A scene from Self-Immolator, a mockumentary segment in Ten Years.

Ten Years earns best picture nod in Hong Kong Film Awards after Global Times panned it

Five-part film imagining what Hong Kong will be like in 2025 has been a hit with local audiences but was called too pessimistic by Chinese newspaper; other best picture nominees are Ip Man 3, Taking of Tiger Mountain, Port of Call and Little Big Master

Edmund Lee

Published: 4:00pm, 29 Jan 2016

Why you can trust SCMP

Ten Years , the independent film Chinese newspaper Global Times called absurd and too pessimistic for its bold depictions of Hong Kong’s social and political landscape in 2025, is one of five best picture nominees in the Hong Kong Film Awards, announced a press conference on Friday.

READ MORE: Ten Years: Hong Kong film that beat Star Wars at the box office, and the directors behind it

The omnibus production has so far taken in more than HK$4 million at the local box office. The Global Times editorial has played no small part in stirring interest among the initially unconcerned population. Although the film has stopped screening at Broadway Cinematheque, the Yau Ma Tei cinema that first showed it, Ten Years has since expanded to cinemas in Tai Koo, Kowloon Bay, Mong Kok, Tseung Kwan O and Ma On Shan.

The other best picture nominees are the poignant education drama Little Big Master , Tsui Hark’s China-produced The Taking of Tiger Mountain , the Donnie Yen Ji-dan vehicle Ip Man 3 , and Philip Yung’s critically acclaimed crime drama Port of Call .

The winners will be announced at a ceremony on the evening of April 3.