Golden Horse Awards | Macau-born filmaker Clara Law wins best director
A scene from the film “Drifting Petals”
Filmmaker Clara Law clinched best director at the 58th Golden Horse Awards last weekend, finally winning a trophy after being nominated for a Golden Horse award for a seventh time, the Central News Agency reported.
The jury praised Law for using a “poetic” way to examine history and reality in her alternate film “Drifting Petals,” and said the film showcased her talent and her vision.
“Drifting Petals” follows a filmmaker and a piano student across their past and future in Hong Kong and Macau after they first meet in Australia. Their stories merge as they each search for something that is disappearing from the cities they love.
Law, a Macau-born, HK-raised director, who now lives in Australia, did not attend the ceremony on Saturday, but asked Lin Lai, one of the actresses in the film, to accept the award on her behalf.
Lai said that Law is known as being the director with the most wretched luck, as she has been nominated numerous times without ever winning.
“It felt like people were telling me, you aren’t good enough, and you need to try harder again,” Lin quoted Law as saying.
The director wanted to thank everyone who worked on the film, and every single friend who offered her help throughout the process.
“Most especially, she wants to thank Eddie Fong, the person who cooks alongside her in the kitchen every day,” Li said, referring to Law’s long-term writing- producing partner and husband.
Four years in the making, the film was funded, written, shot, and post-produced entirely by Law and Fong.
Law, 64, had previously received six nominations at the Golden Horse Awards – four for best director and two for best original screenplay – for the films “Like a Dream,” “Floating Life,” “Autumn Moon,” and “Farewell, China.”
This year, the Hong Kong film “Drifting”, which is based on a 2012 court case involving homeless people in the working neighborhood of Sham Shui Po, received 12 nominations including for Best Director, Best Leading Actor and Best Cinematography.
Two Taiwanese movies, titled “The Soul,” “The Falls” and “Till We Meet Again” received 11 nominations each.
“The Falls” won Best Original Screenplay, while “Drifting” won Best Adapted Screenplay.
“Revolution of Our Times,” a documentary about the Hong Kong political unrest in 2019 by Hong Kong director Kiwi Chow, won Best Documentary Feature.
The film was a controversial topic in Hong Kong and Chow was accused of flouting coronavirus rules after authorities raided a private screening of the documentary in Hong Kong. Under Hong Kong laws, private gatherings are not limited by coronavirus restrictions.
Chow has since sold the copyright of the documentary to a European distributor and disposed of all his footage, in light of risks from a sweeping national security law implemented in the city following the political unrest.
The 58th Golden Horse Awards ceremony was held at the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall in Taipei on Saturday. The annual awards, established in 1962, are considered among the most prestigious and time-honored film awards in the world of Chinese-language cinema. MDT/Agencies
