Golden Horse Nominations for 2024

by Nathaniel R

Oops, we're late reporting this one. We love following the Golden Horse Awards which give us insight into both Asian cinema as viewed by Asian cineastes and the Oscar race since the nominees here are often a mix of Oscar submissions from the current Oscar race and the next one (given the different calendar requirements). For instance last year's Golden Horse Awards featured one 2023 Oscar submission: Marry My Dead Body (Thailand) and at least two 2024 Oscar submissions: Abang Adik (Malaysia) and Old Fox (Taiwan). Here are the nominees for the upcoming ceremony (November 23rd, 2024). 

We only spot one Oscar contender in this year's list though (so far - AMPAS hasn't announced the official submission list. So it's possible our list of 86 submissions is slightly incomplete)  and given the release dates of some of the titles this list may be more predictive of next year's Oscar submissions in Best International Feature...

BEST NARRATIVE FEATURE

DEAD TALENTS SOCIETY leads the nominations

• All Shall Be Well (Hong Kong) - 4 nominations
  Ray Yeung's family drama about a widow at the mercy of her late wife's family had a limited release in the US last month and is still making the festival rounds. It won the Teddy Award for LGBTQ+ cinema earlier this year in Berlinale. We hope it's available to rent soon. All of Ray Yeung's previous gay films are male-centered and available to rent or stream in the US like Cut Sleeve Boys (2006), Front Cover (2015) and Twilight's Kiss (2019). 
  
  
• Stranger Eyes (Singapore) - 6 nominations
  A thriller about a man searching for his missing daughter after receiving disturbing videos. It was the first ever film from Singapore to make the Competition lineup in Venice. It also played NYFF last month.
  
  
• Dead Talents Society (Taiwan) - 11 nominations
  A horror comedy about ghosts and urban legends which played at Midnight Madness at TIFF and Fantastic Fest. There's no word yet on a US release but it has Sony backing so it'll eventually happen, at least for streaming. The Golden Horse Awards are not afraid of genre cinema in the way the Academy is. 
  
  
• An Unfinished Film (Singapore) - 3 nominations
  Lou Ye's drama, which premiered at Cannes, is about a film resuming shooting after a ten year shutdown but then lockdown comes.
  
  
• Bel Ami (France/China) - 8 nominations
  This odd sounding film from Chinese director Geng Jun is about a frozen town where middle age citizens search for love. It comes out in Taiwan next month. The memorable poster features two naked men in a sauna.

The mother/daughter drama Yen and Ai-Lee and the caregiver drama Mongrel scored 8 and 7 nominations, respectively, but didn't make the feature list. 

BEST DIRECTOR

• All Shall Be Well - Ray Yeung  (2nd nomination)
• Stranger Eyes - Yeo Siew-hua (3rd nomination, 1 win)
• Dead Talents Society - Hsu John (4th nom, 2 wins)
• An Unfinished Film - Lou Ye (5th nomination)
• Bel Ami - Geng Jun

All the Best Narrative Feature nominees are also up for Best Director.  John Hsu previously won the Best New Director prize for Detention (2020). Yeo Siew-hua, from Singapore, previously won for writing A Land Imagined (2019)

BEST NEW DIRECTOR

• Some Rain Must Fall (China) - Qiu Yang 
• A Journey In Spring (Taiwan) - Peng Tzu-Hui &  Wang Ping-Wen 
• Three Castrated Goats (US) - Ye Xingzu
• Mongrel (Taiwan/Singapore) - Chiang Wei-Liang & You-qiao 
• Love Lies (Hong Kong) Ho Miu-ki 

Some Rain Must Fall about a housewife whose life is spinning out of control premiered at Berlinale. Three Castrated Goats is a satiric drama about the COVID quarantine. Love Lies is about an internet romance scam.

BEST LEADING ACTRESS

• Patra Au (2nd nomination) - All Shall Be Well
• Kimi Hsia  (first nomination) -Yen and Ai-Lee
• Chung Suet-ying  (2nd consecutive nomination) - The Way We Talk
• Sylvia Chang (12th acting nomination, 4 acting wins)- Daughter's Daughter
• Sandra Ng (4th nomination, 1 win) - Love Lies

Two Asian film legends and previous winners Sandra Ng and Sylvia Chang (who is also a writer/director) are up for the prize again. Kimi Hsia is the youngest nominee (29) and follows up last year's nomination for The Lyricist Wannabe with another leading bid for her new mother/daughter drama. Her screen mother is up in Best Supporting Actress. Their film Yen and Ai-Lee, which opened in Taiwan after the Oscar submission deadline for this year, sounds like a meaty actressy drama. It's about a daughter who has been imprisoned for killing her abusive father only to return from prison to find her mom in a new abusive relationship. 

BEST LEADING ACTOR

• Jason King (first nomination) - A Journey in Spring
• Chang Chen (5th nom, 1 win) - The Embers
• Neo Yau (first nomination) - The Way We Talk
• Wanlop Rungkumjad (first nomination)- Mongrel
• Zhang Zhiyong (first nomination) - Bel Ami

POTENTIAL OSCAR SUBMISSION ALERT: Chang Chen (Happy Together, Dune, Red Cliff, Crouching Tiger) is a favorite of TFE's and he's up for this prize yet again. But he's the only familiar face in the lineup as the rest are first time nominees. His film The Embers is directed by Chung Mong Hong (who helmed the 2020 Oscar finalist A Sun) . If it's well received in release next month in Taiwan, it's possible we'll see this one as an Oscar submission next year in Best International Feature. It's about a police officer and a murder case.

A Journey in Spring is about a man who places his wife's remains in a freezer (!). The Way We Talk is about deaf young adults but Neo Yau is the film's only nomination. Wanlop Rungkumjad  (Mongrel) is the first Thai actor ever up for the Golden Horse Best Actor prize.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

• Sandrine Pinna (4th nomination) - Dead Talents Society
• Pets Tseng (first nomination) - Big
• Yang Kuei-Mei (5th nomination, 1 win)- Yen and Ai Lee
• Lu Yi Ching (7th nomination) - Mongrel
• Eugenie Liu (2nd consecutive nomination) - Daughters' Daughter

The oldest nominee Lu Yi Ching, who turned 66 yesterday (happy belated), received her first nomination back in 2001 for What Time Is It There but she has yet to win; She's had better luck with other Asian awards organizations. Eugenie Liu, the youngest nominee at 33, was up for this same prize last year for Taiwan's current Oscar submission Old Fox. Daughter's Daughter is another mother/daughter drama, but this one centers on an IVF journey. 

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

• Lee Kang-Sheng (3rd nomination, 1 win) -Stranger Eyes
• Mo Tzu-Yi (2nd nomination, 1 win) - The Embers
• Sam Tseng (first nomination) - Yen and Ai Lee
• Daniel Hong (first nomination) - Mongrel
• Shih Ming-Shuai (first nomination) - Gatao: Like Father Like Son

Lee Kang-Sheng previously won for Stray Dogs (2013). Mo Tzu-Yi previously won for Dear Tenant (2020). Daniel Hong has two listings as IMDB but it's the same person as Hong Yu-hong.

BEST NEW PERFORMER

• Yu Aier - Some Rain Must Fall
• Feifei Cheng - Big
• Tang Yung-Hsu - Salli
• Lin Cheng-hsun - Intimate Encounter
• Alisia Liang - The Chronicle of Libidoists

Lin Cheng-hsun is the only male actor who made the nominee list this year. He's also a writer, having penned the film Love is a Gun (2023) which was up for a couple prizes at the Golden Horse Awards last year. His new film Intimate Encounter is due for release in Taiwan this December. It's about a man who is a gloomy place in life after a heart transplant.

BEST SCREENPLAY

• Stranger Eyes
• Dead Talents Society
• Bel Ami
• Yen & Ai Lee
• Daughter's Daughter

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

• 18 x2 Beyond Youthful Days - STREAMING ON NETFLIX
• Gatao: Like Father Like Son
• Above the Dust

Beyond Youthful Days is about Taiwanese/Japanese co-production about a man reconnecting with a crush 18 years after their friendship began. Rural Chinese film Above the Dust premiered at Berlinale. Gatao Like Father Like Son is a crime drama set in the drug world. 

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

SHAMBHALA is Nepal's Oscar submission this season

• Bel Ami - Weihua Wang (2nd nomination)
• Yen & Ai-Lee - Kartik Vijay (4th nomination)
• 18 x 2 Beyond Youthful Days - Keisuke Imamura (1st nomination)
• Mongrel - Michaël Capron (1st nomination)
• Shambhala - Aziz Zhambakiyev (1st nomination) 

Interestingly only one of the Best Feature nominees is up for this prize (Bel Ami). Shambhala, shot by Aziz Zhambakiyev is Nepal's Oscar submission this season.  Kartik Vijay, who shot Yen & Ai Lee, also shot this year's Malaysian Oscar submission Abang Adik and was Golden Horse nominated for the same film.

And one final piece of fun trivia: French cinematographer Michaël Capron, nominated for Mongrel, worked in the camera department of Blue is the Warmest Colour which must have been... something! This is his sixth feature as the lead DP.

BEST ART DIRECTION

• Dead Talents Society - Wang Chih Cheng (5th nom, 2 win) and Liang Shuo-Lin (1st nom)
• The Embers - Chao Shih-hao (5th nom, 3 wins)
• Yen & Ai-Lee - Penny Tsai (7th nom, 1 win)
• Mongrel - Yeh Tzu-Wei (2nd nom)
• Above the Dust - Lü Dong (1st nom)

Another craft category with only one Best Feature nominee (Dead Talents Society). If only Oscar voters spread the wealth this much!

Chao Shih-hao, Production Designer on The Embers is a Golden Horse favourite. He's won for Classmates Minus (2020), Godspeed (2013), and Parking (2008) and was also nominated for The Great Buddha (2017) and Soul (2013). Another Golden Horse favourite is Penny Tsai, though her only win comes in the Makeup & Costume Design category (for The Garden of Evening Mists, 2019)

BEST MAKEUP & COSTUME DESIGN

• Dead Talents Society
• The Embers
• Yen & Ai-Lee
• Daughter's Daughter
• Shambhala

It's a pattern. The craft categories tend to just have one Feature nominee!

BEST ACTION CHOREOGRAPHY

• Dead Talents Society
• Gatao: Like Father Like Son
• The Chronicles of Libidoists
• Stuntman

We're dying to know how the sexual gratification drama The Chronicles of Libidoists (pictured left) ended up in action choreography. We hope this means sweaty athletic sex scenes.  The film is also up for Best New Performer for Xiang-hua Liang (who apparently also goes by either Alisia Liang or Shawn Liang when Anglicizing her name). One of her co-stars in the movie, Kang Ren Wu, won Best Actor last year at the Golden Horse Awards for Abang Adik, Malaysia's current Oscar submission. 

BEST FILM EDITING

• All Shall Be Well
• An Unfinished Film
• Bel Ami
• XiXi
• Yen & Ai-Lee

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE

• Stranger Eyes
• Dead Talents Society
• 18 x2 Beyond Youthful Days
• Locust
• Bel Ami

BEST ORIGINAL SONG

• Dead Talents Society "Dead Talents Society"
• The Embers "People from the North"
• 18 x 2 Beyond Youthful Days "Kiokunotabibito"
• Daughter's Daughter "Listen"
• Bel Ami "Bel Ami"

I embedded the only two I could find from Dead Talents Society and 18 x 2 Beyond Youthful Days

BEST SOUND EFFECTS

• Stranger Eyes
• Dead Talents Society
• From Island to Island
• The way We Talk
• Mongrel

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS

• Dead Talents Society
• Big
• Gatao: Like Father Like Son

BEST DOCUMENTARY

YOUTH (HARD TIMES)

• From Island to Island
• After the Snowmelt
• XiXi
• Soul of Soil
• Youth (Hard Times) REVIEWED HERE AT TFE

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE

• no nominees this year!

BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT

• The Burning Night
• 4 Sundays in September
• Side A: A Summer Day
• Caged Dog
• The Fishbowl Girl

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT

• Before Then
• Wild Road
• Colour Ideology Sampling.mov
• Something About Us
• Letters from the Imprisoned: Chow Hang Tung

BEST ANIMATED SHORT

• Minus Plus Multiply
• Essence
• Father Figure
• Bad Kids
• Ruthless Blade

Non Competitive Awards...

OUTSTANDING TAIWANESE FILMMAKER OF THE YEAR - Li Si-jian
 

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD - Lin Wen-chin

Cheng Pei-pei in wuxia classic COME DRINK WITH ME (1966)

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD - Cheng Pei-pei
This Shanghai-born screen legend died in July. Her original claim to fame is the action classic Come Drink With Me (1966). Internationally she's best remembered as the villainous "Jade Fox" in Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon (2000). She's also wonderful in the gay drama Lilting (2014). Her last film was Disney's  Mulan (2020) in which she played "Matchmaker".