‘Stonewalling’ and ‘Old Fox’ Take Honors at Taiwan’s Golden Horse Film Awards

The husband and wife team of Otsuka Ryuji and Huang Ji, who worked with a minimalist crew and mostly non-professional actors, gave a round of thanks to Asian leading auteurs for inspiring them, and then hugged each other on stage for winning the Taipei Golden Horse Film Awards best narrative feature prize with their pregnancy drama “Stonewalling.”

The numerical winner on Saturday night was “Old Fox,” which earned the best director award for Hsiao Ya-chuan, as well as the best supporting actor, makeup and costume, and best film score prizes.

The nominations, announced in October, saw “Snow in Midsummer” collect nine nominations and Taiwan‘s Oscar contender “Marry My Dead Body” head the field with eight. They were narrowly ahead of a further cluster of films with seven nominations each, including “Abang Adik,” “Old Fox,” “Trouble Girl” and “The Pig, the Snake and the Pigeon.”

On the evening, “Marry My Dead Body” won only one prize (for best adapted screenplay), while the Golden Horse Film Festival’s opening title “Snow in Midsummer” was also largely snubbed. It won only in the best sound effects category.

The Golden Horse Film Awards are generally considered as the most prestigious awards in Chinese-language cinema, though they have become less representative of the full width of the Chinese-language industry in recent years due to mainland Chinese pressure on Taiwan. But the Taiwan government is fighting back by bolstering other aspects of its cultural soft power. And for those in attendance Saturday at Taipei’s 2,500-seater Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall venue such trifles seemed far away.

Instead, the 60th anniversary edition resembled an arms wide open, joyful and glitzy party. Presenters, awards winners and even the head of a local telecoms firm received warm and plentiful applause from a fired-up audience.

On the red carpet were a parade of Chinese-language and Asian cinema celebrities. On stage at different times were Brigitte Lin, Sylvia Chang, Ang Lee, Lin Chi-lin, Hong Kong’s Ann Hui and Japan’s Kitano Takeshi and Yakusho Koji. At opposite ends of the career spectrum, retired actor Brigitte Lin and 12-year-old Audrey Lin received the evening’s biggest cheers. Though there were plenty more too for producer Lin Shih-ken, announced as the filmmaker of the year.

60th Taipei Golden Horse Film Awards – 2023 Prize Winners:

Best Narrative Feature
“Stonewalling”

Best Leading Actor
Wu Kang-ren in “Abang Adik”

Best Director
Hsiao Yu-chuan

Best documentary Feature
“Youth”

Best Leading Actress
Audrey Lin in “Trouble Girl”

Best Original Film Score
Chris Hou for “Old Fox”

Best Supporting Actress
Beatrice Fang in “Day Off”

Best Film Editing
Liao Ching-sung, Otsuka Ryuji for “Stonewalling”

Best Supporting Actor
Akio Chen for “Old Fox”

Best cinematography
Yu Jing-pin for “Fish Memories”

Best Original Screenplay
Sun Jie “The Mountain Is Coming”

Best Adapted Screenplay
Wu Chin-jung, Cheng Wei-hao for “Marry My Dead Body”

Best Make Up and Costume Design
Wang Chih-cheng, Shirley Kao for “Old Fox”

Best Art Direction
Huang Mei-ching, Tu Shuo-feng for “Eye of the Storm”

Best Sound Effects
Tu Duu-chih, Wu Shu-yao, Chen Kuan-ting for “Snow in Midsummer”

Best New Performer
Tse Yoyo in “Fly Me to the Moon”

Best Action Choreography
Hung Shi-hao for “The Pig, the Snake and the Pigeon”

Best New Director
Nick Cheuk for “Time Still Turns the Pages”

Best Visual Effects
ArChin Yen for “Eye of the Storm”

Best Animated Feature
“Pigsy” Dir. Chiu Li-wei. (studio2 Animation Lab, Cheer Digiart Inc., MyVideo, Taiwan Mobile, Tomorrow Together Capital)

Best Animated Short
“Monsoon Blue” Dirs. Ellis Chan Ka-yin, Wong Hiu-kit

Best Live Action Short
“Before the Box Gets Emptied” Dir. Ho Sze-wai

Best documentary Short
“The Memo” Badlands Film Group

Lifetime Achievement Awards (2x)
Chen Kun-hou
Brigitte Lin

Outstanding Taiwanese Filmmaker of the Year
Lin Shih-ken