The HKFA, incorporated into Hong Kong Film Awards Association Ltd. since December 1993, are currently managed by a board of directors, which consists of representatives from thirteen professional film bodies in Hong Kong. Voting on eligible films for the HKFA is conducted January through March every year and is open to all registered voters, which include local film workers as well as critics, and a selected group of adjudicators.
General rules
The Hong Kong Film Awards are open to all Hong Kong films which are longer than an hour and commercially released in
Hong Kong within the previous calendar year. A film qualifies as a Hong Kong film if it satisfies two of the three criteria, namely: the
film director is a Hong Kong resident, at least one film company is registered in Hong Kong, and at least six persons of the production crew are Hong Kong residents. Since 2002, the HKFA also feature a Best Asian Film category, which accepts non-Hong Kong films which are commercially released in Hong Kong.
In January each year, a first round of election, open to all registered voters and a selected group of 100 professional adjudicators, is held to determine the five nominees for each award category. In the rare case where there is a tie between two nominees within the top five slots, six nominees will be allowed. Nominations are usually announced in February, after which a second round of election is held to determine the winner. Voting in the second round is open to a group of 50 professional adjudicators, Executive Committee members of the HKFA, as well as members of the thirteen professional film bodies. Each voting group holds a percentage of the ultimate score for each nominee, and each film body holds a higher share in the categories associated with it.
Board of directors
The Board of Directors consists of representatives from thirteen professional film bodies in
Hong Kong, listed below.
Most wins for a film: The Grandmaster — won 12 awards in
2014, including Best Film, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing, Best Art Direction, Best Costume & Make Up Design, Best Action Choreography, Best Sound Design and Best Original Film Score.[5]
Most nominations for Best Director:
Johnnie To — nominated 18 times between his first nomination in
1990[18] and his latest in
2017.[25]
Most nominations for Best Actor:
Lau Ching-wan — nominated 17 times between his first nomination in
1994[23] and his latest in
2023.[28]
Most nominations for Best Actress:
Sylvia Chang — nominated 12 times between her first nomination in
1983[6] and her latest in
2023.[28]
Most nominations without win:
Chin Ka-lok — nominated 14 times between his first nomination for Best Supporting Actor in
1996[7] and his latest for Best Action Choreography in
2024,[17] and not a single win.
To celebrate a century of
Chinese cinema, the Hong Kong Film Awards unveiled a list of Best 100 Chinese Motion Pictures (which in fact includes 103 films) during the
24th Hong Kong Film Awards ceremony on 27 March 2005.[37] The list, selected by a panel of 101 filmmakers, critics and scholars, includes 24 films from
Mainland China (11 from pre-1949 and 13 from post-1949), 61 from
Hong Kong, 16 from
Taiwan, and 2 co-productions.[38]