Oscar hopeful "The Falls" wins at the Golden Horse Awards
Monday, November 29, 2021 at 4:00PM
NATHANIEL R in Ang Lee, Chang Chen, Chung Mong-hong, Golden Horse Awards, Liu Kuan-ting, Roy Chiu, The Falls, The Soul, Wang Yu-xuan

by Nathaniel R

Alyssia Chia and Gingle Wang arrive for "The Falls" -- will we also see them at the Oscars?

Chung Mong-hong's mother/daughter drama The Falls, which revolves around COVID-19 and mental illness, and is Taiwan's submission to the Oscars this year took home the top prize at the 58th annual Golden Horse Awards. But it was no sweeper. Chung Mong-hong, who had previously dominated the Golden Horse Awards just two seasons ago with A Sun (which went on to make Oscar's international finalist list), lost best director. Overall the wealth was spread with all of the Best Film nominees taking home statues. Chang Chen's latest star vehicle The Soul (streaming on Netflix) picked up four of them, tying The Falls haul. 

The complete list of winners and gifs and photos from the event are after the jump...

Ang Lee, Taiwan's most famous auteur, is the chairman of the festival.winners to the front! Most of these photos are from the Instagram account of the Golden Horse Film Festival.

BEST FEATURE FILM

American Girl took home the most prizes if you include the special awards that aren't voted on by the same group (FIPRESCI and Audience Award). Though it's about an American teenager moving back to Taiwan, and from an Taiwanese-American director (Feng-I Fiona Roan) it has no US distribution. Uff.

BEST DIRECTOR


Curiously Clara Law picked up Best Director though that was her film's sole nomination! The art film is about a filmmaker and a piano student who meet in Australia before an uncertain future in Hong Kong. It's said to combine "memoir, fiction, travelogue, history, and personal biography". Imagine the chaos if a director only nominated in that category ever won at the Oscars!  

BEST NEW DIRECTOR


Both directing prizes went to women this year.

BEST ACTRESS

Alyssia Chia wins as the mother in The Falls who is dealing with mental illness during COVID quarantine. Major kudos to the Golden Horse Awards for rejecting category fraud and actually understanding dual lead same gender dramas.

BEST ACTOR


You know Chang Chen of course since he starred in numerous Asian classics like Three Times, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Happy Together. The star, who just turned 45 this month, is having quite a year. He just won his first Golden Horse and also had a key role ("Dr Yueh") in Denis Villeneuve's international hit Dune.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

22 year-old Wang Yu-Xuan wins defeating a crowd of veterans for a drama which revolves around a young man who tragically begins shooting into a crowd on his 18th birthday. We have yet to read anything about her role in the film but she said in her acceptance speech (rough translation we assume):

“I grew up watching you perform... and your performance is my nourishment.” 

Her film debut was in White Lies, Black Lies  (2015) for the same director (Lou Yi-an) as her current film.

 

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

 

33 year old star Liu Kuan-ting (A Sun) continues his hot streak, winning his second Best Supporting Actor prize in just three years for the crime thriller Treat or Trick (which involves bad cops and a diamond theft). Inbetween his 2019 and 2021 Supporting wins he had a stellar 2020 as well, nominated for lead actor for the romantic comedy My Missing Valentine, last year's winner for Best Feature, and co-starring in the Audience Award winner Classmates Minus, as well as in the ensemble of the superhero flick A Choo (streaming on Netflix). How long can he keep up this hot streak? 

BEST NEW PERFORMER


Caitlin Fang is the female lead in American Girl which is about a Taiwanese-American teenager.

 

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY


Though he lost Best Director this go around Chung Mong-hong adds a third category to his list of Golden Horse Award wins with Best Original Screenplay. He's previously won in Cinematography (The Great Buddha+) and twice in Directing (A Sun, The Fourth Portrait).

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

Drifting is a social drama about a homeless ex-con.

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

BEST ART DIRECTION

BEST MAKEUP AND COSTUME DESIGN


Fantasy film Til We Meet Again takes this one.

BEST FILM EDITING 

 

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS 

 

BEST ACTION CHOREOGRAPHY

There are a lot of movies called Nezha so we don't actually know which one this is.

BEST SOUND EFFECTS

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE

BEST ORIGINAL SONG

 

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

 

DOCUMENTARY SHORT

 

LIVE ACTION SHORT

 

ANIMATED SHORT

 

 

 

 

 

AUDIENCE CHOICE

 

 

FIPRESCI PRIZE

 

 

OUTSTANDING TAIWANESE FILMMAKER


LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD  

 

Oh no Roy Chiu can't find his acceptance speech... oh wait.

And of course we'd be remiss if we didn't share this gif of Bai Ling arriving since she always knows how to get cameras flashing...

Article originally appeared on The Film Experience (http://thefilmexperience.net/).
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