Chinese director Diao Yinan’s (刁亦男) thriller Black Coal, Thin Ice leads the nominations for the annual Golden Horse Awards organizers said yesterday.
The film tells the story of a washed-up ex-cop investigating a series of grisly murders. It scored eight nominations, including best film, best director, best actor and best actress. The movie already won the Berlin Festival’s Golden Bear award in February.
Chinese director Lou Ye’s (婁燁) Blind Massage — about visually impaired people finding work as massage therapists — follows closely with seven nominations, including best film and best director. It has some blind actors.
Also nominated for best director are Chinese director Wang Xiaoshuai’s (王小帥) Red Amnesia as well as Myanmar-born, Taiwan-based Midi Z’s (趙德胤) Ice Poison and Ann Hui’s (許鞍華) The Golden Era from Hong Kong. Hui last won the directing award in 2011.
Hui’s film is based on the real-life story of a famed Chinese woman writer in the early 20th century. It is up for best film along with Taiwan’s baseball movie Kano and A Fool — the directorial debut by veteran Chinese actor Chen Jianbin (陳建斌), who is vying for both best new director and best actor.
Chen will face-off against compatriot Liao Fan (廖凡) (Black Coal, Thin Ice) for the top acting honor, as well as Hong Kong’s Sean Lau (劉青雲) (The White Storm), Taiwanese Chang Chen (張震) (Brotherhood of Blades) and Japanese actor Masatoshi Nagase for his role as a baseball coach in Kano.
Kano is the Taiwanese film which won the most nominations this year with six, including for best new director.
In the leading actress category, China’s Gong Li (鞏俐) (Coming Home) faces Tang Wei (湯唯) (The Golden Era) and Zhao Wei (趙薇) (Dearest) Taiwan’s Gwei Lun-mei (桂綸鎂) (Black Coal, Thin Ice) and Chen Shiang-chyi (陳湘琪) (Exit).
The winners are to be announced at a Nov. 22 ceremony in Taipei.
RSS