There is less interest in the 35th Hong Kong Film Awards (HKFA), and it has nothing to do with China Central Television and Tencent not broadcasting the awards night on April 3.
Even within the special administrative region (SAR), enthusiasm of Hong Kong media for the awards night is waning. Proof of this are the lesser space that the press has given to report on the forthcoming event, reported Global Times.
There are no predictions on who would be the winners and no interview either with nominees. As it is, reception to the film festival was already cold in 2015, but it just turned colder this year. In contrast, while not only the award’s night but Hong Kong’s movie industry is weakening, the opposite is true in mainland where movies like “The Mermaid” are breaking box office records.
Even Hollywood movies, such as “The Revenant” and “Zootopia” are also doing well in the mainland, while the popularity of American films in Southeast Asia, once a dollar earner for Hong Kong film producers, negatively affected the movie industry in the SAR.
Derek Yee, chairman of the 35th HKFA, admitted that the Hong Kong movie industry appears to be “an already aging man at the age of 34.” Yee said that to boost the film festival, the organizers thought of expanding by allowing non-Hong Kong films to participate, but there is too much competition with similar film festivals.
Yee cited the mainland’s Golden Rooster and Hundred Flowers Awards, Taiwan’s Golden Horse Awards and Hong Kong’s International Film Festival’s Asian Film Awards as examples.
The 34th HKFA in 2015 was actually a foretaste of the growing strength of mainland films when actress Zhao Wei won the Best Actress Award, while “The Golden Era” got most of the awards.
The reason behind CCTV and Tencent’s decision not to broadcast the 35th HKFA is "Ten Years," a movie about life in the mainland by 2025 under tight control of the Communist Party of China, is a nominee for the Best Picture, reported Reuters.