Tony Leung Ka Fai vies for Asian Film Award Best Actor

The 7th Asian Film Award will take place on March 18 at the Wanchai Convention center. Yesterday jury chair Andy Lau Tak Wa and others attended the press conference and announced nominees for the 14 awards. MYSTERY and NAMELESS GANGSTER: RULES OF THE TIME each received 6 nominations; Tony Leung Ka Fai with COLD WAR (HONG JIN) was nominated for Best Actor, along with NAMELESS GANGSTER's newly crowned Blue Dragon Best Actor Choi Min-Sik, GF*BF's Joseph Chang Hau Chuen and THE LAST SUPPER (WONG DIK SING YIN)'s Liu Ye. GF*BF's Golden Horse and Asia Pacific Film Festival Best Actress Kwai Lun-Mei will vie for Best Actress with PIETA's Grand Bell Best Actress Jo Min-Su.

Korean director Kim Ki-Duk with PIETA was nominated for Best Director and Best Picture. The film won the 69th Venice Film Festival Best Picture. This year Hong Kong film is weaker, without any Best Picture and Best Director nomination. However, Chapman To Man Jat who just won the Hong Kong Film Critic Society Best Actor award with DIVA was "demoted" to the Best Supporting Actor category. Gianna Jun Ji-Hyun and Kim Hye-Soo both received Best Supporting Actress nominations with THE THIEVES. This year two special awards 2012 Highest Box Office Asian Film Award and Excellent Asian Filmmaker award were established.

Leung Ka Fai was nominated for Best Actor with COLD WAR, due to the film being a critical and commercial hit and viewers all praised Ka Fai's outstanding acting he was the favorite; however, Ka Fai said that he did not care whether he would win or not. If he would be in Hong Kong he definitely would attend. THE LAST SUPPER's Liu Ye was very happy to be nominated because the film to him was very meaningful; as an actor this film was one that he could look back at at age 60 or 70. To Man Jat with DIVA was nominated for Best Supporting Actor. He did not mind being the Supporting Actor, instead he was happy to receive good news so soon and he hoped to garner glory for Hong Kong.

This was Lau Tak Wa's second time as a jury chair, earlier he served for the Golden Horse Award. Wa Jai said that with the experience last time, this time he would be more relaxed. He was not worried that watching movies at home would affect his daughter because his home had a lot of space. He had a lot of space to watch movies. This year Hong Kong film was very weak as only Leung Ka Fai was nominated for Best Actor. Wa Jai said, "Work harder next year, rises and falls are constant." As for the Chief Executive policy report's "first feature film project", Wa Jai felt it was a contest. A new director would not be enough to support the entire film industry, which would require more people to work together; he and Edko boss Bill Kong Chi Keung have always been working toward that goal, now their collaboration FUNG BO (STORM) would use a new director. The film had 80 scenes and over 60 have been shot. It will be completed before the Lunar New Year.

THE 7TH ASIAN FILM AWARD NOMINATIONS

BEST FILM
DRUG WAR (Mainland China)
GANGS OF WASSEYPUR, PART 1 & 2 (India)
MYSTERY (Mainland China)
OUTRAGE BEYOND (Japan)
PIETA (South Korea)

BEST DIRECTOR
Anurag Kashyap, GANGS OF WASSEYPUR, PART 1 & 2 (India)
Abbas Kiarostami, LIKE SOMEONE IN LOVE (Japan/France/Iran)
Kim Ki-duk, PIETA (South Korea)
Takeshi Kitano, OUTRAGE BEYOND (Japan)
Lou Ye, MYSTERY (Mainland China)

BEST ACTOR
Joseph Chang, GF*BF (Taiwan)
Choi Min-sik, NAMELESS GANGSTER: RULES OF TIME (South Korea)
Eddie Garcia, BWAKAW (Philippines)
Tony Leung Ka-fai, COLD WAR (Hong Kong)
Liu Ye, THE LAST SUPPER (Mainland China)

BEST ACTRESS
Nora Aunor, THY WOMB (Philippines)
Cho Min-soo, PIETA (South Korea)
Golshifteh Farahani, THE PATIENCE STONE (Afghanistan)
Gwei Lun-mei, GF*BF (Taiwan)
Hao Lei, MYSTERY (Mainland China)

BEST NEWCOMER
Chien Man-shu, WHEN A WOLF FALLS IN LOVE WITH A SHEEP (Taiwan)
Masahiro Higashide, THE KIRISHIMA THING (Japan)
Huang Yu-siang, TOUCH OF THE LIGHT (Taiwan)
Kim Sung-kyun, NAMELESS GANGSTER: RULES OF THE TIME (South Korea)
Qi Xi, MYSTERY (Mainland China)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Ha Jung-woo, NAMELESS GANGSTER: RULES OF THE TIME (South Korea)
Ryo Kase, LIKE SOMEONE IN LOVE (Japan/France/Iran)
Nawazuddin Siddiqui, THE ANSEWR LIES WITHIN (India)
Chapman To, DIVA (Hong Kong)
Rhydian Vaughan, “GF*BF” (Taiwan)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Jun Ji-hyun, THE THIEVES (South Korea)
Kim Hye-soo, THE THIEVES (South Korea)
Li Lieh, TOGETHER (Taiwan)
Qin Lan, THE LAST SUPPER (Mainland China)
Makiko Watanabe, CAPTURING DAD (Japan)

BEST SCREENWRITER
Anand Gandhi, SHIP OF THESEUS (India)
Kohei Kiyasu, Daihachi Yoshida, THE KIRISHIMA THING (Japan)
Mei Feng, Yu Fan, Lou Ye, MYSTERY (Mainland China)
Wai Ka-fai, Yau Nai-hoi, Ryker Chan, Yu Xi, DRUG WAR (Mainland China)
Yun Jong-bin, NAMELESS GANGSTER: RULES OF THE TIME (South Korea)

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHER
Touraj Aslani, RHINO SEASON (Iraqi Kurdistan/Turkey)
Choi Young-hwan, THE THIEVES (South Korea)
Rajeev Ravi, GANGS OF WASSEYPUR, PART 1 & 2 (India)
Katsumi Yanagijima, LIKE SOMEONE IN LOVE (Japan/France/Iran)
Zhang Li, Ma Cheng, THE LAST SUPPER (Mainland China)

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGNER
Cho Hwa-sung, NAMELESS GANGSTER: RULES OF THE TIME (South Korea)
Bahman Ghobadi, Ali Daryai, RHINO SEASON (Iraqi Kurdistan/Turkey)
Wasiq Khan, GANGS OF WASSEYPUR, PART 1 & 2 (India)
Man Lim-chung, THE SILENT WAR (Mainland China/Hong Kong)
Yee Chung-man, Eric Lam Chi-kiu, THE LAST TYCOON (Mainland China/Hong Kong)

BEST COMPOSER
Pritam Chakraborty, BARFI! (India)
Jo Yeong-wook, NAMELESS GANGSTER: RULES OF THE TIME (South Korea)
Peyman Yazdanian, Johann Johannsson, MYSTERY (Mainland China)
Keiichi Suzuki, OUTRAGE BEYOND (Japan)
Koji Ueno, THE FLOATING CASTLE (Japan)

BEST EDITOR
Takeshi Kitano, Yoshinori Ohta, OUTRAGE BEYOND (Japan)
Mototaka Kusakabe, THE KIRISHIMA THING (Japan)
Valerie Loiseleux, RHINO SEASON (Iraqi Kurdistan/Turkey)
David Richardson, Allen Leung, DRUG WAR (Mainland China)
Shin Min-kyung, THE THIEVES (South Korea)

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
Chas Chau, Lewis Chan, Benson Poon, Johnny Lin, WHEN A WOLF FALLS IN LOVE WITH A SHEEP (Taiwan)
Kwak Tae-yong, Hwang Hyokyun, Lim Jung-hoon, DOOMSDAY BOOK (South Korea)
Farbod Khoshtinat, RHINO SEASON (Iraqi Kurdistan/Turkey)
Lee In-ho, Je Young-ho, SOAR INTO THE SUN (South Korea)
Katsuro Onoue, Tetsuo Oya, Atsuki Sato, Minami Tsujino, THE FLOATING CASTLE (Japan)

BEST COSTUME DESIGNER
Chen Xue-bing, Zhong Jia-ni, THE LAST SUPPER (Mainland China)
Jessie Dai Mei-ling, Chan Chi-man, THE LAST TYCOON (Mainland China/Hong Kong)
Kwak Jung-ae, A WEREWOLF BOY (South Korea)
Man Lim-chung, THE SILENT WAR (Mainland China/Hong Kong)
Mitsuru Otsuka, Kazuta Matsunaga, Akihiko Inamura, THE FLOATING CASTLE (Japan)

Source: Mingpao, Singtao, on.cc
Translated by: hktopten