Hong Kong Film Disqualified at the Oscars

[FWN Adm]

The Hong Kong film directed by Anastasia Tsang was disqualified from the Oscar's list due to an unfortunate incident.

Despite the outcome, producer Saville Chan told Screen: "It's not what we wanted to happen, but now is not the time to point fingers. It sounds like a procedural thing over the submission regulations. More importantly, we should address the issue and won't let this happen again to ensure that well-deserved Hong Kong films can be rightfully submitted to the Oscars in the future."

There had been a question mark over Hong Kong's inclusion for several weeks when the submitted film did not appear on the list of titles seen by Academy voters. However, the production team behind A Light Never Goes Out only learned the fate of their film when the Federation issued an official statement yesterday (December 11) about the "rare and regrettable" disqualification.

According to the Chinese-language statement, the Federation followed the same procedures as in previous years to select the film. The Federation's long-time chairman, Crucindo Hung, revealed further details to Hong Kong's iCable news channel yesterday.

Hung said the selection committee originally comprised 19 members but that a new group was formed after the Academy revised its entry regulations in August, which ruled out members who had served on the Federation's board for more than six years. However, the Federation was notified a month ago that one of the 13 members of the new committee had a conflict of interest.

"One of the actors [from the committee] is a lead in A Light Never Goes Out so has a conflict of interest and is not allowed to vote," said Hung. "This has never happened before. In the past, the 19 members of the selection committee were also from the industry, including producers, actors, actresses, directors, gaffers and cinematographers. Some of the films starred or were produced or directed by them. It has never been disallowed before."

Hung added that if the vote from the actor was not counted, A Light Never Goes Out would have still received the highest number of votes. When the Federation asked whether they could do so, the Academy refused and requested an alternate submission. The Federation declined, deeming it unfair to A Light Never Goes Out.

Please watch an interwiew with Director Anastasia Tsang at the New York Film Festival talking about her film: watch video