Tse is oldest Best Actor winner at HK Film Awards

Hong Kong veteran actor Patrick Tse has become the oldest actor to win the Best Actor prize at the Hong Kong Film Awards (HKFA) on Sunday, while Anita, the biopic on late Cantopop superstar Anita Mui, was the biggest winner with five awards.

Tse, 85, won the award for his role as a retired assassin in the black comedy Time, which also starred veteran actress Petrina Fung Bo Bo and actor Lam Suet.

It was also the first HKFA nomination for Tse, who has been in the entertainment industry for 70 years. He beat actors Gordon Lam (Hand Rolled Cigarette and Limbo), Francis Ng (Drifting) and Leung Chung Hang (Zero To Hero) in the category.

The audience gave Tse a standing ovation as he was accompanied onstage by Lam.

"You are the first Best Actor winner in HKFA history to receive a standing ovation," Lam, 54, said.

Tse said: "I don't know what to say. I will just take the award."

Tse's son, singer-actor Nicholas Tse, posted a photo of his father on social media and wrote: "Congrats, dad."

The younger Tse, who won HKFA's Best New Performer in 1999 at the age of 18 for Young And Dangerous: The Prequel, had famously joked that his father had failed at the awards despite acting in more than 100 films.

Nicholas Tse, 41, later apologised to his dad on stage after he won Best Actor for The Stool Pigeon at the HKFA in 2011.

Anita won five awards on Sunday night, including Best New Performer for Hong Kong model Louise Wong, 32, who played Mui in the movie, and Best Supporting Actress for Malaysian actress Fish Liew, 32, who played the singer's elder sister Ann Mui.

The movie also won Best Costume and Make-up Design, Best Sound Design and Best Visual Effects.

The Best Film award went to crime action film Raging Fire, which starred Donnie Yen and Nicholas Tse.

The film's director, the late Benny Chan, was named Best Director. He died of cancer at age 58 in August 2020.

Chinese actress Cya Liu, who played a street urchin in Limbo, won Best Actress, beating more illustrious names such as Sandra Ng (Zero To Hero) and Gong Li (Leap). It was the first win for Liu, 33, who received a Best Supporting Actress nomination at the HKFA in 2020.

Hong Kong comedy legend Michael Hui, 79, won the Lifetime Achievement Award.