Ciao, UFO Sweeps Hong Kong Film Awards; Sons of the Neon Night Claims the Technical Night

The 44th Hong Kong Film Awards wrapped up Sunday evening at the Grand Theatre of the Hong Kong Cultural Centre, and if the night had a thesis, it was this: sentiment and craft don’t have to be in competition. Ciao, UFO walked away with five prizes including Best Film, Best Director, and Best Screenplay, while Sons of the Neon Night — shut out of the directing race entirely — quietly dismantled every technical category in sight. Two very different visions of what Hong Kong cinema can do, and both had a night worth remembering.

The acting races delivered

The Best Actor result was the evening’s sharpest surprise.Tony Leung Ka-fai took the prize for The Shadow’s Edge, beating out Louis Koo — who had managed the rare feat of appearing on the ballot twice, for both Back to the Past and She’s Got No Name. Koo’s double nomination had generated real momentum in the lead-up, and there was a sentimental case for him that the industry clearly felt. Leung’s win was the more austere choice, and probably the right one.

Best Actress went to Fish Liew Chi-yu for Someone Like Me, in what was the night’s most emotionally resonant moment. Playing Mui, an artist living with cerebral palsy, Liew had already swept the precursor awards — Critics Society, Directors’ Guild — so the outcome wasn’t exactly a shock. But watching it actually happen, first nomination and all, was something else. She’s Malaysian. The prize has historically leaned local. None of that seemed to matter last night, which is as it should be.

Sons of the Neon Night: seven trophies, no director

Here’s the strange, fascinating thing about Juno Mak‘s film. It won Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing, Best Art Direction, Best Costume and Makeup Design, Best Original Film Score, Best Sound Design, and Best Visual Effects — seven awards — without its director receiving so much as a nomination in the main directing category. The film’s monochromatic, snow-blanketed Hong Kong is unlike anything else released this year, and the crafts community clearly wanted to say so. Best Original Film Score went to Ryuichi Sakamoto and Nate Connelly — Sakamoto posthumously, which gave the moment a particular weight that the room seemed to feel without anyone needing to say it out loud.

Best Supporting Actor went to Alex To Tak-wai, also for Sons of the Neon Night , consistent with his Directors’ Guild win in March.

Ciao, UFO and the Wah Fu feeling

Patrick Leung Pak-kin‘s film about three childhood friends from Wah Fu Estate — bonded by a shared UFO sighting in 1985, separated by the ordinary disappointments of adult life — had been the critical consensus pick since January. It delivered. Best Film, Best Director, Best Screenplay (Gong Ho-yan and Chin Siu-fai), Best Supporting Actress (Michelle Wai), and Best Original Film Song for Wah Fu No. 1, performed by Huang Shuman. Five awards in total.

The film works because it doesn’t reach. It’s a story about people whose lives didn’t go the way they planned, set in a housing estate that Hong Kong has largely moved on from. That specificity — Wah Fu, 1985, that particular shade of working-class Hong Kong nostalgia — is exactly what translated. Local voters responded to it, and you can understand why.

Shu Qi gets her moment — just not the one predicted

Best New Director went to Shu Qi for Girl, which felt right even if some had expected her to push further into the main directing category. The Taiwanese superstar’s debut behind the camera was never going to be dismissed as a vanity project — the industry took it seriously from the start, and the award confirms that. Whether she directs again will be the more interesting question.

Best New Performer went to Deng Tao for An Extraordinary Girl.

Lifetime honors

The Professional Spirit Award went to Yiu Man-ki, and the Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to Chu Ka-yan— a fitting close to a ceremony that, whatever pressures the industry is navigating, still managed to feel like a genuine celebration of the films it honored.

Full winners list

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