S’pore directors’ Mongrel and Stranger Eyes score a record 13 Golden Horse Awards nominations

SINGAPORE – Two made-with-Singapore films, Mongrel and Stranger Eyes, have received a combined 13 nominations at Taiwan’s Golden Horse Awards, setting a new record for films made with Singapore participation at the event.

This surpasses the previous record of nine nominations set in 2023 by the historical drama Snow In Midsummer.

The nominee list for 2024 was announced by the Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival on Oct 2. The winners will be announced at a ceremony at the Taipei Music Center on Nov 23.

Stranger Eyes, a psychological thriller directed by Singaporean Yeo Siew Hua, has been nominated in six categories including Best Narrative Feature, Best Director and Best Original Screenplay. The film explores themes of surveillance and privacy, following a young couple who receive strange videos after their baby daughter’s mysterious disappearance.

The film has been selected to open the 2024 Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival, making its Asian premiere at the event scheduled to run from Nov 7 to 24. It had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival on Sept 5.

Mongrel, co-directed by Singaporean Chiang Wei Liang and Taiwanese Yin You Qiao, received seven nominations, including for Best New Director (for both Chiang and Yin) and acting nominations in three categories. The film, which earned Chiang the Camera d’Or Special Mention at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, portrays a Thai caregiver in Taiwan facing moral dilemmas.

Lai Weijie from E&W Films, the producer for Mongrel, said he was “so proud of our team”.

“This film brought together top film-making talents worldwide – the seven nominees hail from Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and France. The entire team worked very hard to bring Mongrel to life. We want to thank everyone for believing in us and the film, and thank you to Golden Horse for this strong recognition.”

Producer Fran Borgia from Akanga Film Asia called the six nominations for Stranger Eyes “an honour”, adding: “We are all truly grateful for this recognition, which means so much to us and to Singapore cinema.”

Mr Justin Ang, assistant chief executive of the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA), said this was a “record year for Singapore’s film industry”.

“On the back of our strong showing at both the Cannes and Venice Film Festivals, we are overjoyed that two of our made-with-Singapore films have been recognised by one of Asia’s premier film awards with a record number of nominations.

“Both Mongrel and Stranger Eyes have done extremely well on the global stage with their recent wins and we are very proud of the Singaporean teams involved. IMDA is happy to have supported the film-makers on their journeys and we look forward to more good news soon.”

Taiwanese comedy-horror Dead Talents Society, set in an underworld where ghosts compete to haunt mortals, leads the 2024 Golden Horse Awards race with 11 nominations.

Taiwanese drama Yen And Ai-Lee, about a woman who attempts to reconcile with her mother after spending eight years in prison, and the Chinese homosexual-themed drama Bel Ami, came in second, with both receiving eight nominations.

In the Best Leading Actor race, Taiwanese actor Chang Chen, who previously won the same award for The Soul in 2021, is nominated for crime film The Embers.

Joining him in the nominee slate are four first-time contenders: Taiwanese veteran King Jieh-wen for family drama A Journey In Spring, Hong Kong actor Yau Hawk-sau for The Way We Talk, about young deaf people, Chinese actor Zhang Zhiyong for Bel Ami and the first Thai actor to be nominated in the category – Wanlop Rungkumjad – for Mongrel.

Veteran Taiwanese actress-director Sylvia Chang, who won Best Leading Actress in 2022 for A Light Never Goes Out, and Hong Kong star Sandra Ng, who took home the trophy for Golden Chicken in 2003, both return to compete in the category.

Chang is nominated for family drama Daughter’s Daughter, while Ng is nominated for romantic comedy Love Lies. Rounding out the slate are first-time nominee Kimi Hsia for Yen And Ai-Lee, The Way We Talk’s leading lady Chung Suet-ying and Patra Au for the lesbian-themed family drama All Shall Be Well.

In the Best Supporting Actor race, famed Taiwanese variety show host Zeng Guo-cheng marks his first Golden Horse nomination for Yen And Ai-Lee, while Taiwanese rapper Daniel Hong, part of the rap trio Nine One One, is nominated for Mongrel.

They will go up against Taiwanese actors Lee Kang-sheng, Mo Tzu-yi and Shih Ming-shuai, who are nominated for Stranger Eyes, The Embers and gang movie Gatao: Like Father Like Son respectively.

The Best Supporting Actress slate is similarly all-Taiwanese, with veterans Yang Kuei-mei and Lu Yi-ching nominated for Yen And Ai-Lee and Mongrel respectively. Singer-actress Pets Tseng is nominated for Big, a film about child cancer patients, while Dead Talents Society’s Sandrine Pinna and Daughter’s Daughter’s Eugenie Liu round out the nominees.