(MENAFN- Arab Times) Left to right: Chinese actresses Zhou Dongyu, actor Fan Wei and Ma Sichun display trophies after winning the Best Leading Actress and the Best Leading Actor during the 53rd Golden Horse Film Awards in Taipei on Nov 26. (AFP)
TAIPEI, Nov 27, (Agencies): Films from mainland China dominated this year's Golden Horse Film Awards in Taiwan, considered the Chinese-language equivalent of the Oscars, with two social dramas scooping up top honours on Saturday.
Chinese director Zhang Dalei's black-and-white film, 'The Summer Is Gone', was the biggest dark horse of the night, winning the coveted best picture award.
'What should I say? I really wasn't expecting this. It's unbelievable … it's like a pilgrimage for me coming to Taipei', Zhang said.
Ten-year-old Kong Weiyi was awarded best new performer for his role in the film, which follows a boy growing up in a small town in western China during the 1980s and 1990s.
China's Feng Xiaogang took the best director title for 'I Am Not Madame Bovary' which stars top actress Fan Bingbing playing a peasant who sues her swindler ex-husband.
'I want to thank Bingbing. She is a star and acts in this art film without taking any payment', Feng said after he received the award from French actress Juliette Binoche.
'I hope to encourage more stars to use their influence to get the audiences to go to the theatres to watch movies', he added.
The film scooped the best picture prize at Spain's San Sebastian film festival in September, with Fan winning the best actress gong.
But Fan, known to overseas audiences for her appearance in 'X-Men: Days of Future Past', lost the Golden Horse best actress title to fellow Chinese stars Zhou Dongyu and Ma Sichun, who shared the honour for their performances as friends who fall for the same man in 'Soul Mate'.
China's Fan Wei was another surprise winner as he saw off better-known Hong Kong rivals Tony Leung Kai-fai and Jacky Cheung as well as Taiwan's Kai Ko to win best actor for his role as a slick farm manager in 'Mr No Problem'.
Critically-acclaimed immigrant drama 'The Road to Mandalay' suffered the biggest upset of the night, scooping only one award — for outstanding Taiwanese filmmaker of the year — despite being tipped to win in major categories.
Taiwan's Elaine Jin won her second best supporting actress statuette after 22 years for playing a depressed mother in Hong Kong director Wong Chun's family drama 'Mad World'.
Wong claimed the best new director award for his debut feature film shot on a shoestring budget of around $258,000.
Role
Best supporting actor went to Taiwanese singer-actor Lin Po-hung for his role in 'At Cafe 6'. Nearly 50 films were nominated for the 53rd edition of the Golden Horse awards. Although the Golden Horse is styled on the US Academy Awards, the winners are decided by a jury, along the lines of the Cannes Film Festival. The Golden Horse Film Festival ran Nov 4-24. The 53rd annual awards were presented on Saturday Nov 26 at a ceremony in Taipei's Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall. The event included a red carpet appearance by Frances Juliette Binoche and performances by Coco Lee and Singapore's Stephanie Sun.
List of winners in key categories at the 53rd Golden Horse Film Awards in Taiwan:
* Best Feature Film: 'The Summer Is Gone'
* Best Director: Feng Xiaogang, 'I Am Not Madame Bovary'
* Best Leading Actor: Fan Wei, 'Mr No Problem'
* Best Leading Actress: Zhou Dongyu/Ma Sichun, 'Soul Mate'
* Best Supporting Actor: Lin Po-hung, 'At Cafe 6'
* Best Supporting Actress: Elaine Jin, 'Mad World'
* Best New Director: Wong Chun, 'Mad World'
* Best New Performer: Kong Weiyi, 'The Summer Is Gone'
* Outstanding Taiwanese Filmmaker of the Year: Midi Z, 'The Road to Mandalay'
* Audience Choice Award: 'I Am Not Madame Bovary'
* FIPRESCI Prize: 'The Summer Is Gone'.
The awards jury was headed by the veteran, socially-conscious Hong Kong director Ann Hui. She told Taiwanese media Saturday that the jury had gone through a 'life and death process' in deciding the awards.
Other winners with two awards each were 'Detective Chinatown' (best action choreography, best makeup/costume;) 'Mad World' (best new director: Wong Chun, and best supporting actress;) 'Trivisa' (best original screenplay, best editing;) 'Mr No Problem' (best actor, best adapted screenplay;) 'Crosscurrent' (best cinematography, best sound design;) and 'I Am Not Madam Bovary' (best director: Feng Xiaogang, and the audience choice award.
In the best actress category the award was shared between the two nominees — Zhou Dongyu and Ma Sichun — from 'Soul Mate'.
Going into the ceremony, local Taiwanese film 'Godspeed' had nominations for eight awards and was strongly favored to win in several categories. On the night it picked up only one, for art direction. Other disappointments for Taiwanese cinema included the failure of 'The Road To Mandalay' to turn any of its six nominations into awards wins, and the failure of its foreign-language Oscar contender 'Hang In There Kids' (aka 'Lokah Laqi') to collect any awards on home soil.
The awards also paid tribute to Abbas Kiarostami, the iconic Iranian director who died earlier this year.
Earlier in the week Singaporean director Boo Junfeng was named as winner of the NETPAC prize, the festival and awards' only reward for a non Chinese-language film.
Veteran Chinese director Feng Xiaogang picked up the best director award for his social satire 'I Am Not Madame Bovary' at the 53rd Golden Horse Awards, considered the equivalent of the Oscars for Mandarin-language cinema.
Feng's 'I Am Not Madame Bovary' stars Fan Bingbing as a woman who spends a decade fighting China's bureaucracy to have her divorce nullified after being swindled by her ex-husband.
The two lead actresses in the romantic drama 'Soul Mate' shared the best actress award. Zhou Dongyu and Ma Sichun played two best friends whose relationship is tested when they fall in love with the same man.
'Together we make a fantastic duo', said Ma. 'I would not be me without her, and she would not be her without me'.
Fan Wei won best actor for his performance in 'Mr. No Problem' as the manager of a money-losing farm in Chongqing in the 1940s. Fan said he was grateful the jury had 'perceived the subtleness I brought to the character'.
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