45th Golden Horse Awards held in Taiwan

THE 45th Golden Horse Awards held in Taiwan sees a tough fight between top films from Hong Kong, Taiwan and mainland China.

New names and faces abound in the competition this year with the glam factor provided by China’s Jet Li and Hong Kong’s Louis Koo, who have both received nominations in the best leading actor category.

Hong Kong filmmaker Peter Chan’s period actioner The Warlords is the top contender with 12 leading the field with 12 nominations, including best feature film, best director (for Chan), best leading actor (for Li), and best cinematography.

Taiwanese filmmaker Wei Te-Sheng’s runaway hit Cape No.7 scored 10 nominations, including best feature film, best director (for Wei) and best cinematography. Additionally, Wei himself is in the running for the much-coveted Taiwanese filmmaker of the year award.

China filmmaker Feng Xiaogang’s war epic Assembly secured six nominations including best feature film and best leading actor (for Zhang Hanyu).

Another movie with multiple nominations is Hong Kong arthouse flick Ocean Flame with five nods, including best feature film, best actor (for Liao Fan), best actress (for Monica Mok) and best cinematography.

Big budget films with big names like John Woo’s Red Cliff received four nominations while comedy maestro Stephen Chow’s CJ7 got a nomination for best visual effects and Jay Chou earned a best original film song nomination for Hero Chou in Kevin Chu’s Kung Fu Dunk.

Two Singaporean films also scored one nomination apiece; Royston Tan’s 12 Lotus got a nod for best original film score while Jack Neo’s Money No Enough 2 secured a nomination for best supporting actress (for Lai Meng).