Taiwanese films lead Golden Horse Awards winners

When Love Comes by Chang Tso-chi, won Best Picture, Best Cinematography and Best Art Direction. Taiwan’s Chung Mong-hong won himself a best director honour for his second movie The Fourth Portrait, about a forlorn child using paintings to express his inner world. The film also won the Best Supporting Actress, Outstanding Taiwanese Film of the Year and FIPRESCI award.

Gangland drama Monga took home Best Actor, Best Sound Effects; and the film’s director Doze Niu and producer Lee Lieh were both given the award of Outstanding Taiwanese Filmmaker prize.

The Golden Horse Awards have been generally seen as the largest film awards in the in the Chinese-speaking world and the highest honor for Chinese-language films. Established in 1964, the awards annually give out around 20 award categories including many technical awards.

Mainland Chinese films and Hong Kong films this year did not stand out as much as last year. Four mainland Chinese films won five award categories out of the 21 award categories this year, compared with 10 award categories last year. Two Hong Kong-China co-production films were given technical awards - Bodyguards and Assassins and Ip Man 2. The rest of the Hong Kong or mainland films all went home empty-handed. Bodyguards and Assassins was nominated for nine categories but only won Best Make-up and Costume Design and the film’s delegates were among the most disappointed attendee of the awarding ceremony.

The best actor award went to Ethan Juan for gangland action drama Monga, in which he portrayed a traitor of a gang who suffered from moral self-bashing betraying his best friends. The Best Actress title went to mainland Chinese actress Lv Liping who played a worrying mother and conflicted everyday with her Parkour-loving son in Beijing-set contemporary drama City Monkey.

The Best Supporting Actress title went to another mainland Chinese actress Hao Lei for The Fourth Portrait, while Best Supporting Actor honor went to Wu Peng-fon for Taiwanese film Seven Days in Heaven.

Meanwhile, Golden Horse’s project market — Film & TV Film Project Promotion (FTPP) was also dominated by Taiwanese projects. The project market’s top prize of $33,000 cash reward went to The Soul of Bread, a romance drama set in a small town bakery, to be co-directed by Sean Kao and Lin Chun-yang and produced by Wolf Chen of Double Edge Entertainment.

Rendy Hou’s When A Wolf Falls In Love With A Sheep, Tom Lin’s Starry Starry Night, Yang Li-chou’s documentary Red Box, Ho Ping’s musical Westside Story and Arvin Chen’s Nanjing East Road, were each given prizes offered by Taiwan-based post-production companies.

As for the festival’s two international awards, FIPRESCI Award went to Taiwanese Chung Mong-hong’s The Fourth Portrait while NETPAC award went to Thai filmmaker Anocha Suwichakornpong’s Mundane History.

Award winners:

Best Feature Film
When Love Comes — Chang Tso Chi Film Studio

Best Director
Chung Mong-Hong - The Fourth Portrait

Best New Director
Ho Wi-Ding — Pinoy Sunday

Best Leading Actor
Ethan Juan — Monga

Best Leading Actress
Lv Li-Ping — City Monkey

Best Supporting Actor
Wu Peng-Fon — Seven Days in Heaven

Best Supporting Actress
Hao Lei — The Fourth Portrait

Best New Performer
Lee Chien-Na — Juliets

Best Original Screenplay
Gao Shan, Liu Jie — JUDGE

Best Screenplay Adaptation
Essay Liu — Seven Days in Heaven

Best Cinematography
Chang Chan — When Love Comes

Best Visual Effects
Nan Xiang-Yu — Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame

Best Art Direction
Peng Wei-Min — When Love Comes

Best Makeup & Costume Design
Dora Ng — Bodyguards and Assassins

Best Action Choreography
Sammo Hung — IP MAN 2

Best Film Editing
Florence Bresson, Robin Weng, Zeng Jian — SPRING FEVER

Best Sound Effects
Tu Duu-Chih — MONGA

Best Original Film Score
Peyman YAZDANIAN — SPRING FEVER

Best Original Film Song
Taipei Exchanges

Best Documentary
Hip-Hop Storm — Professor Jean May Tsiang Foundation (CNEX)

Best Short Film
Magabahai — Patrick Tu

Outstanding Taiwanese Film of the Year
The Fourth Portrait — 3 NG Film, Cream Production

Outstanding Taiwanese Filmmaker of the Year
Lee Lieh
Niu Chen-Zer

Lifetime Achievement Award
Hsu Li-Kong
Special Contribution Award
Sun Yueh

FIPRESCI Award - The Fourth Portrait
NETPAC Award - Mundane History