Cover Chinese actor Tang Wei receives the Excellence in Asian Cinema Award at the Asian Film Awards 2025 (Photo: courtesy of AFA2025)
Chinese actor Tang Wei receives the Excellence in Asian Cinema Award at the Asian Film Awards 2025 (Photo: courtesy of AFA2025)
1 / 1
From Tang Wei and Win Metawin’s red carpet moments to Hong Kong actor Sean Lau winning Best Actor for ‘Papa’, Asian Film Awards 2025 was a true celebration of Asian cinema’s excellence
The 18th Asian Film Awards culminated with an exciting award announcement yesterday evening at the Xiqu Centre, West Kowloon. The event featured a strong line-up of 30 nominated movies from 25 countries and regions, which led to a keen competition.
The evening began with much-anticipated red carpet arrivals at Xiqu Centre, West Kowloon. As stars like Thai heartthrob Win Metawin, Japanese actor Masaki Okada, Chinese actor Tang Wei—who received the Excellence in Asian Cinema Award—arrived, the waiting crowd erupted in loud cheer, setting the tone for a vibrant evening.
Don’t miss: Ryuichi Sakamoto’s son Neo Sora talks ‘Happyend’ and the flipside of having a famous parent
Above Shahana Goswami, Best Actress of the Asian Film Awards 2025 (Photo: courtesy of AFA2025)
Shahana Goswami, Best Actress of the Asian Film Awards 2025 (Photo: courtesy of AFA2025)
1 / 1
The awards ceremony commenced with a contemporary erhu performance by Hong Kong composer and musician Wan Pin Chu, who also won Best Original Music for his work for The Last Dance (2024).
Other winners from Hong Kong includes actor Sean Lau, who won Best Actor for his role in Papa (2024), and the hit film Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In, which took home awards in editing and production design categories.
Meanwhile, the Best Film award went to All We Imagine as Light (2024), a movie centred around the lives of two women in Mumbai, India.
Congratulations to all the winners. Read on to find out who they are.
Above Sean Lau, Best Actor of the Asian Film Awards 2025 (Photo: courtesy of AFA2025)
Sean Lau, Best Actor of the Asian Film Awards 2025 (Photo: courtesy of AFA2025)
1 / 1
Best Film
All We Imagine as Light (India, France, Netherlands, Luxembourg)
Best Director
Yoshida Daihachi, ‘Teki Cometh’ (Japan)
Best Actor
Sean Lau, Papa (Hong Kong)
Best Actress
Shahana Goswami, Santosh (India, United Kingdom, France, Germany)
Best Supporting Actor
Lee Kang-sheng, Stranger Eyes (Singapore, Taiwan, France, United States)
Best Supporting Actress
Yang Kuei-Mei, Yen and Ai-Lee (Taiwan)
Best New Director
Sandhya Suri, Santosh (India, United Kingdom, France, Germany)
Best Newcomer
Kurihara Hayato, Happyend (Japan, United States)
Best Screenplay
Mohammad Rasoulof, The Seed of the Sacred Fig (Iran, Germany, France)
Best Costume Design
Choi Yoon-sun, Exhuma (South Korea)
Best Editing
Cheung Ka Fai, Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In (Hong Kong)
Best Cinematography
Hong Kyeong-pyo, Harbin (South Korea)
Best Original Music
Chu Wan Pin, The Last Dance (Hong Kong)
Best Production Design
Kenneth Mak, Chau Sai Hung Ambrose, Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In (Hong Kong)
Best Visual Effects
Kim Shin-chul, Daniel Son, Exhuma (South Korea)
Best Sound
Tu Duu-Chih, Tu Tse-Kang, Stranger Eyes (Singapore, Taiwan, France, United States)
Excellence in Asian Cinema Award
Tang Wei
AFA Rising Star Award
Kōki
Lifetime Achievement Award
Yakusho Koji
Zabrina is the Senior Editor, Arts and Culture of Tatler Hong Kong. She specialises in performing arts, visual art and film. Her wanderlust was first fuelled by the Mighty Rovers Antarctica Expedition 2010. Over the years, she has interviewed A-list artists and filmmakers, including Oscar winners Chlóe Zhao and Tim Yip, Golden Horse winner Sylvia Chang, In the Mood for Love cinematographer Christopher Doyle, Pachinko author Min Jin Lee, and Coachella’s first Chinese solo singer Jackson Wang. She won gold at the WAN-IFRA Asian Media Awards for her 2021 feature on the waves of hate crimes targeting Asian Americans.
