[2026.01.15] THE HONG KONG FILM AWARDS ELIGIBLITY FOR 4 FILMS "MYSTERIOUSLY DISAPPEAR"

Fan Bingbing would not compete for Best Actress with MOTHER BHUMI

Without competition from Fan Bingbing, the Best Actress odds for Zhang Ziyi just increase

Anthony Wong says regarding the "mysterious disappearance" of his films, "Nothing to do with me"
courtesy of on.cc

Manfred Wong once praised the Anthony Wong and George Au starred VALLEY OF THE SHADOW OF DEATH and Louis Koo and Neo Yau's VITAL SIGNS

The Anthony Wong starred FITCH AND MIDLAND and Fan Bingbing's "Golden Horse Award Best Actress" winning MOTHER BHUMI are ineligible for the 44th Hong Kong Film Awards
courtesy of mingpao.com

The 44th Hong Kong Film Awards two days ago announced the 2025 Hong Kong film releases and listed the eligibility qualification. "Any Hong Kong film...with a first commercial theatrical release in Hong Kong between 1 January to 31 December 2025 for at least 5 shows in conventional film screening theatres with 50 seats or above in 7 consecutive days, will be automatically considered as participating in the 44th Hong Kong Film Awards."

Every year the Hong Kong Film Awards would release a list of films that are eligible to participate in the Hong Kong Film Awards for "Hong Kong Film Awards voters" and the "First Round Professional Jury" to vote for the nominations in each category. This year's list was released the day before yesterday and immediately a hot debate broke out on the Internet, because the four films that were released last year and were said to be eligible, the Anthony Wong Chau Sun starred VALLEY OF THE SHAODW OF DEATH (BUT SEH JI JUI) and FITCH AND MIDLAND (GUM TIN YING GOI HUNG GO HING), Louis Koo Tin Lok and Neo Yau Hawk Sau's VITAL SIGNS (SHOOK YUEN TOH JUNG), the Fan Bingbing Golden Horse Best Actress award winning MOTHER BHUMI have "mysteriously disappeared", which has caused great controversy in the industry!

Reportedly during the internal meeting of the Hong Kong Film Awards in October last year, the reference list of released films circulated still included VALLEY and "VITAL. Yet now they have been withdrawn. Some said that even the internet meeting has made no mention of removing the related films. As the matter grew curious, some online speculated that the move was politically related. Some industry insiders pointed out that the Hong Kong Film Awards ceremony mainly relies on government funds for operation and has faced a lot of pressure in recent years.

Regarding the "mysterious disappearance" of his two films, Wong Chau Sun has expressed to the media, "It's none of my business! Do whatever you like! I'm an artist, not an entertainer. Perhaps if you want to see my films in the future, you will have to go abroad to see it." P1X3L member George Au Ching Ho made his film debut in VALLEY OF THE SHADOW OF DEATH and was considered a likely nominee for Hong Kong Film Awards Best New Performer. He said earlier in an interview that he felt certain about a nomination. Now the film has lost its eligibility, Au Chun Ho two nights ago posted a photo of the Arnold Schwarzenegger starred THE TERMINATOR with the classic line "I'll be back." Some online said that the post expressed his mood and encouraged himself to keep trying.

The Hong Kong Film Awards vice president Manfred Wong (Man Jun) on the 25th last year on his personal YouTube channel "Man's Talk" with the subject "50 Hong Kong films how many have you see at the theater? The most memorable and not even heard off movies review in one breath!". He said, "In the episode let's review the 2025 Hong Kong film release, because in a few days the Hong Kong Film Awards booklet lists would confirm them. I have been doing my homework, so let's talk about how many films were released from January to December 31st 2025."

Man Jun from January counted to December. When he got to VALLEY OF THE SHADOW OF DEATH, he strongly praised lead actor Wong Chau Sun. "Stepping into June, one had great word of mouth. It was called VALLEY OF THE SHADOW OF DEATH. I believe Wong Chau Sun would be a Best Actor nominee favorite, whether he would win or not let's talk about that later." He said that the May release, the Chuek Wan Chi directed, Koo Tin Lok, Yau Hawk Sau, Angela Yuen Lai Lam starred VITAL SIGNS was above quality and worth of appreciation. Yesterday his YouTube channel search index was missing that episode, but some have already made a copy and it could be found online with the subject.

Regarding the disqualification of the four movies, although a large number of people online have asked the Hong Kong Film Awards to respond, and some have blasted the Hong Kong Film Awards for lacking credibility, the Hong Kong Film Awards have yet to respond. Hong Kong Film Awards Association vice president Man Jun already declined to be interviewed as soon as he picked up the photo. "I won't pick up the phone again, thank you." After that, he hung up in a hurry.

Disappeared from the mainland film industry in recent years, Fan Bingbing last year won the Taiwan Golden Horse Award Best Actress with the Malaysian director Chong Keat Aun's film MOTHER BHUMI. The film specifically launched more than 5 preview screenings in Hong Kong last year, hoping for the Hong Kong Film Awards eligibility. Unfortunately now it has come up empty, the biggest beneficiary obviously would be the fellow Best Actress favorite, SHE'S GOT NO NAME's Zhang Ziyi. With one less strong rival, the film also made multiple stars eligible, Yang Mi and Zhao Liying for Supporting Actress, Jackson Yee, Li Xian for Supporting Actor. In the battle for the actress, in addition to Zhang Ziyi, PEG O MY HEART (SHOOK MUNG)'s Fala Chen and MY FIRST OF MAY (MO MING JI)'s Natalie Hsu (Hui Yan Yi) are both online favorites to be nominated.

In addition to SHE'S, the movie SONS OF THE NEON NIGHT (FUNG LUM FOR SHAN) also made 4 leads Takeshi Kaneshiro (Gum Sing Mo), Sean Lau Ching Wan, Tony Leung Ka Fai, and Louis Koo Tin Lok eligible for Best Actor, among them Gum Sing Mo was regarded as the favorite. Leung Ka Fai has also attracted the online attention with THE SAHODW'S EDGE (BO FUNG JUI YING), along with GOLDEN BOY (GUM TUNG)'s Louis Cheung Kai Chung, BACK TO THE PAST (CHUM CHUN GEI)'s Raymond Lam Fung and PEG O' MY HEART (SHOOK MUNG)'s Nick Cheung Ka Fai were regarded online as the choices for the Best Actor nominations.

Actress Shu Qi directed the film "GIRL" for the first time and was successfully included in the first round of voting this year, which made many wonder about the definition of "Hong Kong film". Actually the definition of "Hong Kong film" at the Hong Kong Film Awards has been relatively loose, as the movie would only have to meet two of the three conditions: "the director is a Hong Kong resident with a Hong Kong permanent resident identity card", "the production company is a legally registered company in Hong Kong" and "at least six work category creators must be Hong Kong residents with permanent resident identity cards". Therefore with a Hong Kong identity card, Shu Qi should meet the conditions in paragraphs 1 and 3 to successfully qualify.

Shu Qi last year with GIRL won the Best Director Award at the Busan International Film Festival. The industry has predicted that she has a good chance of being nominated for "Best Director" and "New Director". This year's competition for "Best Director" would be quite fierce, as big name directors like Tsui Hark, Andrew Lau Wai Keung and Peter Chan Ho Sun would be eligible. The director of RIGOR MORTIS (GEUNG SI), Juno Mak Chun Lung would be eligible for the "New Director" with SONS OF THE NEON NIGHT (FUNG LUM FOR SHAN) this year, which also caused confusion online. However according to the provisions of the Hong Kong Film Awards, the director's first and second works would be eligible for the award, so Mak Junlong would also qualify.

This year's Hong Kong Film Awards are already at the starting line, and the mainland actor Sean Xiao starred 2025 Spring Festival movie "THE LEGEND OF THE CONDOR HEROS: THE GALLANTS" has been found to be eligible. If nominated he would be the youngest Best Actor nominee this year. Tsui Hark directed the film that has grossed 6.78 billion yuan (about HK$7.58 million), the highest box office of martial arts films in Chinese film history. Reportedly when Sean Xiao took the role, he joined the team a few months in advance for martial arts, horseback riding, archery and Mongolian language training. Fortunately the performance was finally recognized by the audience and the media.

The Wong Yau Nam starred movie CIAO UFO (JOI GEIN UFO) has been completed for more than 7 years. Recently it finally "saw the light of day", arranging preview screenings for the Hong Kong Film Awards eligibility. The film company even made many actors eligible for awards, for Best Supporting Actor alone 8 people's names including Ng Siu Hin, Michael Ning (Bak Ji), Alex To Tak Wai and Tommy Chu Pak Hong appeared! It was worth noting that lead actor Yau Nam gave up the Best Actor eligibility to compete for Supporting Actor; while Lo Hoi Pang with his cameo appearance performed brilliantly, but did not appear in the eligibility list and left many online feeling bad for him.

The film producer Amy Chin Siu Wai responded generously: "In Yau Nam's case, he is Hong Kong Awards eligible for supporting actor or leading actor, just like PAPA's (Jo Koo) Kok Cho Lam was eligible and won the Best Supporting Actor last year . After discussions we feel Yau Nam would have better chances in the supporting actor category. Speaking of Lo Hoi Pang, Chin Siu Wai said frankly, "He made a cameo for two days. Usually the film company wouldn't make a big fuss about cameos, but later someone reminded the team. By the time we wanted to add Brother Pang's name, the Hong Kong Film Awards deadline has passed and the eligibility booklet has been printed. I hereby apologize to Brother Pang and say sorry."

The 35-year-old Fish Liew Chi Yu has been developing in Hong Kong for many years and has always been recognized by the outside world for her good acting skills. In 2022 she won the Hong Kong Film Award for "Best Supporting Actress" for her performance in the movie ANITA. Recently many of her films including PAVANT FOR AN INFANT, THE REMNANT (NGOK YUN DONG DOH), REMEMBER YESTERDAY (CHUN GAING YUNG YAU) and GIRLFRIENDS (NUI HAI BUT PING FAN) have taken the initiative to "take action" for her and made her eligibility for this year's Hong Kong Film Awards This would even be her first time being eligible for Best Actress.

At present the only concern is the clichéd issue of "thinning vote sources". The voter would have too many choices with Liew Chi Yu at the same time, which would hinder this "beach head operation" at any minutes. Among the many films she has starred in, the most noteworthy conceivably would be PAVANT FOR AN INFANT. In the film Liew Chi Yu played an abandoned baby hatch facility worker in Malaysia, and had a lot of emotional interaction with the unmarried and pregnant Hui Yan Yi. The film have appeared at the Tokyo International Film Festival and the 49th Hong Kong International Film Festival and caught a lot of outside attention.