Hong Kong singer and director Juno Mak’s Sons of the Neon Night, starring Takeshi Kaneshiro, Sean Lau Ching-wan, Louis Koo Tin-lok, Tony Leung Ka-fai and Gao Yuanyuan, has been selected as Hong Kong’s entry for the 99th Academy Awards.
The film, which was released in Hong Kong last year after years of production, won eight awards at this year’s Hong Kong Film Awards, including Best Supporting Actor for Alex To Duk-wai.
The selection was made by Hong Kong’s committee for the Academy Awards’ International Feature Film category after several rounds of screening.
The film will now compete for the Best International Feature Film award at the 99th Oscars.
Hong Kong has previously had three films make the final five in the category, formerly known as Best Foreign Language Film — Raise the Red Lantern (1991), Farewell My Concubine (1993) and Better Days (2020).
The Grandmaster, directed by Wong Kar-wai and starring Tony Leung Chiu-wai and Zhang Ziyi, also represented Hong Kong at the 86th Academy Awards in 2014. It made the shortlist of nine films but did not advance to the final five.
The film nevertheless received two Oscar nominations that year, for Best Cinematography and Best Costume Design.
