China has released its nominees list for its upcoming Golden Rooster Awards. It is a set government-approved prizes for the film industry. The awards are to be seen as a rival to the Taipei-based Golden Horse Awards. “Chinese-language Oscars.”
The Roosters’ winners will be announced at a film festival that runs Dec. 28-30 in Xiamen, a port city in coastal Fujian province. This is just a short boat trip from Taiwanese soil. Established in 1981, the event was previously held biannually until China’s rift with the Golden Horse prizes occurred in 2018 following a pro-Taiwanese independence acceptance speech and prompted the Roosters to become an annual occurrence.
This year’s twenty different Rooster Awards will honor films screened theatrically between July 1, 2020 and July 15, 2021. As the event is backed by China’s propaganda department, only local and foreign titles that have received official censorship approvals will be considered.
“As we all know, the Golden Rooster Awards are not authoritative — it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call them the Golden Broomsticks. I’m still pining and clamoring for the Golden Horse Awards on the other side of the straits,” read one of the top comments on the Weibo post announcing this year’s Rooster nominees.
“At last, the mainland awards most able to reflect artistic value have also become ‘ideological propaganda awards’,” another lamented, as others jokingly referenced the country’s recently issued five-year plan for film, which states that awards at national film festivals should be balanced and impartial.
The Roosters introduced a new category for best foreign language films this year in an attempt to improve its international reputation. Anthony Hopkins, starring in the film, is one of the nominees. “The Father,”Drama in German-language Russian-Belarusian World War II Drama “Persian Lessons,”Animation “Wolfwalkers,”The Italian live-action film “Pinocchio,”Thai drama “Happy Old Year.”
Propaganda fare rules in other categories.
The best feature films are up for consideration “main melody” propaganda titles “The Pioneer,” “Island Keeper,” “Chinese Doctors,” “My People, My Homeland,”Along with family drama “My Sister” and Zhang Yimou’s snowy thriller “Cliff Walkers” (aka “Impasse”).
Director Jia Ling’s box office smash hit “Hi, Mom,”Drama about a horse set in Inner Mongolia that is causing tears “Harhuu,” Tibetan drama “Wind,” and children’s film “Little Canned Men”You could be in the running to win best first film.
Nominees for best actor include TFboy idol “Better Days”Fame Jackson Yee“A Little Red Flower”), Guo Xiaodong (“My Father”), Yu Hewei (“Impasse”), Zhang Yi (“Impasse”), and Liu Ye (“Island Keeper”).
Chinese film ‘1921’
“1921”
Best actress nominees include rising stars Liu Haocun (“A Little Red Flower”), Zhang Xiaofei (“Hi, Mom”), Zhang Zifeng (“My Sister”), Liu Mintao (“Let Life Be Beautiful”).
Zhang’s “Cliff Walkers” “1921,”A film celebrating the 100th anniversary the founding of China Communist Party was nominated in six categories.