Golden Horse Awards 2025
Sunday, November 23, 2025 at 11:00PM
NATHANIEL R in Asian cinema, Austin Lin, Chang Chen, Fan Bingbing, Golden Horse Awards, Joseph Chang, Left-Handed Girl, Taiwan

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

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...

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

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

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

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

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

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  

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

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

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

A Good Child is a drama about a drag queen.

BEST ACTION CHOREOGRAPHY

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, 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

BEST SCORE

BEST SONG

BEST FILM EDITING

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

 

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE

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

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT

BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT

SPECIAL AWARDS

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