Hong Kong movie Drifting (濁水漂流) has received the most nominations — 12 — at next month’s 58th Golden Horse Awards, when the organizers unveiled the list of nominees for the leading awards in the Chinese-speaking world on Tuesday.
Drifting, based on a real-life incident that involved homeless people in Hong Kong, has been nominated in the Best Narrative Feature category, while director Jun Li (李駿碩) is competing in the categories of Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay, the Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival Executive Committee told a news conference in Taipei.
Four of the film’s cast members have also been nominated — Francis Ng (吳鎮宇) for Best Leading Actor, Tse Kwan-ho (謝君豪) and Will Or (柯煒林) for Best Supporting Actor, and Loletta Lee (李麗珍) for Best Supporting Actress.
The film is also nominated for the Best Cinematography, Best Makeup and Costume Design, Best Film Editing and Best Original Film Score awards.
A song of the same title is shortlisted for the Best Original Film Song award.
Three other movies received 11 nominations — The Soul (緝魂), The Falls (瀑布) and Till We Meet Again (月老), all of which were made in Taiwan.
The three films, along with American Girl (美國女孩), are the four other contenders for the Best Narrative Feature award.
In addition to Li, nominees for the Best Director award are Cheng Wei-hao (程偉豪) for The Soul, Chung Mong-hong (鍾孟宏) for The Falls, Macau-born Clara Law (羅卓瑤) for Drifting Petals (花果飄零), and Malaysian director Ho Wi-ding (何蔚庭) and his wife, Hu Chih-hsin (胡至欣), who codirected Terrorizers (青春弒戀).
Scenic art consultant Frank Chen (陳新發), who has been in the business of creating sets for more than three decades, was named Outstanding Taiwanese Filmmaker of the Year at Tuesday’s news conference.
There are to be two Lifetime Achievement Award recipients this year — cinematographer Lin Tsan-ting (林贊庭) and director Tsai Yang-ming (蔡揚名), the committee announced earlier.
A total of 573 entries were submitted to the Golden Horse Awards this year, up from last year’s 465, with a new category — Best Documentary Short Film — added this year.
However, with only two entries, the jury decided not to hand out the Best Animated Feature award this year, committee chief executive Wen Tien-hsiang (聞天祥) said.
The awards ceremony is to take place at the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall in Taipei on Nov. 27.
All the nominated movies are to be screened during the Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival from Nov. 11 to 28, along with a wide range of new and classic movies.
The festival is to open with Terrorizers, which was filmed in Taiwan, and close with Keep on Walking: The Man and His Higher Course (行影.不離), a documentary about legendary director Lee Hsing (李行), who passed away at 91 in August.
This year’s festival is to pay tribute to Japanese director Shinji Somai, who died in 2001, by showing seven of his films, the committee said.
CHANGING LANDSCAPE: Many of the part-time programs for educators were no longer needed, as many teachers obtain a graduate degree before joining the workforce, experts said Taiwanese universities this year canceled 86 programs, Ministry of Education data showed, with educators attributing the closures to the nation’s low birthrate as well as shifting trends. Fifty-three of the shuttered programs were part-time postgraduate degree programs, about 62 percent of the total, the most in the past five years, the data showed. National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) discontinued the most part-time master’s programs, at 16: chemistry, life science, earth science, physics, fine arts, music, special education, health promotion and health education, educational psychology and counseling, education, design, Chinese as a second language, library and information sciences, mechatronics engineering, history, physical education
The Chinese military has boosted its capability to fight at a high tempo using the element of surprise and new technology, the Ministry of National Defense said in the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) published on Monday last week. The ministry highlighted Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) developments showing significant changes in Beijing’s strategy for war on Taiwan. The PLA has made significant headway in building capabilities for all-weather, multi-domain intelligence, surveillance, operational control and a joint air-sea blockade against Taiwan’s lines of communication, it said. The PLA has also improved its capabilities in direct amphibious assault operations aimed at seizing strategically important beaches,
New Taipei City prosecutors have indicted a cram school teacher in Sinjhuang District (新莊) for allegedly soliciting sexual acts from female students under the age of 18 three times in exchange for cash payments. The man, surnamed Su (蘇), committed two offenses in 2023 and one last year, the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said. The office in recent days indicted Su for contraventions of the Child and Youth Sexual Exploitation Prevention Act (兒童及少年性剝削防制條例), which prohibits "engaging in sexual intercourse or lewd acts with a minor over the age of 16, but under the age of 18 in exchange for
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty