Johnnie To'sElection leads the nominations for this year's Golden Horse awards with11 nods, followed by Stephen Chow's Kung-Fu Hustle with 10 nominationsand Hou Hsiao-hsien's Three Times with nine.

All three films have beennominated for best feature and best director along with Tsai Ming-liang's TheWayward Cloud. Feng Xiaogang's A World WithoutThieves was also nominated for best feature but didn't make it to the finalfour best director nods.

Election and Three Times went head-to-head incompetition at the Cannes film festival earlier this year.

Asian-American MichelleKrusiec picked up a surprise nomination for best actress in Alice Wu's US production SavingFace. In a nod of respect to Hong Kong commercialcinema, action star Aaron Kwok and comedienne Miriam Yeung are also nominatedfor films in their respective genres.

The most surprising omissionfrom the list is Stanley Kwan's Everlasting Regret which screened incompetition at Venice this year. Coincidentally, two other films producedby Jackie Chan - Stanley Tong's The Myth and Stephen Fung's House OfFury - suffered the same fate. Peter Chan's Venice-closer Perhaps Lovewas not submitted for consideration.

In the best short filmcategory, He Weiting's Respire and Avan Lin's Small Station,winners of prizes at Cannes and Venice respectively, were also overlooked in a competitivecategory that includes Wong Kar-wai's The Hand from omnibus Eros. Despite a strong year for Taiwan documentaries, only two films compete in thatcategory.

This year's jury is headedby film director Richard Chen Yao-chi and also includes composer Gerald Shih,critic Lao Chia-hua, director Peter Yung, actress Chen Chiu-yen,cinematographer Chen Huai-en, professor Tseng Hsi-pa, producer Huang Liming andcritic/programmer Wen Tien-hsiang.

The awards ceremony will beheld on November 13 in the north-eastern city of Keelung, close to Taipei.

42nd GOLDEN HORSE AWARDS NOMINEES:

Best Feature Film:
Election (dir. Johnnie To)
Kung Fu Hustle (dir. Stephen Chow)
Three Times (dir. Hou Hsiao-hsien)
The Wayward Cloud (dir. Tsai Ming-liang)
A World Without Thieves (dir. Feng Xiaogang)

Best Director:
Stephen Chow (Kung Fu Hustle)
Hou Hsiao-hsien (Three Times)
Johnnie To (Election)
Tsai Ming-liang (The Wayward Cloud)

Best Leading Actor:
Chang Chen (Three Times)
Chen Kun (West Lake Moment)
Aaron Kwok (Divergence)
Tony Leung Ka-fai (Election)

Best Leading Actress:
Cheng Shiang-chyi (The WaywardCloud)
Michelle Krusiec (Saving Face)
Shu Qi (Three Times)
Miriam Yeung (Drink Drank Drunk)

Best Supporting Actor:
Alex Fong (Drink Drank Drunk)
Anthony Wong (Initial D)
Wong Tin-lam (Election)
Yuen Wah (Kung Fu Hustle)

Best Supporting Actress:
Hsiao Shu-shen (Love'sLone Flower)
Lu Yi-ching (Blue Cha-Cha)
Teresa Mo (2 Young)
Yuen Qiu (Kung Fu Hustle)

Best New Performer:
Jay Chou (Initial D)
Megan Lai (How's Life')
Isabella Leong (Bug Me Not!)
Race Wong (Abnormal Beauty)

Best Original Screenplay:
Beyond Our Ken (Pang Ho-cheung & Wong Wing-sze)
Election (Yau Nai-hoi & Yip Tin-shing)
Three Times (Chu Tien-wen, Hou Hsiao-hsien)
West Lake Moment (Yim Ho)

Best Screenplay Adaption:
Initial D (Felix Chong)
Seven Swords (Tsui Hark, Cheung Chi-sing & Chun Tin-nam)
A World Without Thieves (Feng Xiaogang, Wang Gang & Lin Lisheng)

Best Cinematography:
Divergence (Anthony Pun)
Election (Cheng Siu-keung)
Seven Swords (Venus Keung)
Three Times (Mark Lee)

Best Visual Effects:
Initial D (Victor Wong, Eddy Wong & Bryan Cheung)
Kung Fu Hustle (Frankie Chung, Don Ma, Tam Kai-kwan, Franco Hung)
Seven Swords (Peter Webb)
The Shoe Fairy (Yang Han-chang & Lin Chih-chao)

Best Art Direction:
Kung Fu Hustle (Oliver Wong)
Seven Swords (Eddy Wong)
The Shoe Fairy (Wang Yi-fei)
Three Times (Hwarn Wern-ying & Wang Chih-cheng)

Best Make-up & Costume Design:
Election (Stanley Cheung)
Kung Fu Hustle (Shirley Chan)
Seven Swords (Poon Wing-yan)
Three Times (Hwarn Wern-ying, Liao Su-chen, Ouyang Ching & WangKuan-yi)

Best Action Choreography:
Election (Wong Chi-wai)
Kung Fu Hustle (Yuen Wo-ping)
Seven Swords (Lau Kar-leung, Stephen Tung, Xiong Xinxin)
A World Without Thieves (Benz Kong)

Best Original Film Score:
Blue Cha-Cha (Cin Cin Lee)
Divergence (Anthony Chue)
Election (Lo Ta-yu)
The Heirloom (Jeffrey Cheng)

Best Original Film Song:
Election (Lin Xi & Lo Tayu)
Falling...in Love (Ascent Chen)
Initial D (Fang Wenshan & Jay Chou)
Jump! Boys (James Ho)

Best Film Editing:
Divergence (Yau Chu-wai)
Kung Fu Hustle (Angie Lam)
Three Times (Liao Ching-song & Hsiao Ru-kuan)
A World Without Thieves (Liu Miaomiao)

Best Sound Effects:
Election (May Mok & Charlie Lo)
Kung Fu Hustle (Steven Ticknor, Steve Burgess, Rob Mackenzie &Paul Pirola)
Seven Swords (Steve Burgess)
Initial D (Kinson Tsang)

Best Documentary:
Jump! Boys (dir: Lin Yu-hsien)
Taiwan Black Movies (dir: Rendy Hou)

Best Short Film:
Eros: The Hand (dir. Wong Kar-wai)
How's Life (dir. YaoChih-wei)
The Pain of Others (dir. Tom Lin)

Best Animation:
Dragon Blade (dir. AntonySzeto)
Fire Ball (dir. Wang Toon)
Ven. Yin Shun (dir. Da'ai Television)