Japanese director Sabu’s crime thriller Arrested Memory is the big winner of the 63rd Golden Horse Awards nominations, scoring 11 nods.
Hot on its heels is Shu Qi’s directorial debut Girl with 10 nominations. It’s also a landmark year for Singapore cinema, which racked up a record 15 nominations across five films, led by Anthony Chen’s We Are All Strangers with seven.
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Top contenders
Arrested Memory picked up nominations across the board – best narrative feature, director, leading actor, supporting actor, cinematography, art direction, makeup and costume design, action choreography, original film song, film editing and sound effects. The film is a darkly comedic crime thriller about a Taiwanese detective who develops amnesia after a transfer and gets dragged into a high-profile kidnapping case as his memory unravels.
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Shu Qi’s Girl earned 10 nominations, including best picture and best new director, a strong showing for the actress’s first time behind the camera. Taiwan’s Double Happiness and Hong Kong’s We Are Born Good tied for third place with nine nominations each.
Singapore’s historic haul
Five Singapore films made the cut: We Are All Strangers, The Violinist, Ah Girl, Buah and She Said. Congratulating the teams behind the films on the nominations, the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) said: “It is a proud moment for our film industry to see these films being celebrated on this international stage. These nominations reflect the talent, creativity and dedication of our filmmakers, and the vibrancy of Singapore’s film ecosystem.”
We Are All Strangers leads the Singapore pack with seven nominations, including Best Narrative Feature, Best Director for Anthony Chen and Best Leading Actress for Yeo Yann Yann. The film wraps up Chen’s Growing Up trilogy, which kicked off with Ilo Ilo and continued with Wet Season.
The Violinist and Ah Girl each earned three nominations. The Violinist, an animated feature co-directed by Singaporean Ervin Han and Spain’s Raul Garcia, is set in Singapore and Malaya before and during the Japanese Occupation. It tells the story of two young musicians whose friendship and dreams are shattered by World War II.
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Ah Girl, the debut feature from Singapore filmmaker Ang Geck Geck, follows a seven-year-old girl navigating a chaotic, fragmented world shaped by her parents’ separation. The film has already screened at major festivals including Toronto and Rotterdam, and hits Singapore cinemas on Nov 19.
Shorts Buah (also known as Fruit) and She Said each received one nomination. Buah, written and directed by Jen Nee Lim, follows a pregnant woman who repeatedly tries to end her pregnancy in a time when abortion is illegal.
She Said, directed by Ivan Tan and starring Chinese actress Fan Bingbing, tells the story of a woman recounting her past in a scam compound on the day she gets proposed to.
Full Singapore nominations
We Are All Strangers
Best Narrative Feature – Giraffe Pictures
Best Director – Anthony Chen
Best Leading Actress – Yeo Yann Yann
Best Supporting Actor – Andi Lim
Best Makeup and Costume Design – Irin Lee, Red Ngoh
Best Original Film Score – Kin Leonn, Thomas Foguenne
Best Film Editing – Chen Hoping
The Violinist
Best Animated Feature – Ervin Han, Raul Garcia, Robot Playground Media, TV ON Producciones, Altri Occhi
Best Adapted Screenplay – Ervin Han, Jordan Katherine See
Best Original Film Score – Ricky Ho, Isabel Latorre Saez
Ah Girl
Best New Director – Ang Geck Geck
Best New Performer – Ong Xuan Jing
Best Adapted Screenplay – Ang Geck Geck
Buah
Best Live Action Short Film – Lim Jen Nee
She Said
Best Live Action Short Film – Ivan Tan
Acting categories
In the best actor race, Leon Dai was nominated for Kung Fu alongside Liu Kuan-ting for Double Happiness, Yeung Wai-lun for We Are Born Good, Ethan Juan for Arrested Memory and Jack Tan for Dead Tide.
There are no Taiwanese actors among the best actress nominees. The contenders are Angela Yuen from Afterpiece, Jennifer Yu from Double Happiness, Liang Cuishan from Big Little Things, Chung Suet-ying from We Are Born Good and Yeo Yann Yann from We Are All Strangers.
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The nominees for best narrative feature are Girl, Double Happiness, We Are Born Good, Arrested Memory and We Are All Strangers.
Ceremony details
The awards ceremony takes place on Nov. 22 at the Taipei Music Center. Red carpet starts at 5pm, with the ceremony kicking off at 6:30pm. All five Singapore films will be screened as part of the Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival, which runs from Nov. 6.
