Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

has submitted 37 films for the

Academy Award for Best International Feature Film The Academy Award for Best International Feature Film (known as Best Foreign Language Film prior to 2020) is one of the Academy Awards handed out annually by the U.S.-based Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). It is given to a ...

since first entering the Oscar competition in 1959. The award is handed out annually by the United States

Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS, often pronounced ; also known as simply the Academy or the Motion Picture Academy) is a professional honorary organization with the stated goal of advancing the arts and sciences of motio ...

to a

feature-length A feature film or feature-length film is a narrative film (motion picture or "movie") with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole presentation in a commercial entertainment program. The term ''feature film'' originall ...

motion picture produced outside the United States that contains primarily non-English dialogue. Hong Kong's submission is decided annually by Hong Kong's Motion Picture Industry Association. Hong Kong, China, and Taiwan are recognized as separate entities by

AMPAS The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS, often pronounced ; also known as simply the Academy or the Motion Picture Academy) is a professional honorary organization with the stated goal of advancing the arts and sciences of motion ...

and each one routinely sends a film to the competition. To date, three Hong Kong submissions have obtained nominations: 1991's ''

Raise the Red Lantern ''Raise the Red Lantern'' is a 1991 film directed by Zhang Yimou and starring Gong Li. It is an adaptation by of the 1990 novella '' Raise the Red Lantern'' (originally ''Wives and Concubines'') by Su Tong. The film was later adapted into an ...

'', 1993's '' Farewell My Concubine'', and 2019's '' Better Days''. The first two were directed by

Mainland Mainland is defined as "relating to or forming the main part of a country or continent, not including the islands around it egardless of status under territorial jurisdiction by an entity" The term is often politically, economically and/or dem ...

-directors, with ''Better Days'' as the only nominee directed by a Hong Kong native. Although one of the hallmarks of

Hong Kong Cinema The cinema of Hong Kong ( zh, t=香港電影) is one of the three major threads in the history of Chinese language cinema, alongside the cinema of China and the cinema of Taiwan. As a former British colony, Hong Kong had a greater degree of po ...

has been its use of the distinctive

Cantonese Cantonese ( zh, t=廣東話, s=广东话, first=t, cy=Gwóngdūng wá) is a language within the Chinese (Sinitic) branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages originating from the city of Guangzhou (historically known as Canton) and its surrounding are ...

language, less than half of Hong Kong's Oscar submissions have been in Cantonese. Although the American 2006 film ''

The Departed ''The Departed'' is a 2006 American epic crime thriller film directed by Martin Scorsese and written by William Monahan. It is both a remake of the 2002 Hong Kong film ''Infernal Affairs'' and also loosely based on the real-life Boston Winter ...

'' won the

Academy Award for Best Picture The Academy Award for Best Picture is one of the Academy Awards presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) since the awards debuted in 1929. This award goes to the producers of the film and is the only category ...

, the 2002 Hong Kong film it was based on, ''

Infernal Affairs ''Infernal Affairs'' is a 2002 Hong Kong action thriller film co-directed by Andrew Lau and Alan Mak. Jointly written by Mak and Felix Chong, it stars Andy Lau, Tony Leung, Anthony Wong, Eric Tsang, Sammi Cheng and Kelly Chen. The film fo ...

'', did not receive any Academy Award nominations.

Johnnie To Johnnie To Kei-fung (born 22 April 1955) is a Hong Kong film director, screenwriter and film producer. Popular in his native Hong Kong, To has also found acclaim overseas. Intensely prolific, To has made films in a variety of genres, though in ...

and

Li Han-hsiang Richard Li Han-hsiang (; 7 March 1926 in Huludao, Jinxi, Liaoning – 17 December 1996 in Beijing) was a Chinese film director. Li directed more than 70 films in his career beginning in the 1950s and lasting till the 1990s. His ''The Enchanting ...

have had their films selected three times while

Yueh Feng Griffin Yueh Feng (; 1909 or July 29, 1910 – March 3, 1999) was a Chinese film director and screenwriter who worked in the Cinema of Hong Kong. He worked at the Shaw Brothers Studio's for many years and directed nearly 90 films. Early life ...

Wai Ka-fai Wai Ka-Fai (born 21 September 1962) is a Hong Kong screenwriter, producer, film director, and former TV screenwriter and producer. Wai is best known for his frequent collaborations with Johnnie To, another former TV turned film director and pr ...

King Hu Hu Jinquan (29 April 1932 – 14 January 1997), better known as King Hu, was a Chinese film director and actor based in Hong Kong and Taiwan. He is best known for directing various ''wuxia'' films in the 1960s and 1970s, which brought Hong Kong ...

Ann Hui Ann Hui On-wah, (; born 23 May 1947) is a film director, producer, screenwriter and actress from Hong Kong who is one of the most critically acclaimed filmmakers of the Hong Kong New Wave. She is known for her films about social issues in Hon ...

and

Yim Ho Yim Ho (Chinese:嚴浩) is a Hong Kong director most active in the 1980s, and a leader of the Hong Kong New Wave. He began his career making television programs for RTHK, then became a film director in 1980. One of his most critically acclaimed w ...

have each been selected twice. In both 2002 and 2004, Hong Kong's submissions were rejected by the Academy for not conforming to AMPAS rules.

Submissions

Every year, each country is invited by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to submit its best film for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. The Foreign Language Film Award Committee oversees the process and reviews all the submitted films. Following this, they vote via

secret ballot The secret ballot, also known as the Australian ballot, is a voting method in which a voter's identity in an election or a referendum is anonymous. This forestalls attempts to influence the voter by intimidation, blackmailing, and potential vote ...

to determine the five nominees for the award. Below is a list of the films that have been submitted by Hong Kong for review by the Academy for the award. Hong Kong's submissions have included a large number of films set in Mainland China, including several lavish period costume dramas (1966, 1976, 1991, 2000 and 2006), two tales set against the background of the

Peking Opera Peking opera, or Beijing opera (), is the most dominant form of Chinese opera, which combines music, vocal performance, mime, dance and acrobatics. It arose in Beijing in the mid-Qing dynasty (1644–1912) and became fully developed and recognize ...

scene (1989 and 1993) as well as more intimate stories of rural China (1969, 1979, 1984 and 1994). They have also selected one story about the traditional

Cantonese opera Cantonese opera is one of the major categories in Chinese opera, originating in southern China's Guangdong Province. It is popular in Guangdong, Guangxi, Hong Kong, Macau and among Chinese communities in Southeast Asia. Like all versions of Ch ...

scene in Hong Kong (1996), three gritty triad dramas focusing on Hong Kong's criminal underworld (2001, 2003, 2007), two melodramas (1959, 1964), two contemporary family dramas (1995 and 1998), stories focusing on immigration to and from Hong Kong (1990 and 1999), a number of supernatural thrillers (1960, 2002, 2004, 2008), and two big-budget musicals (1963, 2005). In 2009, they chose a historical drama set in neighboring

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

for the first time.

Notes

References

;General ;Specific

External links

The Official Academy Awards DatabaseIMDb Academy Awards Page
{{DEFAULTSORT:List Of Hong Kong Submissions For The Academy Award For Best Foreign Language Film

Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film The Academy Award for Best International Feature Film (known as Best Foreign Language Film prior to 2020) is one of the Academy Awards handed out annually by the U.S.-based Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). It is given to a ...

Submissions

See also

Notes

References

External links