Golden Horse Awards 2025

by Nathaniel R

Oscar winner Ang Lee (Brokeback Mountain) with Golden Horse Best Director Jun Li (Queerpanorama). They both won Best Director prizes for gay dramas!

I don't know why I torture myself covering the Golden Horse Awards each year as there are so many films I'm never able to see (or forget about by the time they do become available stateside). Neverthless the Taiwanese awards are among my favourite races to follow in international cinema. I hope to catch up with four of the winners in particular: A Foggy Tale, Queerpanorama, Mother Bhumi, and Lucky Lu. The ceremony was held on November 22nd. Here are the nominations and wins for their 62nd annual edition with some commentary and some random trivia including a Chappel Roan connection (How very random!)...

Eight of the big players at the 62nd Annual Golden Horse Awards

BEST FILM

• ★ A Foggy Tale (11 nominations | 4 wins)
  Chen Yu-hsun's family adventure focuses on a young girl on a perilous journey. It led the nominations with 11 and won four categories. In Taiwanese Hokkien.
• Left-Handed Girl - (8 nominations | 1 win)
  Taiwan's Oscar submission is about a mother and her two daughters opening a night market stall in Taipei. This is the solo directorial debut of frequent Sean Baker collaborator Shih-ching Tsou. In Mandarin. It drops on Netflix on November 28th. 
• Mother Bhumi -(8 nominations | 3 wins) 
  Fan Bingbing headlines this supernatural drama about a widow in a farming community on the border of Malaysia and Thailand. In Malay, Thai, and Mandarin.
• Queerpanorama (5 nominations | 1 win)
  A gay drama from Hong Kong about a man impersonating his lovers, as if he can never be himself. In Mandarin, Persian, Thai, and English. The trailer is later in this post.
• The Waves Will Carry Us (5 nominations | 1 win)
  A drama about a man returning to Malaysia after years abroad. In Mandarin, Malay, and Cantonese

JUST MISSED THE LIST? While it didn't make the "Best Feature" list, one assumes given its nomination tally and wins that Lucky Lu  (5 nods | 3 wins) was very close. Other possibilties for just a few votes shy were Before the Bright Day  (3 nods), Family Matters (7 nods | 1 win), and Deep Quiet Room (7 nods) since they pop up in major categories...

BEST DIRECTOR

Stats are from directing only...

• Tsao Shih-han (first nomination) - Before the Bright Day
• Chen Yu-hsun (3rd nom, 1 win) - A Foggy Tale
• Chong Keat Aun (3rd nom, 1 win*) - Mother Bhumi 
• ★ Jun Li (2nd nom, 1st win) - Queerpanorama
• Lau Kek-haut (2nd nom) - The Waves Will Carry Us

Jun Li, a gay filmmaker, won for his controversial drama about a young man with a shifting identity.

Strange coincidence: Chen yu-hsun (who directed the winning film A Foggy Tale) and Chong Keat Aun (Mother Bhumi) were both directing winners five years ago at the Golden Horse Awards in this category (My Missing Valentine) and in Best New Director (The Story of Southern Islet), respectively.

BEST NEW DIRECTOR

• Tan Si-you - Amoeba
  Tan Si-you's movie is about a tomboy schoolgirl who convinces classmates to form a triad gang. 
• Shen Ko-Shang - Deep Quiet Room
  This one is a dark family drama about a recent widower (from suicide) and his ailing father-in-law.
• Pan Ke-yin - Family Matters
  A family drama that won Best Feature at the New York Asian Film Festival. Intriguingly, the characters are called Spring (Daughter), Summer (Son), Winter (Father), and Autumn (Mother)
• ★  Lloyd Lee Choi - Lucky Lu
  A drama about a New York City delivery man 
• Tsou Shih-Ching - Left-Handed Girl
  Sean Baker's longtime producer was nominated for her solo directorial debut. She previously co-directed Sean Baker's second feature, Take Me Out (2004). 

Okay but when can I see Lucky Lu ?!? It takes place right here and it stars Chang Chen. GIVE IT TO ME. 

BEST LEADING ACTRESS

Fan Bingbing is unrecognizable in MOTHER BHUMI

• Ariel Lin (2nd nomination) - Deep Quiet Room
• Alexia Kao (first nomination) - Family Matters
• Caitlin Fang (4th nomination, 1 win) - A Foggy Tale
• ★  Fan Bingbing (3rd nomination, first win) - Mother Bhumi
• Rene Liu (4th nomination for acting) - Unexpected Courage
  (Liu is a real renaissance woman having been nominated for acting, writing, directing, AND songwriting at the Golden Horse Awards during her career.)

Nice to see Fan Bingbing celebrated -- the appeal of deglam performances to awards voters seems to be universal. This film sounds interesting. Who was runner up? We have a suspicion...

At just 19 years of age, Caitlin Fang (a Taiwanese-American) who led the winning film A Foggy Tale, is already a Golden Horse regular having been up for New Performer (she won), Best Supporting Actress, and Best Leading Actress twice over, all in the past five years. Her breakout picture, American Girl (2021) about a teenage girl returning to Taiwan with her sick mother after growing up in the US, is streaming on Netflix. 

BEST LEADING ACTOR

Chang Chen stars as a delivery man in LUCKY LU

• Joseph Chang (5th nomination) - Deep Quiet Room
• Lan Wei-hu (first nomination) - Family Matters 
• Will Or (2nd nomination) - A Foggy Tale
• Richie Koh (first nomination) - A Good Child
  This Singaporean actor plays a drag queen caring for his mother with dementia. The story is based on a real celebrity drag queen in Singapore.
• ★  Chang Chen (6th nomination, 2nd win) -Lucky Lu
  Internationally known from a stellar run in the Aughts (including the blockbuster Crouching Tiger and art house hit Three Times) Chen won his second Golden Horse as a desperate delivery man in NYC.

Golden Horse number two for Chang Chen but will Joseph Chang (who is also known as Chang Hsaio-chuan) ever win a Golden Horse? The 41 year old star was previously nominated for Eternal Summer (2006), Girlfriend Boyfriend (2012), and The Post-Truth World (2022).

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

• Queena Huang (first nomination) - Family Matters
• Elizabeth Tang Tao (first nomination) -Girlfriends
• Janet Tsai (first nomination) - Left-Handed Girl 
• Nina Ye (first nomination) - Left-Handed Girl 
• ★ Vera Chen (second nomination for acting, first win) - The Waves Will Carry Us 

Janet Tsai and Nina Ye play the mother and her youngest daughter in Left-Handed Girl which hopes to be an Oscar nominee in Best International Feature this year. This nominated quintet had only one previous nominee, Vera Chen, who was previously up for the horror film The Rope Curse 2 (2020) and has also been nominated for directing (Boluomini, 2019) and she proved to be the winner. 

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

• Chin Shih-chieh (2nd nomination) - Deep Quiet Room
• ★ Tseng Jing-hua (2nd nomination) - Family Matters
• Yao Chun-yao (1st nomination) - Family Matters
• Anthony Wong (7th nom, 4 wins) - Finch & Midland
• Brando Huang (first nomination) - Left-Handed Girl

You might know the winner, Tseng Jing-hua from the Netflix series I Am Married... But. I believe he plays "Son" in this drama that won the New York Asian Film Festival

The most familiar actor here to US audiences is probably Anthony Wong from his run of hits in the 1990s and 2000s including action classic Hard Boiled and the spiritually-Oscared, by way of Scorsese's remake, Infernal Affairs. He has a pretty good track record of winning these if nominated but this was the only nomination for Finch & Midland which is an  ensemble drama about Hong Kong immigrants scraping by in Canada. 

BEST NEW PERFORMER  

• Jimmy Liu for Blind Love
• Lin Yi-ting for A Dance With Rainbows
• ★  Ma Shih-Yuan for Left-Handed Girl 
• Rosen Tsai for Marching Boys 
• Jayden Cheung for Queerpanorama 

This category was rising twentysomethings as you might expect. There are three men: Taiwan's Jimmy Liu (who you might know from the Disney+ series American Born Chinese) is 23, Taiwan's Rosen Tsai, an actor/model is 28. Jayden Cheung, a 24 year old Hong Kong native, reportedly gives a daring performance as a nameless gay man taking on the personas of his hook-ups after their trysts. Finally Ma Shih-yuan, the eldest daughter in Left-Handed Girl won the prize. (Her onscreen family was nominated in Best Supporting Actress).

(I couldn't find anything out about Lin Yi-ting who was nominated for A Dance With Rainbows --no IMDb page-- because the person that comes up when you search that name appears to be too seasoned an actress for a 'new performer' list.)

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

• 96 Minutes
• Deep Quiet Room
• Left-Handed Girl
• Lucky Lu
• ★  Mother Bhumi

Fun factoid: Norm Li, who was nominated for shooting Lucky Lu was the DP on Chappell Roan's latest video "The Subway"

BEST ART DIRECTION

• 96 Minutes
• Before the Bright Day
• Deep Quiet Room
• ★  A Foggy Tale
• Road to Vendetta

Road to Vendetta is an action film starring Jeffrey Ngai, while Before the Bright Day is a crime drama about a teenager working at a pool hall who gets involved with gangsters. 

BEST MAKEUP AND COSTUME DESIGN

Richie Koh is a drag queen in A GOOD CHILD

• Before the Bright Day
• A Good Child
• ★  A Foggy Tale
• Mother Bhumi
• Road to Vendetta

A Good Child is a drama about a drag queen.

BEST ACTION CHOREOGRAPHY

• 96 Minutes
• ★  A Dance with Rainbows
• A Good Game
• Marching Boys
• Road to Vendetta

Again we can't find any info on A Dance with Rainbows. Good Game, which has its only nomination in this category, is an action comedy about an e-sports arena. 

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS

Austin Lin plays a bomb diffusing expert in 96 Minutes

• ★ 96 Minutes
• A Foggy Tale
• A Mighty Adventure
• Road to Vendetta

96 Minutes, which was up for a couple of craft prizes and won for visual effects, is an action thriller about a bomb on a high speed train. Po Hung-Lin (also known as Austin Lin), who played the gay ghost in Marry My Dead Body, stars. If you haven't seen Marry My Dead Body, which was Taiwan's Oscar submission from a couple of years back (it's streaming on Netflix), you really must as it is absurd but highly watchable.

BEST SOUND EFFECTS

• 96 Minutes
• A Foggy Tale
• ★ A Mighty Adventure
• Mother Bhumi
• Road to Vendetta

BEST SCORE

• Another World
• Daughter of Nectar
• ★  Lucky Lu
• Mother Bhumi
• The Waves Will Carry Us

BEST SONG

• Family Matters "Blessed is the Wind"
• A Foggy Tale "A Foggy Midnight"
• Lovesick "True Colors - Lovers"
• ★  Mother Bhumi "Bhujanga"
• Poor Taxi "Wooden Man" 

BEST FILM EDITING

• One Girl Infinite
• A Foggy Tale
• Left-Handed Girl
• ★  Palimpsest: The Story of a Name
• Queerpanorama

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

• ★  A Foggy Tale
• Left-Handed Girl
• Poor Taxi
• Queerpanorama
• The Waves Will Carry Us

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

• Another World
• Deep Quiet Room
• Lucky Lu
• ★  Family Matters
• Rosemead

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

• Always
• Daughter of Nectar
• Island of the Winds
• ★  Palimpsest: The Story of a Name
• When the Spring Rain Falls

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE

• ★  Another World
• A Mighty Adventure

Another World which is about a spirit guide helping lead people to reincarnation, was also up for Adapted Screenplay as well. It beat A Mighty Adventure, which won for its sound effects. A Mighty Adventure is about insects in the big city.

BEST ANIMATED SHORT

• 91 Times Smash
• Force Times Displacement
• Goodbye Waves
• ★  Praying Mantis
• Rocked by the Wind

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT

• Beyond 93 Letters
• ★  Fragments of Herstory
• The Long Departure
• The Tales of the Tale
• Where'd My Brother Go?

BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT

• Green Lake
• Knee-Jerk
• Nervous Energy
• ★  Pile On
• This is NOT My Cow

SPECIAL AWARDS

• ★  Lifetime Achievement: Grace  Chen Shu-fang
  The 86 year old actress, known as 'the Grandmother of Taiwan' made her film debut way back in 1957. Among her many many film some key titles include Taipei Story (1985), A City of Sadness (1989), A Borrowed Life (1994), and Dear Tenant (2020).
  
  
• ★ Outstanding Taiwanese Filmmaker of the Year: Joy Chung
  
  
• ★ FIPRESCI Prize: Amoeba
  
  
• ★ Audience Award: A Foggy Tale 

Comments

[Hsiang- Hua]

Mary Stephen, the winner of Best documentary feature and film editing, worked with Éric Rohmer since 1976.