After Chinese mainland film authorities barred its films, actors and filmmakers from attending the 56th Golden Horse Film Festival that will be held in November in the island of Taiwan, some film studios and entertainers in Hong Kong announced the same decision.
According to Hong Kong-based Oriented Daily, Hong Kong entertainment giants like Filmko Film and Media Asia have asked its entertainers not to attended the Golden Horse Awards.
"We support this decision, and all our entertainers will not attend the Golden Horse Awards this year," Wang Haifeng, the head of Filmko Film, said to Oriental Daily.
Hong Kong Film The White Storm 2 - Drug Lords, starring Andy Lau and Louis Koo, has cancelled its registration at the Golden Horse Awards this year.
Nick Cheung's Line Walker 2 has withdrawn as well, together with Tony Leung and Simon Yam's film Chasing the Dragon II: Wild Wild Bunch directed by veteran Hong Kong filmmaker Wong Jing.
Mei Ah Entertainment also denied that their new film Theory of Ambitions, starring Tony Leung and Aaron Kwok, will participate at the awards, Tencent reported.
The executive committee of the Golden Horse Awards told the media that the festival is now in the reviewing stage and all the activities will be held as usual.
As the "Academy Awards" of the island of Taiwan, the Golden Horse Awards are contested by Chinese-language films from the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong, Macao and the island of Taiwan.
They are considered one of the four major Chinese-language film awards, together with the Golden Rooster Awards, the Hundred Flowers Awards and the Hong Kong Film Awards.
Observers also noted that this year's Golden Rooster and Hundred Flowers Film Festival is on the same day as Taiwan's Golden Horse Awards. Interestingly, this years' Golden Rooster Awards will take place in Xiamen, East China's Fujian Province, on the other side of the Taiwan Straits.
Observers linked the ban to a secessionist element created by the Taiwan side at last year's film festival and the recent disclosure that Taiwan's "Tsai Ing-wen government" is supporting the Hong Kong riots.
At last year's Golden Horse Awards ceremony, Taiwan filmmaker Fu Yu expressed her support for the "independence of Taiwan" in her acceptance speech for her award-winning documentary Our Youth in Taiwan, which tells a story about the anti-mainland Sunflower Student Movement.
Chinese mainland actress Gong Li, the jury chair, expressed her opposition to Yu by refusing to take the stage and present an award. And following that, mainland filmmakers and actors did not attend a dinner party in protest.
