‘Stonewalling’ Wins Best Film At Taiwan’s Golden Horse Awards

Liz Shackleton
·4 min read
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China-set drama Stonewalling, co-directed by husband-and-wife team Ryuji Otsuka and Huang Ji, won best narrative feature at Taiwan’s Golden Horse Awards, which is celebrating its 60th edition this year.

The film, which premiered in Venice and won best film at Hong Kong film festival’s Young Cinema Competition, follows a young woman in mainland China grappling with issues around career, relationships, health and fertility. It also won best editing, which was shared by Otsuka and Taiwan’s Liao Ching-sung, with the latter winning his first Golden Horse award after 12 nominations stretching back four decades.

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The awards were evenly spread among the nominated films. Taiwan’s Wu Kang-ren won best leading actor for his role as a deaf-mute in Malaysian drama Abang Adik. Best actress went to 12-year-old Audrey Lin for her role in Trouble Girl, making her the youngest ever best actress winner at the Golden Horse awards.

Best director went to Hsiao Ya-chuan for Old Fox, marking his first Golden Horse award, while Hong Kong filmmaker Nick Cheuk won best new director for Time Still Turns The Pages.

Old Fox was a multiple award winner, also taking best supporting actor for Akio Chen’s performance, best makeup & costume design and best original film score. Best supporting actresss when to Beatrice Fang for Day Off, which also won best original film song (see full list of award winners below).

Ang Lee, who was president of this year’s Golden Horse Awards jury, presented a Lifetime Achievement Award to iconic Taiwanese actress Brigitte Lin. Veteran cinematographer Chen Kun-hou was also presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award, while producer Lin Shih-ken (The Bold, The Corrupt, And The Beautiful) was awarded Outstanding Taiwanese Filmmaker of the Year.

Star award presenters also included Japan’s Takeshi Kitano and actors Koji Yakusho (Perfect Days), Chang Chen (Dune) and Satoshi Tsumabuki (The Assassin). Yakusho and Kitano both held master classes at the Golden Horse Film Festival earlier in the week.

Taiwan’s Golden Horse Awards are recognised as the most prestigious awards ceremony for Chinese-language cinema from across the East Asia region. However, the ceremony has been boycotted by mainland China since 2018 when the winner of best documentary made a reference to Taiwan’s independence in her acceptance speech (Beijing considers Taiwan a renegade province of China rather than a separate country).

Since then, very few mainland Chinese films have entered the awards, while Hong Kong filmmakers have felt similar pressure and only entered if they’re not aiming for any form of distribution in China.

The nominees this year included films that were shot in China or have other mainland ties, but are not claiming Chinese nationality. Best narrative feature winner Stonewalling was filmed in China but is classified as a Japanese production.

This year’s ceremony was free from controversy, although young filmmaker Ho Sze-wai mentioned freedom of speech when accepting the best live-action short award for Before The Box Gets Emptied, about the Hong Kong diaspora: “I hope people in Hong Kong can be braver to tell their own stories. We should be recording how Hong Kong people really live.”

The 60th edition of the Golden Horse Awards took place on November 25 at the Dr. Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall in Taipei City.

60th Golden Horse Awards Full List of Winners:

Best Narrative Feature – Stonewalling, dirs: Ryuji Otsuka, Huang Ji

Best Director – HSIAO Ya-chuan, Old Fox

Best Leading Actor – WU Kang-ren, Abang Adik

Best Leading Actress – Audrey LIN, Trouble Girl

Best Supporting Actor – Akio CHEN, Old Fox

Best Supporting Actress – Beatrice FANG, Day Off

Best New Director – Nick CHEUK, Time Still Turns The Pages

Best New Performer – TSE Wing-yan, Fly Me To The Moon

Best Original Screenplay – SUN Jie, The Mountain Is Coming

Best Adapted Screenplay – WU Chin-jung, CHENG Wei-hao, Marry My Dead Body

Best Cinematography – YU Jing-pin, Fish Memories

Best Visual Effects – ArChin YEN, Eye Of The Storm

Best Art Direction – HUANG Mei-ching, TU Shuo-feng, Eye Of The Storm

Best Makeup & Costume Design – WANG Chih-cheng, Shirley KAO, Old Fox

Best Film Editing – LIAO Ching-sung, OTSUKA Ryuji, Stonewalling

Best Sound Effects –TU Duu-chih, WU Shu-yao, CHEN Kuan-ting, Snow In Midsummer

Best Original Film Score – Chris HOU, Old Fox

Best Original Film Song – “The Usual”, Day Off

Best Action Choreography – HUNG Shih-hao, The Pig, The Snake And The Pigeon

Best Live Action Short Film – Before The Box Gets Emptied, dir: HO Sze-wai

Best Animated Feature – Pigsy, dir: CHIU Li-wei

Best Documentary Feature – Youth (Spring), dir: WANG Bing

Best Animated Short Film – Monsoon Blue, dirs: Ellis CHAN Ka-yin, WONG Hiu-kit

Best Documentary Short Film – The Memo, dir: Badlands Film Group


 

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