Latest news with #HongKongFilmAwards
New Paper
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- New Paper
Chow Yun Fat returns to Star Awards after three decades
Hong Kong superstar Chow Yun Fat will be gracing the Star Awards 2025 ceremony on July 6 as an award presenter. Three decades ago, the veteran actor was a celebrity guest at the inaugural ceremony in 1994, where he presented awards to the winners of the Top 5 Most Popular Male Artistes. During the show, he noted that local actor Li Nanxing resembled him, and said: "Please don't come to Hong Kong, or else I will not be able to make movies any more." Chow, 70, has won three Hong Kong Film Awards for Best Actor and two Golden Horse Awards for Best Actor. He also received the prestigious Asian Film-maker of the Year accolade at the Busan International Film Festival in 2023, in recognition of his significant contributions to the advancement of the Asian film industry and culture. Joining the A-list line-up at Star Awards 2025 is another Hong Kong thespian, Sean Lau. The 61-year-old previously attended the 2000 edition, where he read out the winners of the Top 10 Most Popular Female Artistes. Veteran Hong Kong actor Sean Lau is also set to make an appearance at the Star Awards 2025. PHOTO: KK EMPIRE To celebrate its 30th anniversary, 2025's theme is Walking Through Time Together, and the live show will showcase a time capsule of local entertainment history. Star Awards did not take place in 2020 and 2008. The upcoming edition is set to be its most star-studded, with more than 200 celebrities expected to attend, including Zoe Tay, Li Nanxing, Fann Wong, Chen Liping, Huang Biren, Tay Ping Hui, Rebecca Lim, Jeanette Aw, Jesseca Liu, Yvonne Lim and Sharon Au. Local singer Kit Chan will take the stage to perform a medley of songs from memorable series over the years. Most recently, the 52-year-old helmed the Mandarin ballad Echoes Of Petals, the theme song of period drama Emerald Hill - The Little Nyonya Story (2025). Singaporean singer Kit Chan will be performing at the Star Awards. PHOTO: BANSHEE PRODUCTIONS In addition, Star Awards 2025 will see local actress Chantalle Ng making her hosting debut alongside seasoned compere Guo Liang, who will be hosting the event for the 16th time, more than anyone else to date. Ng, 30, is also up for Best Actress for her role as a para swimmer in the drama Hope Afloat (2024). She was previously nominated in the category in 2022 and 2024, but did not win. Star Awards 2025 will take place at The Theatre at Mediacorp and will air on Channel 8 and Channel U, mewatch and the Mediacorp Entertainment YouTube Channel from 7 to 10pm. There will also be a red carpet pre-show from 5 to 6.30pm, which will be presented by a fashion squad consisting of Mediacorp artistes Herman Keh and Denise Camillia Tan, together with Love 972 DJ Dennis Chew and Yes 933 DJ Hazelle Teo. The Backstage Live behind-the-scenes livestream takes place from 3.30 to 10pm, and a Post-Awards Party from 10 to 10.30pm. Both will air on mewatch and the Mediacorp Entertainment YouTube Channel.
Straits Times
01-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Straits Times
HK actor Chow Yun Fat returns to Star Awards stage as award presenter after three decades
Hong Kong actor Chow Yun Fat will be among the presenters at this year's Star Awards. PHOTO: KK EMPIRE HK actor Chow Yun Fat returns to Star Awards stage as award presenter after three decades SINGAPORE – Hong Kong superstar Chow Yun Fat will be gracing the Star Awards 2025 ceremony on July 6 as an award presenter. Three decades ago, the veteran actor was a celebrity guest at the inaugural ceremony in 1994, where he presented awards to the winners of the Top 5 Most Popular Male Artistes. During the show, he noted that local actor Li Nanxing resembled him, and said: 'Please don't come to Hong Kong, or else I will not be able to make movies any more.' Chow, 70, has won three Hong Kong Film Awards for Best Actor and two Golden Horse Awards for Best Actor. He also received the prestigious Asian Film-maker of the Year accolade at the Busan International Film Festival in 2023, in recognition of his significant contributions to the advancement of the Asian film industry and culture. Joining the A-list line-up at Star Awards 2025 is another Hong Kong thespian, Sean Lau. The 61-year-old previously attended the 2000 edition, where he read out the winners of the Top 10 Most Popular Female Artistes. Veteran Hong Kong actor Sean Lau is also set to make an appearance at the Star Awards 2025. PHOTO: KK EMPIRE To celebrate its 30th anniversary, 2025's theme is Walking Through Time Together, and the live show will showcase a time capsule of local entertainment history. Star Awards did not take place in 2020 and 2008. The upcoming edition is set to be its most star-studded, with more than 200 celebrities expected to attend, including Zoe Tay, Li Nanxing, Fann Wong, Chen Liping, Huang Biren, Tay Ping Hui, Rebecca Lim, Jeanette Aw, Jesseca Liu, Yvonne Lim and Sharon Au. Local singer Kit Chan will take the stage to perform a medley of songs from memorable series over the years. Most recently, the 52-year-old helmed the Mandarin ballad Echoes Of Petals, the theme song of period drama Emerald Hill – The Little Nyonya Story (2025). Singaporean singer Kit Chan will be performing at the Star Awards. PHOTO: BANSHEE PRODUCTIONS In addition, Star Awards 2025 will see local actress Chantalle Ng making her hosting debut alongside seasoned compere Guo Liang, who will be hosting the event for the 16th time, more than anyone else to date. Ng, 30, is also up for Best Actress for her role as a para swimmer in the drama Hope Afloat (2024). She was previously nominated in the category in 2022 and 2024, but did not win. Star Awards 2025 will take place at The Theatre at Mediacorp and will air on Channel 8 and Channel U, mewatch and the Mediacorp Entertainment YouTube Channel from 7 to 10pm. There will also be a red carpet pre-show from 5 to 6.30pm, which will be presented by a fashion squad consisting of Mediacorp artistes Herman Keh and Denise Camillia Tan, together with Love 972 DJ Dennis Chew and Yes 933 DJ Hazelle Teo. The Backstage Live behind-the-scenes livestream takes place from 3.30 to 10pm, and a Post-Awards Party from 10 to 10.30pm. Both will air on mewatch and the Mediacorp Entertainment YouTube Channel. Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
New Straits Times
25-06-2025
- Entertainment
- New Straits Times
#SHOWBIZ: HK actor Bowie Wu regrets not giving his late wife flowers
HONG KONG: Veteran Hong Kong actor and television host Bowie Wu Fung recently spoke candidly about his marriage and personal regrets. According to Dimsun Daily yesterday, Wu admitted to carrying the weight of personal regrets, primarily that he wasn't present for his children during their early years. "I didn't get along well with them back then. I rarely met them because I was so busy with work. Whenever I returned home, they would all be sleeping," he said. Wu has five children with his late wife, Lui Wing Ho, who passed away from an illness in 2016. He revealed that when he married in 1957, his boss had insisted they keep it a secret as he was at the peak of his career. Despite the secrecy, Lui remained patient and focused on raising their children. "My wife is the love of my life. I don't know what I would've done without her help, so I'll always miss her," he said. One of the actor's lingering regrets is never having given his wife flowers while she was alive. To make up for it, he now places flowers in front of her photograph every few days. "I'd also talk to her each night," he added. Wu is currently in a relationship with 90-year-old actress Helena Law Lan. The couple went public in September last year, with all of Wu's children expressing their full support for the romance. Since beginning his acting career in 1953, Wu, 93, has appeared in major dramas such as Virtues Of Harmony II (2003-2005), The W Files (2003), and Forensic Heroes III (2011). In recognition of his contributions to the industry, he was honoured with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2023 Hong Kong Film Awards.
AsiaOne
24-06-2025
- Business
- AsiaOne
Inaugural Golden Singa Awards, organised by Dasmond Koh for international Chinese films, to be held on Dec 1, Entertainment News
Local entertainment company NoonTalk Media is organising the first Golden Singa Awards to be presented in Singapore in December. The international film awards ceremony aims to bring together filmmakers to recognise and celebrate Chinese-language cinema. At the press conference yesterday (June 23), NoonTalk Media CEO Dasmond Koh said: "We believe that in the Chinese film market nowadays, there aren't many award ceremonies that are open to outside the region. With that in mind, we hope to make Singapore an international stage for all Chinese-language films to participate in." The 52-year-old shared that apart from the Golden Horse Awards held in Taiwan, other Chinese-language film awards such as the Hong Kong Film Awards and China's Hundred Flowers Awards and Golden Rooster Awards are country-specific, which leaves a gap for international filmmakers. At the Golden Horse Awards in 2018, Taiwanese film director Fu Yue said in her winning speech after receiving Best Documentary that she hoped Taiwan would be recognised as "independent". Her speech sparked outrage among China filmmakers and celebrities — as China regards Taiwan as part of their territory — and triggered an official snub of the ceremony from the following year. According to a report by Taipei Times in 2021, China's national film board had ordered directors and actors to boycott the event. Several Hong Kong films also reportedly dropped out of the awards under pressure from Beijing. Since then, mainstream Chinese filmmakers steered clear of the Golden Horse Awards for fear of repercussions. About the upcoming Golden Singa Awards, Dasmond added: "We hope that within five years, with the awards ceremony held annually, we will be able to let it develop into the most prominent and trusted awards ceremony in the Asia Pacific region." Dasmond told AsiaOne that Singapore is the ideal location to host the international film awards as it provides a neutral ground. Furthermore, he hoped that the event would "spur the adrenaline rush" for local filmmakers to excel and create opportunities for them to participate in the awards as well. However, he also said: "We had discussed and know that it might be a little bit difficult for local productions to emerge as winners for a lot of categories. We should be seeing quite a bit of overseas artistes and nominees running for the awards." 22 awards categories to be presented, calls for submissions now open The Golden Singa Awards will be presented on Dec 1 at Capitol Theatre in conjunction with the Infocomm Media Development Authority's (IMDA) Singapore Media Festival. Ng Tse Meng, Honorary Chairman of RuiFeng Wealth Management Pte Ltd, invested in the event. The awards committee comprises industry veterans including producer and founder of film company Xue Zhe Ying Shi (Scholar Films) Tsai Sung-lin and his wife Lu Meihui. They had distributed and invested in films such as Farewell My Concubine (1993), Ashes of Time (1994), A Chinese Odyssey (1995) and In The Mood for Love (2000). There will be 22 award categories: Best Feature Film, Best Director, Best Male Actor, Best Female Actor, Best Male Supporting Actor, Best Female Supporting Actor, Best Rising Star, Best Director of Photography, Best Animated Film, Best Screenplay, Best Visual Effects, Best Original Score, Best Original Song, Best Sound Effects, Best Editing, Best Art Direction, Best Costume Design, Best Action Design, Best Asian Feature Film (Non-Chinese), Most Popular Feature Film, Most Popular Male Actor and Most Popular Female Actor. To qualify, the film must run for at least 60 minutes and be screened in cinemas between Jan 1, 2024 and May 31, 2025. The international call for submissions is now open at . The jury panel, which will comprise nine to 11 international industry representatives including award-winning filmmakers, producers, actors, musicians and costume designers, will be finalised in July. The preliminary jury will evaluate and shortlist submissions for nomination in September and nominees will be announced in October. In November, the final jury will evaluate and decide on the winners. Local jeweller Risis is the official trophy partner for the awards and will be designing and crafting trophies for the ceremony. View this post on Instagram A post shared by 许振荣 Dasmond Koh (@dasmondkoh) [[nid:719279]] No part of this article can be reproduced without permission from AsiaOne.
South China Morning Post
01-06-2025
- Business
- South China Morning Post
Could Four Trails success bring hope to Hong Kong documentaries in the long run?
Hong Kong filmmaker Robin Lee was advised to keep his expectations 'very low' before the cinematic release of his documentary Four Trails last December. After all, he was told, it was just a sports documentary that had no A-list celebrities to attract audiences. In making the film, Lee could not even secure any sponsorships or funding. Still, the 36-year-old believed deeply in the story's power to resonate with audiences as it captured the physical and emotional journeys of runners taking on a gruelling 298km challenge, while showcasing the natural beauty of Hong Kong's landscapes. 'You can't blame them [distributors] because there is no script ... I couldn't tell them [where] the money that you're investing is going to go because no one really knew what would happen,' said Lee, who was the film's cameraman, director and editor. Against the odds, Four Trails became a surprise box office hit, earning over HK$10 million and becoming the second highest-grossing documentary in Hong Kong history. The film also earned Lee the title of Best New Director at the prestigious Hong Kong Film Awards. The 101-minute documentary film follows a group of ultrarunners in February 2021 as they braved the Hong Kong Four Trails Ultra Challenge, one of the world's toughest ultra-marathons. Runners must complete Hong Kong's four major hiking trails within 72 hours. The success of Four Trails has boosted the confidence of Hong Kong's small documentary filmmaking scene – though this outlook stands in contrast with the wider movie industry that is still reeling from cinema closures and competition from streaming platforms. The documentary has sparked a renewed appreciation for Hong Kong's trails – even superstar and avid hiker Chow Yun-fat helped promote the film. It also inspired a group of primary school pupils to hike sections of the Lantau Trail with one of the runners featured in the movie. 'In our film, I made loads of conscious decisions to try and get as many different personalities as possible. As a viewer, hopefully, there was one person in the film which you could relate to on a personal level,' Lee said. His next goal is to take the documentary to cinemas around the world and, eventually, to streaming platforms. He is currently in talks with global distributors. 'It's just me and my brother, Ben, who's the producer. The two of us are trying to get the film out globally ... with almost next to no experience before. So it's still taking a lot of time,' he said. While commercial success and accolades were never Lee's motivation, these achievements have been crucial to his goal of reaching audiences overseas. 'Around the world, people don't look at Hong Kong as a trail running destination, so I was really excited to show people this is what Hong Kong has to offer,' said the director, who was born and raised in the city. 'We've got one of the hardest challenges in the world, and it's here in a city which most people think is just skyscrapers.' How Twilight of the Warriors director spotlighted City of Darkness' spirit Challenges of making Four Trails Before filming began, Lee hiked most of Hong Kong's four main trails – MacLehose, Wilson, Hong Kong and Lantau – to familiarise himself with the terrain, identify key filming spots and connect with the runners before the race. With no script to follow and less than 72 hours to record most of the footage, building rapport was crucial in shaping a human-centred narrative. 'It's like a big jigsaw puzzle, [but] there's no picture that you have to follow. You're creating the picture, so it's really difficult to try to figure that out,' he said. Lee recruited his brother and a few freelancers to help film during the race. Once the ultra-marathon started, one of the biggest challenges, Lee said, was figuring out how to build a coherent storyline that captured the journeys of 18 athletes moving at very different paces. 'Everything is changing,' he recalled. 'The runners gave us a time sheet of when they thought they would be in places, but some of them are going faster [and] some are going slower than what they anticipated. Therefore, you have to be really flexible.' Fly Me to the Moon director discusses universal theme of belonging in her film By the third day of the event, exhaustion set in. 'I only slept two or three hours; my brother had just one,' Lee said, adding that the filming process felt chaotic. 'We had this detailed plan before the race, but by day three, it looked wrong. And your head is playing all these games with you that you don't really know which is the right decision to make.' The film showed how the runners started to buckle under the mental and physical strain, but behind the camera, the filmmakers were struggling, too. 'You see them hallucinating and going crazy as the cameraman and the director were also going through a similar situation, so fatigue is really difficult,' Lee said. Even after the race ended, Lee had to edit the footage while juggling his freelance work. Since Four Trails was entirely self-financed, he would take on short projects – some lasting a day and others a week – before returning to edit the documentary. 'I needed to pay for things like graphics. And at one point, I had to hire a composer to write original pieces for specific scenes,' the director noted. 'It's a bit of a risk, but if I don't do it, it's not going to be as good, and I want to make something which I'm really proud of because this may be my only chance to make a film.' 'Four Trails' videographers run to catch up with a competitor who is on the way to the next trail. Photo: Edko Films Ltd Blazing a trail for the industry The commercial success of Four Trails is rare in Hong Kong – Lee's experience of balancing his passion with freelance work is not. Ryan Lai, who has been a documentary filmmaker for about six years, said funding was the major challenge for him and others in this field. 'It's extremely difficult to make a living from documentaries in Hong Kong,' Lai explained. 'Unlike narrative films, documentaries typically lack commercial appeal and therefore attract little to no investment. Aside from some occasional art-related funding, there's almost no financial support available.' As a result, Lai said most documentary filmmakers would treat their work as a side project, not a viable career. 'That's a major obstacle for anyone who wants to pursue this seriously in the long run,' he said. Thus, Lee hopes the unexpected triumph of Four Trails can spur greater support for documentary filmmaking in Hong Kong. 'If you're investing in film, you don't have to shy away from a documentary as long as the story is good,' he said. 'All the stories in Four Trails are real. They're not made up. That, in many ways, makes it even more exciting than some [fictional] feature films.' Lee believes the way forward for the film industry is to prioritise originality. 'If you can keep making original ... and new content, that's going to get people talking. Then that's the best thing for the industry,' he said. Stop and think: Why was the box office success of Four Trails so unexpected in Hong Kong? Why this story matters: Documentary filmmaking is a key art form that shows real stories. It is hard for many of these creators to make a living in Hong Kong, so the success of Robin Lee's film could bring hope to others in the industry.
