HK Film Awards: Sean Lau is Best Actor for 4th time, Michelle Wai is first-time Best Actress
Sean Lau won for his role as a father in Papa, while Michelle Wai won for her role in The Last Dance. PHOTOS: AFP
HK Film Awards: Sean Lau is Best Actor for 4th time, Michelle Wai is first-time Best Actress
It was a 'family affair' at the Hong Kong Film Awards (HKFA) on April 27, with actors playing family members in the films Papa and The Last Dance clinching acting awards.
Veteran actor Sean Lau, 61, won for his role as a father in Papa, which is based on the 2010 Heung Wo Street murders. The film is set in the aftermath of the tragedy, as the father navigates survivor guilt and seeks reconciliation with his teenage son, who killed his mother and sister.
Lau was previously named Best Actor for Detective Vs Sleuths (2022), Overheard 3 (2014) and My Name Is Fame (2006).
Hong Kong singer-actress Jo Koo, 47, who played his on-screen wife in Papa, and rookie Dylan So, 18, who played his son, won Best Supporting Actress and Best New Performer respectively.
Hong Kong singer-actress Jo Koo and rookie Dylan So won Best Supporting Actress and Best New Performer respectively.
PHOTOS: AFP, HONG KONG FILM AWARDS/FACEBOOK
Lau thanked the team, Papa's director and screenwriter Philip Yung and his real-life wife – former actress Amy Kwok – for his win.
The actor also thanked the real-life father whom the film is based on, as the father gave his approval for the film after he was approached several times by Yung.
Meanwhile, the Best Actress award went to hot favourite Michelle Wai in The Last Dance, which explores the meaning of life and death through funeral rituals.
This was the first Best Actress win for Wai, 40, who has been in the industry for 17 years. She played an ambulance medic who is the daughter of a hard-nosed Taoist priest, played by veteran actor Michael Hui.
Hui, 82, missed out in the Best Actor category, which he last won at the inaugural HKFA in 1982 for the comedy Security Unlimited.
Actor Tommy Chu, who played Hui's son and Wai's brother in The Last Dance, was named Best Supporting Actor. This was the first award at the HKFA for the 42-year-old.
The Last Dance, Hong Kong's top-grossing film in 2024, also won for Best Screenplay, Best Original Film Score and Best Original Film Song.
Tommy Chu and Michelle Wai in The Last Dance.
PHOTO: GOLDEN VILLAGE
Twilight Of The Warriors: Walled In emerged as the biggest winner of the night after clinching nine awards, including for Best Picture and Best Director for Soi Cheang.
Cheang, 52, also won for Best Director for mystery drama Mad Fate, at the HKFA in 2024.
A crime action film set in the notorious Kowloon Walled City in the 1980s, Twilight Of The Warriors was based on the novel City Of Darkness by writer Yuyi and the comics of the same name by artist Andy Seto.
The film featured Hong Kong stars such as Raymond Lam, Louis Koo and Sammo Hung, as well as younger actors like Terrance Lau, Tony Wu and German Cheung.
Louis Koo (left) and Raymond Lam in Twilight Of The Warriors: Walled In.
PHOTO: SHAW ORGANISATION
Twilight Of The Warriors also claimed other awards such as Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing, Best Art Direction and Best Action Choreography.
Koo, 54, who played the godfather of the Walled City, said during the Best Film acceptance speech that he hoped to see the younger actors taking the Hong Kong movie industry to the next level in subsequent HKFAs.
The Best New Director went to Robin Lee for the documentary Four Trails, while the Best Asian Chinese Language Film went to Taiwan's Old Fox, directed by Hsiao Ya-chuan and starring actor Liu Kuan-ting.
The Lifetime Achievement Award went to director Tsui Hark and film producer Shi Nan Sun.
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