mainly encompass productions from mainland China and Taiwan. Again, Yee did not acknowledge the scrapping of this field in his speech on Tuesday.

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The winners of this year’s awards will be announced on April 19 at a ceremony at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre in Tsim Sha Tsui.

Louis Koo Tin-lok (left) and Raymond Lam Fung in a still from Back to the Past. Photo: One Cool Film Production
Louis Koo Tin-lok (left) and Raymond Lam Fung in a still from Back to the Past. Photo: One Cool Film Production
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