When Love Comes, Bodyguards lead Taiwan's Golden Horse nominations

When Love Comes received 14 nomination categories including major awards such as Best Feature Film, Best Director and Best Cinematography, while Bodyguards got 9 nominations.

Taiwanese filmmaker Chung Mong-hong’s The Fourth Portrait received 7 major nominations while another Taiwanese project, Essay Liu’s Seven Days in Heaven, got 6 nominations.

Films produced in mainland China or invested by mainland film companies are also seen as strong contenders in the nomination list.  Beijing’s major studio Huayi Brothers Media has two films in the competition: Feng Xiaogang’s disaster drama Aftershock, receiving three nominations; and Tsui Hark’s Detective Dee and the Mystery of Phantom Flame receiving nominations in 5 technical categories.   

In total, 34 films (including shorts) are in the nomination list, among which there are 14 Taiwanese films, 9 films from mainland China and 5 co-produced among Hong Kong, mainland China and Taiwan  There are, however, 6 films in the list that are completely produced in Hong Kong, a sign indicating the convergence of Hong Kong films and mainland Chinese films industries.

Chinese filmmaker Liu Jie and Hong Kong’s Pan Ho-cheung each have two films in the list. Liu Jie’s Judge and Deep in the Clouds are both nominated while Pang’s horror film Dream Home and romantic film Love in a Puff will be competing with each other at the race.

Five films are competing for Golden Horse’s highest honour, Best Feature Film: Essay Liu’s Seven Days in Heaven, Bodyguards and Assassins, Chang’s When Love Comes, Liu Jie’s Judge and Chung Mong-hong’s The Fourth Portrait.

This year organizers of the Golden Horse Awards added Best New Director as a new award category to encourage directors of first feature-length films. Malaysian Ho Wi-ding, Taiwanese Hou Chi-jan, Chinese Li Weiran and Hong Kong’s Jimmy Wan and Derek Tsang will be competing in the new category.

Ethan Juan for gangland drama Monga, Wang Xueqi for Bodyguards and Assassins, Ni Da-hong for Judge and Qin Hao for Spring Fever are nominated for Best Leading Actor award, while Lv Liping for City Monkey, Tang Wei for Crossing Hennessy, Xu Fan for Aftershock and Silvia Chang for Buddha Mountain are Best Leading Actress nominees.

No animation feature films are selected in the category for Best Animation films.

The jury of is composed of 16 film professionals including Hong Kong director Patrick, Tam Ka-Ming, mainland Chinese filmmaker Ning Hao, Zhang Yuan, and California-based film scholar Michael Berry.

The 47th Golden Horse Awards will be presented on Nov 20 in Taiwan’s Taoyuan County.