Welcome to the most low-tech awards live blog on the internet! You guys know how this works by now. The most recent update will be on top (all timestamped), and you just have to keep reloading the post to see what’s happening. Enjoy the night!

23:15: And that’s it from me for Golden Horse 59. See you all at Golden Horse 60!

23:12: So that was interesting. LIMBO picks up the bulk of the technical prize, but got almost no major prize (other than screenplay in a two-film race). Hui’s jury supported a Hong Kong film about ethnic minority and dared to compete at the awards, then supported as many Taiwanese films as it could, then made history doing it along the way. I haven’t seen all the films, so I can’t comment on how much I agree with the results, but they were certainly interesting.

Worth noting: LIMBO was the only film where its winners were absent at the ceremony. All the other films’ winners showed up.

23:11: Final award tally: Four awards for LIMBO, three awards for THE SUNNY SIDE OF THE STREET, two awards each for COO COO 043, INCANTATION and GAGA, and one award each for SALUTE, BAD EDUCATION, A LIGHT NEVER GOES OUT, DEMIGOD: THE LEGEND BEGINS, CAN YOU HEAR ME, WILL YOU LOOK AT ME, AND MILES TO GO BEFORE I SLEEP, MY BEST FRIEND’S BREAKFAST, THE NARROW ROAD and COMPOUND EYES OF TROPICAL.

23:09: Hui says that she felt revitalized after watching all the films this year. Li says that he’s so nervous that they should just skip this award.

And the Best Narrative Film award goes to: COO COO 043! Ann Hui strikes again!

23:07: Committee President Mark Li Ping-bin and Jury President Ann Hui now present the Best Narrative Film award.

23:04: One last reminder: Ann Hui’s jury gave Best Narrative Film to SUMMER IS GONE back in 2016. It won no other award.

23:03: Last prelim tally before the big prize: Four awards for LIMBO, three awards for THE SUNNY SIDE OF THE STREET, two awards each for INCANTATION and GAGA, and one award each for SALUTE, BAD EDUCATION, A LIGHT NEVER GOES OUT, DEMIGOD: THE LEGEND BEGINS, CAN YOU HEAR ME, WILL YOU LOOK AT ME, AND MILES TO GO BEFORE I SLEEP, MY BEST FRIEND’S BREAKFAST, THE NARROW ROAD, COMPOUND EYES OF TROPICAL and COO COO 043.

23:01: Anthony Wong gives a nod to Clara Law, telling her that he should’ve believed her (assuming that she told him that she guessed he would win).

23:00: Wong gets teary as he says he wants to tell his late mother that he finally got his Golden Horse best actor award. He jokes with Sahal: “Shall we cry together?”

22:59: So who wants to bet on LIMBO not winning Best Narrative Film tonight? I’m fine with being wrong, but I think its chances are very slim now.

22:57: Wong brings his young co-star Sahal Zaman to the stage, and he is crying harder than Wong.

22:56: And the Best Actor award goes to: Anthony Wong for THE SUNNY SIDE OF THE STREET, the film’s third award.

This is Wong’s first Best Actor win, finally.

22:54: Last year’s Best Actress winner Alyssa Chia now presenting Best Actor, another tough category to call.

22:50: I guess the white whale for Sylvia Chang is that elusive Best Director prize, eh?

22:42: Chang and Kuroki are presenting Best Actress. The critics voted for Sylvia, but let’s see what the jury says. This is a tough category to call.

And the Best Actress Award goes to: Sylvia Chang for A LIGHT NEVER GOES OUT, for the film’s first award of the night.

Chang has not won this award in 36 years, but this is her third Golden Horse Best Actress win out of ten nominations. Maggie Cheung still holds the record with 4 wins.

22:41: Kuroki also talks about wanting to work with Sylvia Chang.

22:40: Last year’s Best Actor winner Chang Chen and Japan’s Hitomi Kuroki on the stage now. Kuroki talks about going to Taiwan for the first time 20 years ago for DARK WATER.

22:33: I apologize for previously using the term “aborigine”. I had not realized that the correct term now is “Taiwanese indigenous people”.

22:30: Mebow is not only the first Taiwanese indigenous director to win Best Director at the Golden Horse. She is the first Taiwanese female director to win Best Director at the Golden Horse.

22:29: Mebow joked that she didn’t let her actors read from the script while they’re acting, so she didn’t write a speech to read from.

22:28: And the Best Director Award goes to: Laha Mebow for GAGA!!!!!!!! The second award of the night for the film.

22:26: Last year’s best director winner Clara Law on the stage now to present Best Director. She couldn’t make it to the award ceremony last year due to the pandemic. Law said that she almost didn’t make it tonight because she caught COVID and had to quarantine. Huge smile on Ann Hui’s face after seeing Law talk about making it to the ceremony in time. .

22:22: We come back with Hsieh doing an INCANTATION parody to introduce the film as a Best Narrative Film nominee.

22:17: Awards tally time: Four awards for LIMBO, two awards each for INCANTATION and THE SUNNY SIDE OF THE STREET, and one award each for SALUTE, BAD EDUCATION, GAGA, DEMIGOD: THE LEGEND BEGINS, CAN YOU HEAR ME, WILL YOU LOOK AT ME, AND MILES TO GO BEFORE I SLEEP, MY BEST FRIEND’S BREAKFAST, THE NARROW ROAD, COMPOUND EYES OF TROPICAL and COO COO 043.

22:14: Lau is visibly shocked. Hong Kong cinema is having a huge moment at this year’s award, even if most of the people from the biggest winner got too scared to show up.

22:13: And the Best New Director award goes to: Lau Kok-rui for THE SUNNY SIDE OF THE STREET, for its second award of the night.

22:11: Kore-eda recalls going to Taiwan to film interviews with Edward yang and Hou Hsiao-hsien before he began making films.

22:10: Gwei Lun-mei and Hirokazu Kore-eda now on the stage to present Best New Director.

22:08: Hsieh now introduces THE SUNNY SIDE OF THE STREET, reading a letter written by director Lau Kok-rui. He writes about his experiences of working with refugees and wanting to write a Hong Kong road movie about a Hongkongers and a refugee.

22:03: Now, time for Best Original Film Song. The award goes to: MY BEST FRIEND’S BREAKFAST, which was completely expected.

Boy, I’d like to hear Wen Tien-hsiang talk about the deliberations for this award.

Singer-songwriter Eric Chou was also nominated for Best New Performer tonight.

22:01: First up, the Best Original Film Score award goes to: THE NARROW ROAD, for its first award of the night!

21:59: Here we go, hour 4. Musician Sandee Chen is on stage to present both music awards.

21:53: OK, so I guess we’ll get the award finally presented in hour 4. More ads means we’re getting closer to the big awards.

21:51: As I mentioned in my preview post, THE NARROW ROAD originally had the fifth Original Song nomination slot, but the nomination was withdrawn when it was discovered that the song wasn’t written for the film and had been performed publicly before, hence only four nominated songs this year.

If there is one nice thing I can say about MY BEST FRIEND’S BREAKFAST, it’s that its theme song was decent.

21:42: Hsieh returns from commercial break to thank the jury led by Ann Hui first. Hui is left standing by herself for some reason (usually the whole jury stands together).

Time for Best Original Song. But first, they have to be performed.

21:40: And now we’re into the snacking portion of the night. I know there are some fruits lying around the flat…

21:37: Are we really ahead of schedule? We still have the music awards, Best New Director, the two major acting awards, Best Director and Best Narrative Film.

21:35: The team forgot to let the producer speak. Liu tells them that they’re running ahead of schedule, so there’s time for her to speak. He’s a nice guy.

21:33: Liu and Wang stay to present Best Animated Short Film.

The Best Animated Short Film goes to: COMPOUND EYES OF TROPICAL.

21:32: Awards tally time: Four awards for LIMBO, two awards for INCANTATION, and one award each for SALUTE, BAD EDUCATION, GAGA, DEMIGOD: THE LEGEND BEGINS, CAN YOU HEAR ME, WILL YOU LOOK AT ME, AND MILES TO GO BEFORE I SLEEP, COO COO 043 and THE SUNNY SIDE OF THE STREET.

21:25: Liu Kuan-ting and Wang Yu-xuan – last year’s supporting actor and actress winners – now on the stage to present the short film awards. First up: Best Live Action Short Film.

And the Best Live Action Short Film goes to: CAN YOU HEAR ME?

The film is directed by Lin Nien-hsiu, who is a veteran editor in the industry.

21:24: Ko jokes that he is the editor of INCANTATION because he couldn’t afford an editor. He says that editing is a lonely job, so he wants to pay tribute to all the editors out there.

21:23: INCANTATION was edited by director Kevin Ko, so this may be his only chance to get on the stage tonight.

21:22: And the Best Editing award goes to: INCANTATION, for its second award of the night.

21:20: Chang and Chen stay to present Best Editing.

21:19: You may recognize winner Sheu Fang-yi from Hou Hsiao-hsien’s THE ASSASSIN. She is an acclaimed dancer who choreographed and starred in SALUTE, based on her life story.

21:17: Chang Hsiao-chuan and his POST-TRUTH WORLD co-star Edward Chen now presenting Best Action Choreography.

(I had though that Anthony Wong would present this and made a mistake).

As I mentioned, including SALUTE is very interesting.

And SALUTE wins Best Action Choreography, for its first award of the night!

21:05: We’re in hour 3 now as Hsieh gives her intro for the In Memoriam segment, featuring a medley performed by Nicky Lee.

21:03: Chen’s widow talks about how Chen placed equal emphasis on safety and craft on the set, and she hopes that everyone on film sets can finish their work safely so they can go home to their family. An excellent speech.

21:00: Chen’s widow is onstage now to accept the award on his behalf.

20:58: Chen had worked on quite a few recent films and TV series, including GATAO 2, PLURALITY and WHO KILLED COCK ROBIN.

20:57: Midi Z presents the Outstanding Taiwanese Filmmaker of the Year award to Chen Ming-ze, the special effects and pyrotechnics wizard who passed away earlier this year.

20:53: Back to the Best Supporting Actor speech, apparently Zhu first thanked Angie Chai, who had cut his management contract.

20:50: Time for Best Sound Effects. The award goes to: INCANTATION, for its first award of the night.

If INCANTATION was going to win one award tonight, it would be this one, indeed.

20:46: And the Best Supporting Actor award goes to: Berant Zhu for BAD EDUCATION, for the film’s first award of the night.

BAD EDUCATION is Kai Ko’s directorial debut. Ko is nominated for Best New Director tonight (the first Best New Actor nominee to also be nominated for Best New Director).

Zhu is a man of very few words.

20:44: Wong’s first award is Best Supporting Actor. He humble brags that he’s won this three times. He also jokes that this is compensating for the fact that he won’t win tonight.

(He has won three Best Supporting Actors, but hasn’t won a Best Actor before)

20:43: Anthony Wong now on stage to present three awards to loud cheers.

20:38: 91-year-old Lai starts his speech in Taiwanese, then thanks the usual people: Golden Horse, former collaborators, etc etc.

20:34: Lai directed EXECUTION IN AUTUMN, which I think is one of my father’s favorite films.

20:31: Liang Hsiu-shen on the stage now to present the Lifetime Achievement Award to director Lai Cheng-Ying, an old-school first generation Taiwanese filmmaker. He hired Hou Hsiao-hsien to be his scriptwriter and assistant director before. Legendary New Taiwan cinema director Chen Kun-Hou is actually his uncle and gave him his start in the industry.

20:29: And now, the intro video for COO COO 043, nominated for 13 awards tonight and has won only one so far.

20:28: And the Best Cinematography award goes to: LIMBO, for its fourth award of the night. Oh, look, it’s the same rep accepting the award. This should almost shameful.

The rep actually says something meaningful this time, saying that Cheng Siu-keung is a great cinematographer.

20:27: Piling is so good as the granny in GAGA. Please see her when you get the chance.

She thanks all her fellow indigenous people at the end of her speech.

Chang stays to present Best Cinematography. I expect LIMBO to take this as well. Chang almost forgot to cue the nomination clip.

20:25: And the Best Supporting Actress award goes to: Kagaw Piling for GAGA! For its first award of the night.

This is Piling’s first nod and first win.

20:23: Forever Golden Horse Big Sister Sylvia Chang takes the stage to present on her own. She is presenting Best Supporting Actress.

20:18: Worth noting that LIMBO also lost the Makeup and Design award back in Hong Kong.

20:16: Awards tally: Three awards for LIMBO, one award each for DEMIGOD: THE LEGEND BEGINS, WILL YOU LOOK AT ME, AND MILES TO GO BEFORE I SLEEP, COO COO 043 and THE SUNNY SIDE OF THE STREET.

20:14: And now, the Best Makeup & Costume Design award goes to: DEMIGOD: THE LEGEND BEGINS!!!!!

Y’all, this is my favorite puppetry wuxia film ever. It’s also the only puppetry wuxia film I have seen.

20:13: There was a bunch of screams for whoever that was in the clip for THE ABANDONED. I’ll look it up in a sec.

The Best Art Direction Award goes to: LIMBO, for its third award of the night. The rep who accepted the screenplay award earlier is back.

20:11: Mason Lee and Vivian Sung now on the stage to present two more tech awards. First up: Best Art Direction.

20:04: A-Lin now on stage to perform a medley of songs in Taiwanese indigenous language. A good transition from GAGA, a film about a Taiwanese indigenous family.

20:03: And we have another segment introducing a Best Narrative film nominee. This time, it’s GAGA, which I’m kind of pulling for in that category.

20:01: And now we enter hour two of the award ceremony with six awards given out already.

19:56: Huang asks once more whether Chang wants to take the stage. Another student of his is receiving the award on his behalf at his request.

19:55: However, Chang has opted to not take the stage to receive the award. Huang says in the intro video that Chang would rather sit in the audience and film it from his cell phone.

19:54: It’s worth noting that this is the first time a documentary director is receiving a Golden Horse Lifetime Achievement Award.

19:49: I kid, Huang is presenting one of the two Lifetime Achievement Awards tonight. The first is for Chang Chao-Tang, director and avant-garde artist who was Huang’s mentor when he studied documentary filmmaking.

The intro video shows that Hou Hsiao-hsien even featured a clip of Chang’s documentary in DUST IN THE WIND.

19:48: Director Huang Hsin-yao onstage by himself to present an award…in Taiwanese. I’m taking a break, I guess.

19:45: Next is Best Documentary Short Film.

The Best Documentary Short Film goes to: WILL YOU LOOK AT ME. This is one of the very, very few films from Mainland China that got nominated.

19:42: The Vietnamese woman on stage read a letter from the younger sibling of the victim in the case.

19:41: MILES is about the police shooting of a runaway Vietnamese migrant worker. There is a Taiwan Plus news story about the film here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65E1DIWueQY

19:40: The Best Documentary Award goes to: AND MILES TO GO BEFORE I SLEEP, a bit of a dark horse!

19:36: Yu An-shun and Yang Li-ying, both getting their first GH nods this year for COO COO 043, now on the stage to present an award. They are presenting Best Documentary.

19:32: Four award later, another commercial break.

19:31: Lights out for another special segment. Hsieh is doing an intro of LIMBO in a gray palate. This is an excellent intro. Oscars, eat your heart out.

19:29: Getting into the technical awards now, Han and Wang are presenting Best Visual Effects. I’m expecting LIMBO to take this, but let’s see.

And the Best Visual Effects award goes to: LIMBO, for its second award of the night. It seems like at least two of the winners DID show up to the ceremony.

19:27: So it looks like the Taiwan film critic I quoted earlier today on Twitter is correct: Ann Hui’s juries like to spread out their awards to different films. Right now, we have one award each for COO COO 043, LIMBO and THE SUNNY SIDE OF THE STREET.

19:25: Holy crap, I hope the little girl from INCANTATION has never actually seen her own movie.

The Best New Performer award goes to: Hu Jhih-Ciang for COO COO 043, for the film’s first award of the night.

Hu is also nominated for Best Supporting Actor tonight.

19:24: Greg Han and Gingle Wang now onstage to present Best New Performer. Han joked that neither of them have been nominated for this award before.

19:22: As expected, LIMBO takes the Best Adapted Screenplay award, for its first award of the night.

Neither Au Kin-yee nor Shun Kwan-sin came to get their award, obviously.

19:21: Chen and Ko staying to present Best Adapted Screenplay. There are only two nominees, and LIMBO is almost locked to take it.

19:20: If anyone is asking, SUNNY seems to be planning on a long festival tour and won’t open in Hong Kong until next year.

19:19: Lau Kok-rui is literally speechless. He even asks if the presenters read the wrong name.

19:18: And the Best Original Screenplay award goes to: THE SUNNY SIDE OF THE STREET, for its first award of the night!

19:16: Chen Bolin and Best New Director nominee Kai Ko now onstage together to present the first award of the night: Best Original Screenplay.

Kai teases that he’d like to direct Chen in a film and earn him his first ever Golden Horse nomination in his 20-year career.

19:12: To be honest, I haven’t seen quite a few of the nominees, so I’m kind of a neutral observer tonight. I’m pulling for most of the Hong Kong films, of course.

And with that, our first commercial break.

19:09: We cut into the obligatory montage of this year’s nominees.

19:08: God, I miss having award hosts. I don’t even mind the bad ones (Hsieh is doing well so far).

19:07: Hsieh segues into a musical performance (natch). Hsieh is also a famed stage performer and founded her own theatrical troupe.

19:05: Hsieh starts by showing some love to the two Japanese guests, Ann Hui, Sylvia Chang, Anthony Wong and the other nominees.

19:03: He doesn’t say anything significant, introducing ceremony host, Golden Horse Best Actress winner Hsieh Ying-xuan.

19:02: Golden Horse Committee’s new president Mark Li Ping-bin, taking over from Ang Lee, kicks off the show tonight.

19:00: The show is officially starting! I’m still eating! Let’s try and keep up.

18:56: And Japanese star Hitomi Kuroki is the grand finale of the red carpet show. She and Kore-eda both gave masterclasses this week, and she will be presenting an award tonight.

18:54: You know who’s bigger than the jury president? Hirokazu Kore-eda. He will be presenting Best New Director tonight and is now walking the red carpet.

18:50: Jury president Ann Hui accompanied by Chang Chen and Gwei Lun-mei, who will be presenting tonight and are on this year’s jury. No LIMBO team?

18:44: Honestly, I’m a little surprised to see Chang Hsiao-chuan show up tonight for THE POST-TRUTH WORLD. It’s unimaginable he’d show up just after the Mainland ban set in.

18:42: The biggest question mark is whom from the LIMBO team will be attending, and we’ll know when they walk the red carpet (if I haven’t missed it already).

18:40: I was quite interested in seeing who shows up for Hong Kong films. For example, Jennifer Yu and Louis Cheung didn’t show up. But Sylvia Chang, nominated for Best Actress for A LIGHT NEVER GOES OUT, is here.

18:32 – Welcome to the live blog! We’re starting a little early while checking out the red carpet show. Dinner is in the oven, so we’re not updating as often just yet.