Veteran actor Patrick Tse Yin, 85, was nominated for the Best Actor of the Hong Kong Film Awards for the first time for his performances in "Time," while his son Nicolas Tse Ting-fung who starred in the crime thriller "Raging Fire" didn't get into the final round.
A list containing five nominees for the 19 categories of the award, including Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor and Actress was released on Wednesday.
Although Covid-19 infections continued to spiral, the organizer confirmed the physical award ceremony would be staged on April 17.
"Raging Fire" directed by Benny Chan Muk-sing, "Anita" by Longmond Leung Lok-man, "Limbo" by Cheang Pou-soi, "Zero to Hero" by Wan Chi-man, and "Drifting" by Jun Li were nominated for the Best Film, while Chan, Leung, and Cheang were nominated for Best Director.
Two other directors – Man Lim-chung and Peter Chan Ho-sun – were also nominated for the Best Director award for their work "Keep Rolling" and "Leap," respectively.
"Limbo," "Zero to Hero," and "Drifting" were nominated for Best Screenplay as well.
Apart from Patrick Tse, the race for Best Actor was joined by Leung Chung-hang, Francis Ng Chun-yu, as well as Gordon Lam Ka-tung, who was nominated twice for his performances in two films "Hand Rolled Cigarette" and "Drifting."
As for the Best Actress award, the nominees included Louise Wong Tan-ni, who portrayed late Cantopop legend Anita Mui Yim-fong in "Anita", Chrissie Chau Sau-na, Cya Liu, Sandra Ng Kwan-yue, and Gong Li.
The list of nominees that successfully proceeded to the final round was announced today by Hong Kong Film Awards Association chairman Derek Yee Tung-sing, Kearen Pang who won Best New Director in 2018 and Nick Cheung Ka-fai who won Best Actor twice.
Yee thanked friends and media for their support despite the severe pandemic development. He even mocked Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor by saying that he wanted to take off his mask and tell the audience a joke, allowing them to see his face. However, he joked he was immediately stopped by the secretary.
Yee expressed gratitude to the assessment panels and pollsters after noting that the voting turnout of the first round of the awards stood at 58.4 percent. He encouraged them to cast their votes more actively in the final round as well.
Yet, Cheung and Pang seemed a bit nervous and stuttered when reading the nominees list. Cheung also apologized if he mispronounced the names.
In May 2020, the 39th award ceremony went online and was live-streamed for about 20 minutes. Later in September, the organizer also announced that the 40th ceremony, originally scheduled in 2021, would be postponed a year and both eligible films in 2020 and 2021 would be assessed for the awards.
