Cover Hong Kong director Jun Li was named Best Director at Golden Horse 2025 for the LGBTQ+ feature ‘Queerpanorama’ (Photo: Getty Images)
Hong Kong director Jun Li was named Best Director at Golden Horse 2025 for the LGBTQ+ feature ‘Queerpanorama’ (Photo: Getty Images)
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The city’s filmmakers took home several accolades at the Golden Horse Awards this year, including recognition for the animation ‘Another World’ and the LGBTQ+ feature ‘Queerpanorama’
The Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival, one of Asia’s most prestigious annual film honours, took place on November 22, 2025, at the Taipei Music Centre on the island. This year, Hong Kong emerged as a standout with remarkable achievements across the board.
Hong Kong filmmaker and screenwriter Jun Li, who debuted with the transgender drama Tracey in 2018, received the Best Director award for Queerpanorama, a compelling exploration of identity, intimacy and urban alienation through the story of a gay man who impersonates his former lovers and assumes their personas.
Accepting the trophy onstage, Li shared that the film was produced on a modest budget and thanked his team for their “200 per cent effort in completing the production”. Addressing lead actor Jayden Cheung, who made his screen debut with the project, he said, “Meeting you has been my greatest fortune.”
Read more: Meet Audrey Lin, the youngest-ever Golden Horse Best Actress winner, who Ang Lee calls ‘a genius’
Above Hong Kong filmmaker Jun Li accepted his Best Director award at the Golden Horse awards ceremony on November 22, 2025
Another highlight of the evening was Another World, co-directed by Tommy Kai-chung Ng and Polly Yeung, an animation chronicling the journey of a lost soul and its celestial guide as they confront unresolved earthly matters. The win for Best Animated Feature marks the sixth Golden Horse victory for a Hong Kong animation, following the beloved McDull series.
Leung Ming Kai received the Best Cinematography award for Mother Bhumi, a haunting historical drama about a widowed woman who turns to black magic in her farming community until a ghost exposes the unsettling truth behind her husband’s death. Chinese actor Fan Bingbing earned Best Leading Actress for her evocative performance in the film.
Hong Kong-born, Paris-based filmmaker and editor Mary Stephen achieved double honours, winning Best Film Editing and Best Documentary Feature for Palimpsest: The Story of a Name. The intimate documentary traces Stephen’s own family history to unveil the origins of her Western surname, unearthing a moving narrative of cultural exchange and colonial legacy.
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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.
